Even with a 6:30 wake-up this morning we all probably got at least 10 hours of sleep last night. We would need it today as we had a long hike planned from Glen Tromie, up and over into Glen Feshie, and finally to Red House bothy beside the Geldie Burn.We woke up to a lot of condensation on the tent owing to a cooler overnight temperature. The skies were completely clear, with the sun bound to be a factor for today’s hike.
We started off with a couple kilometres of boggy off-trail including a couple of river crossings that cost Ben and I some wet feet/boots.🤬. After that, most of the day was pretty quiet with steady progress.
When passing through Glen Feshie in 2019 on our way to Cape Wrath we spotted three seemingly wild white horses in the field. As we descended into Glen Feshie this year, Ben spotted the same three white horses! We couldn’t believe our luck to be seeing them again.
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| Starting The Descent Into Glen Feshie |
We are starting to meet up with more challengers than the first week. At one point we caught up to Stuart and Alec from the Dalwhinnie hostel, along with some new friends, Steve, Ryan, and Roland (Challenger #100). These meetings with people from all over the world are chances to get information, share stories, talk about gear, and just have a good laugh. It is a part of what makes the Challenge special, and it is really fun seeing the boys experience it.
The bothy we are staying at tonight is a special place for me. Amanda and I stayed here on our first TGOC in 2017, when the bothy was more like an abandoned building with no doors or windows. On that night we met some people who would end up being very close friends of ours - Joyce, Moira, and Martin. Here I am seven years later enjoying an evening at the same place, and meeting some new and interesting people. Very cool! We have enjoyed pleasant discussions this evening with UK locals, as well as people from Vienna, Sri Lanka, India, and the USA.
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| Tucked In At The Bothy |
We will have an easy walk into Braemar tomorrow where we will shower and do wash at the campsite, and hopefully meet up with a few more old friends.
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| Day 9 Route - 27.2 km, 503 m ascent |
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