The year of the 2017 Bells Bothy Challenge is drawing to a close, and what a successful year it has been!  Our last walk in of the year had us reflecting on the ups and downs of the Challenge.

Firstly, Thank you to everyone who took part!  It was a great opportunity for personal challenges, getting folks together and meeting friends, old and new, having fun and helping the environment and of course raising money for the Trust.  To date we have raised over £4,000 and I know that there is more to come.  With Gift Aid on some of it, hopefully we will reach the £5,000 mark.  Well done everyone!  Also to come are some reports ………………… James, Alex/Daniel, Paulette, to name but a few!

There were many individual challenges including ……………………………………………

Day 1 starting walk from Elgol to Camasunary – me, backpack & Cuillin who is having a little sit down!

…………………………………………………………………….. Andrew, Alice, Ruth and Mark, Well done!

The highlights of the year included a trip down the Murray River, setting off the challenge in Australia in January, with Lewis and Jorg.

Beach clean and weekend in the “Big House” at Camasunary.  Thanks to you all for coming, and for your hard work – David & Lesley, Kenny, Ruth, Kath and Geoff and for all the food and drink you brought in.

Canada Day beach clean with Carly and Kelsey who were over from Vancouver on The Neil Mackenzie Adventure Grant.  We had to postpone our BBQ for 24 hours because some over zealous helpers carried out and dumped our food – it had been wrapped in a black bin bag and left in the porch in the bothy!

MS Bike event on Vancouver Island where we cycled 60km and raise £2,600 for MS in Canada and about £800 for the Trust

The Three Unwise Men, David, Doug and Gavin who cycled off road from Farr, near Inverness, to the bothy, and raised money by holding a competition to guess the total height they gained on a 4 hour cycle in November in Strathnairn.

and finally ………………………………….. probably the youngest person to take up the challenge –  Orla, aged 3 months who walked in to the bothy with her parents Aengus and Paulette from Elgol in October.

There were others – walkers, cyclists, climbers, paddlers – thank you all.  If you didn’t manage to do something challenging this year – The Challenge continues next year – Anywhere, anytime.  Please let us know what you are doing for YOUR Challenge.

I mentioned that there have been downs to the Challenge.  I will not dwell on it.  However I just want to mention that although we have cleared a lot of rubbish from the bay, there is a lot still there.  Furgusson Shipping are going to remove what is collected in due course.  It is a pity,  if we had had the support of the landowner, the Mountain Bothies Association and the John Muir Trust we would have made a much better job of the beach cleans.  Unfortunately without their support we will not be continuing this part of the Challenge next year.

MS Bike, Vancouver Island, Canada.

Us, sporting our MS Bike T-shirts, with Fiona, Miranda and Kate, ready to start!

Background and training

When Neil died in an accident in Canada in January 2015 we had just booked our second campervan road trip of British Columbia for that summer.  We cancelled it, but said that we would go back sometime, when we were ready – when the time was right.  Last year we decided that we would do the trip in 2017, and booked a small van for a six week trip.

We arranged to be in Vancouver for the presentation of the third mentorship award, in Neil’s name, at the University of British Columbia, and to start our trip in mid-August.  The intended route would take us onto Vancouver Island and then north through the Inside Passage (on a 16 hour ferry running between the mainland and islands of the west coast of BC) to Prince Rupert, then north to Stewart (and Hyder just across the border in Alaska), across to the Rockies, and back to Vancouver, catching up with as many of Neil’s friends as we could, on the way.

Having contacted Fee & Bob on “the Island”, with our dates, in the early stages of planning we were surprised in March to get an email from Fiona asking for sponsorship for a cycle ride in aid of MS in Canada, the weekend we were due to be with them!  We sponsored her, looked it up, and decided that we would make this our “2017 Bell’s Bothy Challenge”.  The information said that it was for all ages, stages, and abilities, but it was not until mid-June that we discovered that the minimum distance we could ride, over the 2 days, was 60km!

Training started in earnest once we knew what was expected of us by way of gradients, distance and general fitness.  I had by this stage lost about 2 stone in six months, so that at least was a start!  We set our weekly goals, and trained on our heavy electric bikes, with the batteries mounted for extra weight, but without turning them on (where possible).  Our final training ride was the weekend before we left. On the Saturday we completed over 40 miles on and off road around Slochd, Carrbridge and Aviemore.  It was cold and wet, some of the tracks were rougher than we had been on, (before or since) and we struggled in places with our small wheels, heavy bikes and lack of suspension!  At least the following week it would be warmer, the road surfaces better, the bikes more suited to the rides and there would be stops for sustanance at fruit farms, wineries and other places of interest.

Arrival on Vancouver Island, and the Challenge.

When we arrived in our hired camper van, on Vancouver Island, we still had not had confirmation of the bikes we were going to hire – they were promised but we had no idea if they would actually be there for us on the day.  They weren’t waiting for us when we arrived the night before the first ride, but thankfully two brand new and free of charge bikes were ready for us on the morning of the first day, courtesy of Will Arnold of Experience Cycling.

We met up with Fiona, her sister Miranda and Kate (another friend of Neil’s from Vancouver Island) on Saturday morning and we are grateful to them (all seen pictured in first photo) for looking after and out for us, on the first morning.  The ride took us through a fertile area in the south of the Island where the biggest challenge was not, as I had expected, the hills, but the traffic.  We cycled on the main Island Highway, and on narrow roads and gravel entrances to the rest stops, and as the day progressed, the traffic got worse.

