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Does everyone know there's now a special platypus container for wine??? Yippee!
Now, that C&W party.....I've been off-board for a while and have obviously missed something, because I DON'T KNOW WHERE & WHEN!! Please help...... I have to try to go this year, because my legal other half decided he wanted to join me on the Challenge, so we must come, to scotch any of those wicked suggestions at last year's party that the friend who joined me for a couple of days was either toyboy or son - he's got his BUS PASS for goodness sake! Ok I'm ancient, but hold on a minute.....
And Jeremy, I'm one hundred per cent with you on the earlier part of this thread: the Challenge is rare in being non-competitive, so that (almost) everyone realy, really wants to help everyone else when needed.......which is a large part of what makes it so special. And if that help is public on the board, it may then help others who didn't yet know they needed it - if that makes sense. We're family and we're all sorts: let's support each other.
(As for the A9 - if you were from the south or overseas, and saw that dual carriageway on the map, you might well imagine that, as with other busy not-quite-motorways, it might be actually illegal to walk on it.)
Love to all Challengers.....and PEACE AT ALMOST ANY PRICE.
I've just bumped the C&W invitation to the top of the forum.
Jean, I'm intrigued. Do you have an illegal other half? Perhaps I could apply if the postion is vacant. Enjoyed walking with you this year (all legal and above board, you understand). Hope to see you at the C&W
Sent you an email Jean
Thank you for the e-mail, Andrew (reply sent), and thank you Robin for imagining anyone would want to be my illegal other half!!! Perhaps not compatible with having a "son" (oh the shock of that assumption) of 61...On the other assumption at the 2014 C&W, I wasn't sure whether to be shocked or flattered (secretly the latter).
Anyway, I'm hoping to see you at this year's C&W, too.
Let's get back to the original concept as described, " A coast to coast backpacking event", not a stroll between B&B's, Hotels and Braemar. The whole concept is being destroyed by the alleged leg-end motorised backpackers who think it smart to walk through the Lairig with no more than a six pack and a pack of butties and be reunited with an erected tent and their erstwhile motorised rucksack.
I refused to accept my completion certificate in 91 when some motorised leg-ends decided when I was inside a shop that my rucksack should be transported to the Park,my backpacking challenge was not in my opinion completed.
Fully agree with previous posts in this string.
Careful Tom, I bet you did not get that comment cleared by The Censor. But then again many of today's Challengers won't know that your first Challenge was in 1980 when you really were walking into the great unknown and the Challenge was a real adventure!
The joy of The Challenge is that - with upwards of eighty first-timers each year - we are in continual change. And this is good - it ensures that our wonderful event evolves and breathes.
I am now part of the rump. Old, tired and no longer germane. I welcome younger Challengers, and am certain that they will shape our event into their own fashion!
My first Challenge was in '02. And in those days there was still a rump of machismo - couldn't understand women, had some absurd take on "Spirit Of The Challenge" which seemed to be mainly based on carrying aluminium tea-pots.
Thankfully all this has changed.
The Challenge is entirely personal. If you choose to cross via B&B - fine. Or if you choose to eat your companion rather than pick up a food parcel - go for it, babes.
At the heel of the hunt I guess that I entirely reject this soi-disant machismo that says that the only true Challenge was some class of event that occurred in a pre-lapsidary past. Frozen in a red-sock time.
Our Challenge is a mighty event. And she changes every year!
What a depressing (in parts) thread. Each to their own, please. We all must approach the Challenge in our own way. Whilst I don't think I have asked too many simplistic questions on the Board I have every sympathy for those who do and those who help out with answers. In my case I suffer in every day life from bouts of depression and almostconstant debilitating anxiety and worry. That's not something that is easy to publicly admit. For me, walking alone across Scotland is a Challenge even when forewarned about what to expect. I worry my way across. I don't mean I have the occasional worrying thought. I mean I worry and obsess the entire day about things. Will I be able to find a decent wild camp spot, will the streams be hard to ford, will I meet scary cows/horses, will my mobile phone battery die, will I run out of gas, will I be physically up to a particular hill or trackless bit? It's endless. Reading blogs in advance and the answers on the message board gives me more confidence as I am able to visualise what is ahead. Not certain I could do it otherwise. Pathetic, isn't it? But my point is that we all have our own levels of aspiration and need. Do we need to be judgemental?
I agree with you David & others, this isn't a competition - it's a challenge. Thanks David for taking the courage to share. What is a challenge to any individual can only be defined subjectively. I can understand we all have different views on that but I really don't get why people have to be so publicly judgemental of others. It really isn't necessary, gives people coming into the challenge the wrong impression of the majority of challengers, and discourages others from asking questions. Personally, I like reading others' route descriptions, & like hearing of others' experiences .
I remember a couple of years, before my first challenge being 'shot down' by some on the message board and while I got some lovely messages privately, the negative messages meant that the first few days I was apprehensive about meeting any challengers . I'm pleased to say my experiences of meeting challengers has always been positive and any worry about that was needless. It's one of the reasons we came back again, and now again!
Let's keep this board 'friendly & encouraging' as it advertised itself to be ! You know.., peace and love and all that!
Well said David and Vicky. As a relative newbie, I've been grateful for the advice and feedback I've had from more experienced Challengers both on the message board and emails.
It's really for every Challenger to decide their own level of challenge within the parameters set by the organisers. My Challenge this year was as much a psychological one as a physical one. Dropping out in 2012 due to illness meant the demons of potential catastrophe dogged me until about Ballater this year.
In 2015, I'm planning a more difficult route than the relatively low level route I did this year. That's my Challenge. I'm pushing the boudaries of what I've done before, but, hopefully, in an achievable way: 7 Munros and 2 Corbetts.
I'm thankful for the help I've had this year on my planning for Beinn a Bhuird. Like many, I also look at trip accounts both from the Challenge and Munro baggers. Personally, I like to have a bit of an idea of what my route is like and where I might camp. For some this might be too detailed, for others not detailed enough. Each to his own.
To me the Challenge is both about the walking and the friendship. Indeed, the friendship is something special that is more elusive outside the event. Let's all enjoy ourselves however we do the Challenge.
Pah & Humbug ......
I was going to keep quiet, but enough is enough.
This event has got too easy.
All this internet stuff and using a gps and asking for routes.
We need to get back to the days when we was all 'ard, and there was no communication, and everyone had proper maps and a compass.
All these places going to new people as well.
Dreadful, if they cannot navigate with the stars alone, they shouldn't even be doing it.
Good God, some of them don't even use proper boots and have gear that weighs less than 60lb.
And they don't carry real food either.
I only know one chap who carries Pemmican.
I for one will NEVER ever do the event again with all these horrid people meeting up and having a sociable time.
Why, when I was a lad back in 1895 there was none of this namby pamby stuff.
There, I've said my piece.
I am away to my loft to dig out the reindeer sleeping bag and finesko camp shoes. Put on my 100 lb proper canvas rucksack, and hammer a few more nails into my boots.
Then it's off into the wilderness.
You young people, you don't know what a proper adventure is.
My GOD, some of you are even doing it because you enjoy it.
Well said Sir Frank.
Some help please.
Where do you send your reindeer sleeping bag for cleaning and re-proofing? Also are you still using whale blubber from dressing your boots or have you gone over to something more environmentally friendly?