40 kilometres to celebrate 40 years

We did it!! On Saturday 19^th August, myself (Caroline – Neil’s sister), Audrey and Diana completed our epic wander.

This year would have been Neil’s 40^th birthday. We wanted to do something to mark this anniversary that encapsulated his spirit of adventure and give us a challenge too. Although we all have a reasonable level of fitness, we are not regular long-distance walkers, so this was definitely a step out of our comfort zone! We chose the Corrieyairack for its distance (40km), but also the challenge – it follows a Wade military road, which originally would have linked the Government base of Fort Augustus with Ruthven Barracks outside Kingussie. The road is now a Scheduled Ancient monument, and the official route runs from Laggan to Fort Augustus, over remote terrain through the Monadhliaths.

When we first talked about doing this walk, we had good intentions of following a specific distance training schedule, increasing the distance walked by approximately 10% each week until two weeks before the allocated date where the aim was to walk 20 miles, and then rest. However this proved a little tricky due to holidays, family life, work, injuries and all extremes of Scottish weather (including a heat wave!). Between us, though, we did manage to build up the miles, although we hadn’t all managed to be together on any given walk until the actual day! Unfortunately, we also lost two team members along the way. Carol helped by keeping me company on many of my training walks but unfortunately due to injury couldn’t join us for the final adventure. Sian also was plagued by health issues that meant she was unable train to the level she would have liked. Thank you for your support ladies, we missed you, and hopefully you’ll be able to join us for the next one!

And all of a sudden it was the day before the ‘big’ day. A flurry of messages checking who had the first aid kit, how many pairs of socks did we each have, what were we taking for breakfast, and other such important matters followed, before we were packed and ready for our pre-trip overnight stay – a fabulous shepherd’s hut on a croft above Newtonmore. Just perfect for what we needed!

After an early start and some assistance with logistics to ensure we reached the starting point, we were off. The first stage – Laggan to Melgarve – is 17km along a tarmacked road, initially following the River Spey and on past the Spey Reservoir, passing a couple of large estates, and some derelict buildings (which I later discovered was once a Kingshouse, or inn for drovers, but more recently known as Garvamore Barracks) before reaching Garva Bridge. From Garva Bridge it began to feel a little more remote, with the uphill climb beginning, and a distinct change in terrain.

We knew things were going to change when we reached the ‘Road Closed’ sign just a little before Melgarve – the end of the public road and time to move onto the track. We were still in good spirits; there had been a few showers, and we could see more rain in the distance, but at almost half way we were hitting our kms vs hours target and still not too many aches and pains! We had a brief detour to visit Melgarve Bothy, and the next goal was lunch shortly after the 20km (half way) mark. A bit more uphill, and somebody’s gadget signalled we had hit the magic 20km! Unfortunately we were in the midst of a rain shower and there wasn’t anywhere suitable to perch for a lunch stop so we continued a little way until the rain stopped – it did, and the need for food (and a change of socks) was stronger than the need for comfy seats so we plonked ourselves at the side of the track to replenish energy levels. A quick look at the map and the landscape ahead told us that serious steepness was just around the corner as we reached Corrie Yairack – the corrie after which the route is named – but all was still good.

Refueled, re-socked, and the beginnings of blisters dealt with, we were on our way, and about to face the most challenging part of the journey….. As we approached the base of the corrie, the weather turned and the gradient increased. After a challenging half hour slog upwards, we reached the top – or so we thought. Walk Highlands delighted in telling us that, although yes this was the top of the corrie, the highest point of the route was yet to come. It was indeed, and thankfully not too much further. On a good day we would have been rewarded with fabulous views in all directions, unfortunately for us we were met with a little bit more horizontal rain!

Selfie at the top!

The weather prevented us from savouring this achievement, and we decided that the best plan was to keep moving. We were by this point soaked through, but still warm, so all was not lost, and in theory it was now down hill all the way to Fort Augustus….. Well, the rain got heavier. In our calculations, we probably still needed to walk about another hour before our next scheduled stop (we knew there was another bothy not too far away so we’d be doing well to get to that). With that in mind, we begun our descent, focussing on keeping the horizontal rain out of our eyes. All of a sudden as we rounded a corner, a bizarre concrete building that looked like a WW2 sentry post appeared out of nowhere – all thought of time schedules went out the window! The door might have been hanging off, and the floor covered in sheep poo, but somewhere to shelter could not have come at a better time! So we took the opportunity to empty our squelching boots and change socks again, squeeze any surplus water out of our outer layers and have some more food. It turned out our timing was pretty good too – by the time we were ready to start walking again the rain had stopped. Well, we were still above the cloud line so the air was still damp, but at least the horizontal rain had eased.

From then on, the conditions improved, and eventually we dropped below the cloud line and we finally dried out again. Much of the walking here was across open moorland, with views opening up to our north and east. The terrain became easier again and with the improved weather conditions, the trek became enjoyable again!

Looking back at where we’d come from

And then, a welcome view – we caught our first glimpse of Fort Augustus and Loch Ness! We were still quite high up and the aches and pains had started to kick in, but the end was in sight! In terms of distance we were probably about three quarters of the way there, so we still had about two hours to walk, no problem we thought! Our legs were definitely tired, but spurred on by the views of familiar territory we pushed through and kept going.

First views of Fort Augustus!

We continued to drop down and both Loch Ness and Fort Augustus remained in sight but did not seem to get any closer. Eventually, we were off the hill and had reached one of the final landmarks – the fabulously pink Culachy House, closely followed by Cill Chuimein Burial Ground and from here it was ‘just’ a short walk into town.

And finally, at approx. 6.45pm we limped into Fort Augustus. Our agreed finish point was by the side of Loch Ness, at The Boat House restaurant, where my parents (the other two Trustees of The Neil Mackenzie Trust) were waiting to see us across the finish line. We were met with a glass of something fizzy and The Boat House had very generously provided us with food, which was extremely welcome! To finish off our trek, we had a quick dip of our toes in the loch – we didn’t quite have the energy for a full swim, but that was more than refreshing enough. Although tired, we were all amazingly proud of our achievement; to be fair though, it took another few days for this to really kick in! Would we do it again, probably not that distance in a day, but there was chat about what form our next adventure would take, so watch this space!

So, was this challenge epic enough to have Neil’s name associated with it? I think so. He would have been willing us on as we clambered out of the corrie, laughing with us as we emptied our boots out of the random hut, and he probably actually would have had a swim with Nessie at the end! He’s left a gaping hole behind him, but we will continue our work with The Neil Mackenzie Trust to keep his memory and spirit alive.

Thank you to everyone who supported us along the way – Phil and Alistair with logistics, The Boat House for the food, Lorna for the strawberries at the top (sorry again that we missed you!), everyone who sponsored us, and finally to Diana and Audrey for agreeing to walk with me. It was an amazing experience with memories which I will treasure for a long time, and here’s to many more adventures to come!