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.