The Road goes ever on and on; Down from the door where it began;
Now far ahead the Road has gone; And I must follow, if I can;
Pursuing it with eager feet; Until it joins some larger way;
Where many paths and errands met; And whither then? I cannot say.

[JRR Tolkien, Lord of the Rings]

Wednesday 5 June 2013

Why I Didn’t Much Enjoy The TGOC 2013

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Be warned, this is a grumpy, maudlin post

Mick & I have now walked the breadth of Scotland five times and its length twice. Of all of those walks, the TGOC this year was by far my least favourite. Even a couple of weeks after the event, the rose-tinted glasses haven’t hit (in fact, such is my lack of enthusiasm, that I haven’t even looked at the photos yet, never mind downloaded them). I’ve now had a while to contemplate what was awry with this year’s walk and my opinions haven’t changed from those I expressed at the end of the walk. I can pinpoint two key reasons that muted the experience for me this year:

  1. I hurt my wrist on Day 1 and spent the next few days in a lot of pain and the rest of the time just in pain. It still seems incongruous to me that a poorly wrist can have such an effect on a walking trip, but it affected all sorts of things, from being wrong-footed in crossing streams with only my left walking pole, to not being able to lift my own pack onto my back to not even being able to dig my own holes.
  2. Whilst the weather wasn’t ostensibly bad, Mick hit the nail on its head when he described it as ‘dreary’. After we got over the first four days (Days 1 and 3 were just plain wet whereas Day 4 was snowy), we had very little rain. The problem was that even when it was dry we spent too much time either in cloud or mist, and thus didn’t get to enjoy many views. For me, the whole joy of walking in Scotland is the surroundings and when I couldn’t see those surroundings it just added to the gloom created by Point 1 above.

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Not a photo from this year’s walk, but it may as well have been

There were a couple of other contributing factors too:

  • I started the Challenge with a woeful lack of fitness, which wasn’t helped by the challenging route I’d planned. Entirely my own fault on both counts.
  • As I see the Challenge as a social event, I like to go through sociable places and if we’re going to link the same places together more than once, then I feel obligated to plan a different route between them. The problem is that there was a reason I picked the route we originally walked between those places and, when I’m standing there on the ground, I realise that I don’t want to walk this year’s convoluted route, but the one that I planned the first time around. But then I feel like a failure and a fraud for not walking the route I said we’d take … and I’m still failing to come up with an answer to that conundrum.

At the end of Day 1 (when I was having a grump associated with a particularly low moment when I discovered that my sleeping bag had wet patches and my maps were sodden) I declared that I was never going to do the Challenge again. At that point, none of the above points were factors in that rash declaration, yet my opinion hadn’t changed remarkably by the time we reached Montrose.

Of course, I’d not been home for three hours before I started looking at maps again. I’ve outlined (and gained Mick’s approval for) another route across Scotland, which I’m just in the process of plotting. It’s a route that’s a bit different from what we’ve done before, and I’m particularly looking forward to walking it. The jury’s out as to whether it will be walked as part of the Challenge or not (but if I was a betting woman, I wouldn’t bet a pint against).

18 comments:

  1. No sympathy here! Serves you right walking with that Mick fellow.
    Now don't forget to buy Sept TGO.

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    1. Steady on, I'm not going to be buying both September's and October's TGO magazine. I'll just get the October one, with the entry form ;-)

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  2. I think I would feel better about my failed Challenge if I'd not been enjoying myself so much! You're right about a lack of views (although I wasn't going particularly for them) but I decided the damp and low cloud added 'atmosphere' to the view down Gleann a Choilich...
    I hope you do come back next year, David and I are Challenging together, did I mention that?
    Besides. You have a route...

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  3. 'going particularly HIGH for them'!!

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    1. I'm glad you clarified that. When I read the original comment I did wonder why the views were so thoroughly unimportant to you!

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  4. So fill in the application form and go have a fun time next May. Chin up and all that.

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    1. After another week of consideration, you're spot on!

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  5. It was my first challenge, so I had not point of reference for this trip. People kept telling me the weather much much worse in year yyyy. Still I saw your lack enthusiasm when we met a few times. I put my lack of fun down to low cloud and a urine infection picked up just before Kingussie which messed me up for 4 days and forced me to do a 30mile day to Braemar.

    Will I do it again? I hope I can summon up the renewed enthusiam as I really wanted to make this work.

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    1. You'll be pleased to hear that I have finally cheered up now (further blog post to follow about next year's route!). I hope you do come back and enjoy a crossing. The chance of having some bad weather is a given, but hopefully you can avoid the infection and the mega-day next time.

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  6. Interesting thoughts!

    I've not done the TGO - and have no desire to do so. So, in many ways, my opinion is perhaps not as valid as that from those who have.

    But to my mind, if you don't get something special out of it, then it has 'failed' in some respect. That might be down to any number of reasons (including some self-inflicted ones) but, nevertheless, a walk - any walk, short or long - should have some inspirational value.

    It's bad luck when it doesn't, but - judging by your other jaunts - I'm sure you'll come back with an inspirational trip before long! :-)

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    1. I suppose you could say that we were due a slightly less enjoyable walk. We've managed all of our walks so far without any significant injury, so I suppose we were also due a mishap at some point (it's just unfortunate that we both achieved injury on the same walk). It certainly didn't put me off walking in general (even if work is getting in the way of any significant jaunts this year).

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  7. I suffered from a similar disapointing Challenge this year and agree with all your comments (luckily without injuries). The point you made about being unfit was in my case probably the major problem and after struggling over some Munros in poor visibility, slippery new snow, falling down, etc. on the first few days I took to my FWAs. Things did improve then and I realised that you dont have to go over the tops to enjoy yourself! It also helps when you can see where you are going. So, for next year? I must start getting fitter.

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    1. The plan I've put together demands that we must be fit before we start ... but more on those plans in my next post.

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  8. I've been telling people "It wasn't a classic year". I was somewhat envious of a couple of regulars who missed the Challenge this year and instead were sending messages from the summit of a remote Munro in the Fisherfield Forest last week. Perhaps they made the right call. My Challenge was blighted by a paucity of encounters, but those encounters that did take place, especially with Ali A, were enjoyable and memorable. I'd chosen a lot of 'new ground' that I'd not walked before - all the way from Loch Monar - so it was disappointing not to be able to see much for a few days, and when the mist cleared I found myself confined to the tarmac of pathless tracts of North East Aberdeenshire. At least I had unexpected encounters and an easy route, so tiredness wasn't an issue...

    Where are you planning to start next time?

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    1. This comment has been removed by the author.

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    2. Torridon. More detail to follow in my next post...

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  9. Hi Gayle
    I do hope you both come back. Not every year can be a classic. I do think you are right in that persistent low grey cloud definitely affects my mood. I'd almost rather have wild weather.
    Mine was quite a lonely Challenge only meeting two Challengers after Struy. If it hadn't been for Martin's intermittent but excellent company I might have got quite fed up. I saw no one for the last four days not even non Challengers. Whilst I was quite happy with my own company most the time when I managed to get above the clouds and was treated to a wonderful inversion I had no one to share it with.
    So next time it a sociable route with as many Challenge honeypots as I can squeeze in!

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    1. The decision is now made: we will be back. I'm not expecting to meet any other Challengers after Day 2 of the route I've planned, but I have a cunning plan to deal with that. More to follow in my next post...

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