Hi,

I'm currently planning my very first Challenge. I would love to do Jock's Road to Clova, continue to Loch Brandy and Green Hill to then go NE to Loch Lee and Tarfside. However I guess this would require a FWA. As far as I see it the only option would be to go South and then continue to Brechin, which I would like to avoid.

Any ideas for a FWA from Clova to Tarfside? Or is that simply not possible without it being a major detour?

Hi Patrick

On my 2017 route-plan for this section I put in a FWA of roads to Brechin and Montrose. This way you are covered if the weather is too bad to go over the tops to Tarfside. I would just ask Ali and Sue if you actually need a FWA for this section.

I did this route a few years ago....actually QUITE a few years ago!
My FWA was quite drastic: through the Ballochbuie Forest > Shielin of Mark > Tarfside. Thankfully I didn't need it, the route over Jock's Road > Clova > Tarfside was quite wonderful.

Two years ago I planned a route via Clova and intended an FWA I used on a previous route via the Capel Road, Glen Muick and Shieling of Mark, but I was asked to change it as a solo Challenger and this is what was accepted:
FWA: SE Glen Prosen (phone box Glenprosen Village) – NO 338 647 track S Cairn Leith – cross country to Sneck of Corinch to minor road B955 – N to Gella, cross country to Glencuilt – Glenmoy – NE Auld Darkney – Craig Hill – Noran Water. 44 27 850 Noran Water
NO 451 663
FWA: Noran Water N upstream – Hill of Mondurran – Tamhilt – Ordies Hill – Tillybardine – Clash of Wirren – Dalbreck - Tarfside
I was entering Glen Clova from Kilbo.
Bear in mind you will need an FWA for Jock's Road.

Thanks for the suggestions :)

I thought about going back to Braemar as a FWA for Jock's Road, but then I would have to do either really long day or loose a day.

It seem doing both Jock's Road and Tarfside is a bit tricky, and maybe a bit much for a first time. So I will probably skip Jock's Road an go for Gelder Shiel Stable and Shielin of Mark.

On my first Challenge, way back in 2000, I was beaten back by the weather when attempting to go over from Clova to Tarfside via Loch Brandy, and ended up trolling the roads to Memus (which still had a camp site back then) and so to Brechin and by road to Montrose.

It was a bit of a disappointing finish to my first crossing ... although the euphoria of finishing eclipsed the disappointment.

Lunch in front of a roaring fire in the bar of the Clova Hotel while I reappraised my options (and phoned Challenge Control from the phone box to discuss my re-routing options ... no mobile phones in those days!) was a particularly memorable occasion; and saw me give the first (and so far only) public performance of the song I had written on the way across. I'm sure I have published it on this message board some time before, but it will be lost in the mists of antiquity. So here it is again. To be sung to the tune of "O the praties they grow small" ...



Every night the cuckoos call
Way up here, way up here
Every night the cuckoos call
And I long to shoot them all
But I lack powder, gun and ball
Way up here, way up here!

Oh we started in the West
By the sea, by the sea
Yes we started in the West
And we gave it of our best
Now we've made it through the test
You and me, you and me!

Sure we've all got blistered feet
Girls and men, girls and men
Sure we've all got blistered feet
Caused by squelching through the peat
At the place the waters meet
'Neath the beinn, 'neath the beinn

But we've reached the eastern coast
Over here, over here
Yes we've reached the eastern coast
And that ain't no idle boast
So please raise your glass and toast
"To next year - to next year!"

When we'll all be back again
If God wills, if God wills
Yes we'll all be back again
To do battle with the rain
Not to mention the terrain
Glens and hills, glens and hills!



And the critical reception it received at that first public performance? I was taken to task for "girls and men". Well, yes, OK ... but there's no viable alternative which wouldn't have played merry hell with the scansion and the rhyme of the piece, is there???