TGO Challenge Day 8 - 19 May 2022

Walking 7am to 5.30pm

Distance walked 17 miles
Distance remaining 67 miles (adjusted)

I woke to the early morning sun streaming into the open end of my tarp. It looked to be a fair weather day. I made my way towards Glen Feshie which must surely rank as the most beautiful glen. The extensive gorse being in flower added to the beauty.

The way down the glen was straightforward; I just had to make sure I crossed the river at the now only remaining bridge at NN850965. 

After about a mile and a half, I reached Ruigh Aiteachain bothy, substantially improved since I last passed this way. A large school party was just leaving, having spent the night in the bothy. I was welcomed in by Lindsay, who looks after the bothy for the owner of the Glen Feshie estate and spends much of his time here. The estate recently spent £250,000 in rebuilding the bothy and replacing the original hole in the ground toilet with two new ones. A septic tank was put in many years ago but the toilets still have to be flushed with buckets of water as there is no piped water supply.

 

There is a gas burner in the bothy and Lindsay made real coffee in a cafetiere which was an unexpected treat. We were then joined by Rob, who had been at Melgarve bothy a couple of nights ago. After some interesting conversation, including the estate owner's rewilding plans, Rob and I left and walked together until lunchtime, he to walk some 500 metres upstream of the River Eidart to a bridge whilst I walked across the wide river. He didn't want to get his feet wet. At its deepest it came to just below my knees but was quite safe.

 

I stopped for a lunch break the other side and didn't see anything more of Rob. The path from there was pretty wet and boggy much of the way and indistinct at times until, eventually, a landrover track was reached. This then left about four miles to my pitch for the night at the confluence of Geldie Burn, which I'd been following for some way, and Bynack Burn.