It rained the whole time! I got very wet! That's my summary... .. That said, at times the rain did slow down to a few drops, or a fine drizzle, mostly when i was under dripping trees. Around 16 miles of it was into a headwind along a windswept beach with crashing waves, quite noisy. Which was quite enjoyable, as I was on my own and didn't have to struggle to talk to, or listen to, anyone. Just a few tunes in my head, and the occasional burst into a tuneless song. The hot meal at Lossiemouth (half way) was superb.

The route was fairly flat, (957m) and going underfoot was brilliant, except for a little bit of mud in the last section - which was quite slippy, tricky in the dark - glad i'd taken the poles. It was good to see a friendly face at a few of the checkpoints, Norman seemed to be doing a tour of the checkpoints. A few nice toadstools were seen, but usually when it was too wet for the camera to work well. I saw an excellent Fly Agaric in amongst some gorse at 2am, and afterwards regretted not getting in there for a picture, but later at 3am i heard a fairy call out "Go on Andy! You got this!" , and there she was sitting on a superb Fly Agric next to me on the path. Of course, the fairy was a magic one, and didn't come out on the pictures...

So, was it worth the 1000 mile round trip? Definitely! I coupled it with the Loch Ness marathon the previous weekend, and some (successful) aurora hunting in-between.

Andy Hoddle

Phioto Andy and Normn