I'd strongly recommend any Challengers coming through Glen Feshie or Glen Tilt to take a 10 minute diversion up Glen Dee ar White Bridge to the Chest of Dee.

Chest of Dee pics

Great idea! As a first timer these are all very helpful and inspiring.

A lonely gem of a lochan that really stands out for me is Lochan nam Breac NM918995 which we came across en route from Inverie. A glorious spot surrounded by stunning hill country.



Plus you can ease your aching feet with a paddle on the little sandy beach.

And as you leave it, heading East (is there any other direction?) Loch Quoich, or Cuaich if you prefer, can look rather fine from its western end too.

I don't have a photo ... it was in the days before digital photography ... but on my first Challenge in 2000 I went south out of Spean Bridge, and by the obvious low-level route round the South end of Loch Treig to Corrour Youth Hostel.

Only, having been through the bealach and down the other side, where the glen turns sharp left to take you to the south end of Loch Treig, I did NOT turn left. I just carried straight on ... up ht elittle hill there which is only about 640 metres or something.

And when I got to the top ... OH! What a MAGNIFICENT place that is. Really and truly ... trust me .. .you MUST go there one fine day, and just look around in wonder at all the mountains you have in view!


(I should add, that when I saw this thread title, I immediately thought of Craig of Balloch ... but as soon as I started reading I saw I had been beaten to it!! See my account of my 2015 crossing to read my reactions on first encountering it.)

I seem to remember plunging into that up to my armpits when the sandy submerged walkway I was on suddenly became a precipice.

There were some chaps there that howled with laughter.

Can't remember their names..

Personally, I'd nominate the Gorge from hell, earlier in the day.

Your hilarious dunking jolly well served you right, Andrew...

"That'll go!" he said. And so we clambered, rock climbed and sweated up a greasy rock face above a boiling torrent filled with nasty pointed rocks to get through to the other side and Paradise. And I hurt my knee too... Did I ever mention my hurty knee?

"That'll go..." was about to be engraved on your headstone at Lochan nam Breac. There was to be no shallow grave. The eagles could pick at your carcase through the Gore-Tex.

Besides, Phil had already dug enough shallow holes that day and refused to dig any more. However, your swim cheered us up and so you were spared.

I recall finishing that day after a nasty river crossing in the pouring rain at 9:15pm, totally knackered. What a fantastic day, eh?

I'd like to put in a good word for B&B's here as I suspect that some Challengers view these as just the necessary break between periods of enjoyable wild camping.

For me as a solo walker they were a periodic opportunity to engage with the local people and not just with other Challengers.

I tried to extract the maximum from my crossings so as well as breathtakingly lovely glens and exhilarating hilltops, some of my shower and comfy bed stops have been truly interesting.

There was the B&B where pine martins come for biscuits and jam breakfast in the kitchen. I've stayed with a professional storyteller and at the home of a professed witch. At one B&B I met an old lady who had been a young child on St Kilda still with memories of that place.

Another was run by a retired sea captain who knew the ships my father had served on. Many have been retired crofters with a very hard life behind them.

All have given me an insight into what it is like to live and work in the highlands and it has been a way of getting under the skin of the places i pass through. Almost all have been hidden Challenge gems in their own way.

I almost forgot one of my favourite discoveries. An end of Challenge treat was a stay in a castle where the chatelaine uses her ferrets and a Harris hawk to manage the rabbit population for local farmers.