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.