TGOC 2014: I Have a Cunning (/Mad) Plan!

I finally downloaded this year’s photos. This was a good pitch! And the blue sky belies the squally/snowy weather which had prevailed for much of the day.

Until now, I have never planned a TGO Challenge route until our entry has been made and our place secured. This year, perhaps as an antidote to my grumpiness when we arrived home, I started plotting almost the minute we walked through the door. At the time I was unsure that the route I was planning would become a Challenge route, but not only am I now certain that our application will be duly lodged in September, but I’m also very happy with the route I’ve plotted and positively looking forward to walking it.

One of my main reservations about the intended route was that it goes completely against my view of the Challenge as a social event. Starting in Torridon, ending in Fraserburgh, and staying as far north as the Challenge area permits, it’s pretty unlikely that we will meet any other Challengers after Day 2. Then I came up with a cunning/mad/genius (delete as you see fit) plan.

Putting the details of my plotted route into a spread sheet, I concluded that we could walk it in 10 days, with us arriving in Fraserburgh early on the Sunday at the start of the second week.

Having finished our Challenge so early, we will then be at leisure to get public transport down to Edzell, from where we can wander up to Tarfside, in time for the peak of people passing through, to join in with the Challenge chat and socialising that we will have missed out on during our Challenge proper.

That will still leave us a couple of days to spare before the usual festivities in Montrose, so we will fill those with walking out to the coast for the second time, hopefully getting to chat with a goodly number of people on the way.

So, we get to walk the route that I really want to walk, and we get to socialise with other Challengers for four days afterwards. Cunning, mad or genius? I don’t much care – it’s a plan that works for me.