Walking across Scotland – the TGO Challenge (part 2)

This is Part-2 of a trip report from my very first TGO Challenge, a walk across the Scottish Highlands. If you missed the first part, you can find it here:
Planning for the TGO
Part-1: Torridon to Orrin River

Day 3 – The Weather Turns
Orrin River to Kiltarlity
07:15-19:15 (12 hours), 33 km

The first two days of my walk across Scotland were sunny, warm, calm, and really just perfect. It was hard to believe I was actually walking in a place renowned for its heavy rains and violent winds. When I woke up on the third morning of my journey, Scotland decided to give me a taste of the weather it’s famous for.

Rain, mist, wind, more rain. This change in the weather coincided with my first true track-less walking of the trip. As I followed the Orrin River downstream to the Orrin Reservoir, I enjoyed taking out the map and practising my navigation skills. The Scottish Highlands are a great place to sharpen your navigation capabilities. Features such as hills are often rounded without distinct points, making them difficult to distinguish from one another. Often, the best way to navigate is to follow waterways (burns, creeks, rivers, etc.) up over the hills then connect with a new waterway to find your way down the other side.
Continue reading “Walking across Scotland – the TGO Challenge (part 2)” →

Walking across Scotland – the TGO Challenge

I love long walks, especially when they take you right across a country from one coast or border to another. That’s the idea behind the TGO Challenge. Design your own route starting on the west coast and finishing at the North Sea, get advice from experienced Scottish hill walkers, and start walking. This isn’t my first country-crossing journey on foot but it is my first time hiking in Scotland and I was very grateful for the wise advice on such things as where to find beautiful camp spots and where I might want to avoid wind-farm construction.
Continue reading “Walking across Scotland – the TGO Challenge” →

Scotland’s TGO Challenge

In just a few days I’m heading to Scotland to participate in an annual event where some 300 challengers attempt to cross the country on foot, each following a route they’ve designed themselves.

Each year The Great Outdoors Challenge is hosted by The Great Outdoors Magazine. It is a challenge, rather than a race. The goal for each participant is to walk from the west coast to the east coast across northern Scotland on foot in two weeks. No motorized transport is allowed, with the exception of taking a ferry across large lakes such as the famous Loch Ness. What makes this event especially interesting is that there’s no one defined route. There are many possible starting and ending points and you can choose any combination of trails, jeep tracks, forested glens, boggy moors, and remote highlands that you like.

Urquhart Castle on Loch Ness Photo credit: wikimedia.org — Urquhart Castle on Loch Ness. Photo credit: wikimedia.org

Scotland is notorious for cold, wet weather, especially in May. This year is shaping up to be quite a challenging one with heavy snow still falling and steep icy snowfields remaining on the high peaks. At the moment, the forecast for Lochnagar, one of the high points on my route, is “snow turning to rain” with “severe gales”.
Continue reading “Scotland’s TGO Challenge” →

Surviving the Nepal Earthquake

We’ve just returned from Nepal, safe and sound, but it was a close call.

We were in the historic town of Bhaktapur, just a few miles from Kathmandu. Bhaktapur is (or was) full of beautiful old brick buildings and monuments. Many of them looked as if they were about to crumble, even before the earthquake. Here’s what happened and how we survived…

We’d just finished a late breakfast and were about to exit a narrow alleyway when Continue reading “Surviving the Nepal Earthquake” →

Belize Whitewater Jungle

There’s a cool river wandering through the dense jungles of Belize. It’s call the Moho. And it has a personality disorder. One minute calm and serene, barely moving, the next it suddenly drops over and unseen cliff and erupts into chaotic white water.

Sil and I spent four days canoeing this gem of a river as part of the “Ultimate Adventure” tour with Island Expeditions, definitely the highlight of the trip.
Continue reading “Belize Whitewater Jungle” →

Maltese Falconry

The Maltese are passionate about two things: fireworks and shooting birds. Walk between any two villages and you’re sure to suddenly hear BANG-BANG-BANG! In fact, many species of birds are in danger of disappearing from the five islands that compose the country. But things are changing and some Maltese are starting to protect its avian citizens.

Earlier this week we had the opportunity to visit the fantastic Malta Falconry Centre. The centre exists both to protect birds of prey and also to educate people on how to care for them. It makes sense that wildlife conservation in Malta would start with falcons. The islands used to have an abundance of falcons and, in fact, when the Holy Roman Emperor granted Malta to the Knights of St John in 1530, the price was one of these revered falcons per year.

The first thing that happens every morning at the centre is weighing in. Birds of prey are very sensitive to how much they weigh – too high and they won’t fly, too low and they are hard to train (it’s hard to listen when you’re too hungry).

The centre has not just falcons but many different kinds of birds of prey.
Continue reading “Maltese Falconry” →

From Sunday Roast to Lasagne di Spinaci in 3 Easy Steps

It’s an age-old question. How do you get to enjoy hearty meat pie, creamy gruyère fondue, and crisp lemon gelato all in the course of a few short weeks? That’s what we set out to discover as we travel from Oxford to Zurich then twist through the Alps into the Lakes District of Italy. Here are some of the culinary treasures we uncover.

Oxford Castle, bacon breakfast sandwich, sunday roast — Oxford Castle, bacon breakfast sandwich, Sunday roast

It’s hard to beat a breakfast bap stuffed with bacon. Crunchy bread loaded with crispy, salty bacon. Continue reading “From Sunday Roast to Lasagne di Spinaci in 3 Easy Steps” →

Grizzly Research in the Rockies

Throughout the spring and early summer, I’ve been volunteering with Sarah Elmeligi, a PhD candidate researching the threatened Grizzly Bear population in the Canadian Rockies. It’s estimated that there are only 120 grizzlies in Banff, Jasper, Kootenay, and Yoho National Parks, known for harsh weather and sparse food. Sarah’s research focuses on understanding how the presence of people on a trail affect bear behaviour. As humans, we think of trails as being just for us. But animals know that trails are often the easiest way to get from one place to another too. Just how long does that bear wait to come back onto the trail after you’ve walked by? She heard (and smelled!) you coming, but just how close did you get before she slipped into the woods? More importantly, how much more difficult are we making the lives of these bears by impacting their ability to move about their home in search of food and mates?
Continue reading “Grizzly Research in the Rockies” →

Backpacking Jasper’s Brazeau Loop

One of my favourite things about summer is big backpacking adventures. The Brazeau Loop, an 80-km long alpine traverse in Jasper National Park, is one of the best. But if it’s summer, you’d never know it on this trip. Here’s how it all happened… Continue reading “Backpacking Jasper’s Brazeau Loop” →

Bangladesh Slums Alive with Music

In December my good friend Charles and I travelled to a very unlikely vacation hotspot – Bangladesh. Here’s just a taste.

Walking through a crowded slum in the city of Chittagong, we’re amazed when a little kid starts singing with a voice far more powerful than we would ever have expected

While exploring another impoverished slum, a talented singer invites us into her home to perform a traditional song

Eating Snow Around the World

Outdoor Adventure Travel and Strange Foods

Author: Justin