Saturday lunch stop – Blue Grouse Winery

A few other stops along the way

But we made the end of the first day, with several purchases of wine  from the vinyards – which were transported back to base by the support team –  and set off again on the Sunday for the second trip.  Although we had thought of doing a longer route the second day, we decided that a total of 60km was quite enough, and if we were to get back in time for the BBQ finale we would be pushed for time.  So we set out to enjoy a relaxing second day and got back without hitches.

Sponsorship and thanks!

We set out to raise $500 each for MS in Canada.  It was an opportunity for us to put something back into Canada after all the kindness, generosity and support shown by Neil’s friends and colleagues in Vancouver and the officials we came across during the difficult few months after his accident.  We also pledged to donate £10 to The Neil Mackenzie Trust for every $100 we raised.  Between us the total we donated to MS was $2,600, and the Trust £260, which with some very generous donations for our challenge, direct to the Trust have brought our challenge donation to nearly £800.

Thanks to everyone who has donated to our challenge, and thanks to MS Bike organisers and Will Arnold of Experience Cycling for their help, support, rent free bikes, $100 Shell “gas” voucher and the cycling gear we were awarded for raising the amount we did.

Conclusion

We are fitter and I am sure, healthier, as a result of our challenge, and we will continue cycling on our little electric bikes.  We have thought of getting something different. We hired some real mountain bikes in Jasper for a day, recently.  Fun, but no good to take in the van on a regular basis. So we think that by looking after the ones we have, perhaps adding some better tyres, suspension and better pedals, we will make more efficient use of them.  After all we are getting older and have never been serious cyclists, so we will continue to enjoy using the batteries to get us up the hills, or fight the headwinds!

Bikes safely returned at the end of the Challenge!

My Bothy Challenge!                                                                  4^th – 6^th June, 2017

On Sunday 4^th June I and two friends Lesley and Lindsey with Cuillin, Lindsey’s border terrier began an adventure and my sponsored ‘Challenge’.  This involved walking from Elgol carrying a pack each to the bothy at Camasunary, staying two nights at the bothy, attempting to walk to Loch Coruisk  via the ‘bad step’, then walking back from Camusunary to Sligachan each carrying our packs. Each pack contained sleeping bag, mat, food etc!

Day 1 starting walk from Elgol to Camasunary – me, backpack & Cuillin who is having a little sit down!

Day 1) The walk from Elgol to Camasunary was only 3 ½ miles, but felt a much greater distance – it took us 3 hours!  Not a walk for the faint hearted.  The coastal path, is a little narrow in places and runs quite close to the cliff edge at points, and with some ups and downs!  However,  there were places of respite and some spectacular views, one of which was the view of bothy in the bay with the Cuillin behind.

Path runs a little close to the edge…in places

welcome respite in a meadow!

Camasunary bay with the Cuillin hills behind & bothy in foreground.

On arrival at the bothy we were met by Angus & Margaret who gave us a welcome barbecue of haggis with salad from their garden, a nice glass of wine followed by baked bananas! After Angus and Margaret left we settled down for the night, rather early but we were tired!  Other walkers / outward bounders were with us in the bothy which added to the experience.

Angus, Margaret & me.

Day 2  To Loch Coruisk:  The weather was fair, no rain or low cloud.  Lesley & I agreed we were game for attempting the walk to Loch Coruisk via the ‘bad step’. Lesley is a very experienced walker – I felt safe going with her – we both agreed if the weather changed or we got to the bad step and we didn’t want to do it we would come back.   Lindsey decided not to join us because her back was sore; she stayed at the bothy with Cuillin enjoying the peace and surrounding views.  Lesley & I set off with map, refreshments, water and all the right gear!

The walk: first challenge was fording the river via stepping stones.  Having achieved this, we awarded ourselves with a ‘water & apple stop’ then headed on our way walking round and over Rhuba Ban.

Looking back along our path from the bothy (to the far right of the photo) and Camansunary

The bad step

On our way we met a group of Dutch men coming towards us.  They had camped at Loch Coruisk and were heading to Elgol via Camansunary.  They had negotiated the ‘bad step’  and suggested it was quite a challenge’!  I was not sure whether they were joking, had found it a real challenge or were encouraging ‘these two older women not to attempt it’…..they of course had approached it from the opposite direction.  We wished each other good walking and carried on.  Whilst walking we saw a group of canoeists who had camped near the bothy the night before; earlier we had said ‘hello’ to them as we started our walk – seeing them now it looked as though they were canoeing to Loch Coruisk.   We said to each other, ‘well they can rescue us if we fall into the sea whilst negotiating ‘the bad step….’.   About 1 hour later we reached ‘the bad step’ – picture below. Suffice to say we negotiated it – don’t know how, but we did it with some silent & spoken out words & prayer!

The other side of the step looking towards the bay with Loch Coruisk behind the bay.

After this ‘little challenge’ we said simultaneously ‘we are not going back that way’!  We got to the Loch, sat down, had lunch & looked that the map!  I have to say the Loch was special and it had a certain quality to it.  I can see why many people want to get to it and it on so many Skye postcards.

Loch Coruisk on the level

There was a clear path from Loch Coruisk climbing slowly, going along the edge of Strath na Creitheach river;  we took this path then reading the terrain went off ‘piste’ climbing up to a ridge with Sgurr na Stri on our right. Angus had told me how we could do this in reverse to get to Loch Coruisk if we wanted to avoid the ‘bad step’.  There were amazing views either way from the ridge.

Loch Coruisk from the ridge.

Then we slowly, slowly negotiated our way down to Camansunary, finally fording the river again!  After crossing the river we were met & greeted by Cuillin and Lindsey!  This was 8 hours after we had left in the morning! We are not sure of the mileage walked but I would like to suggest it was 8 miles….not too long in mileage but felt much longer!   Lindsey cooked us a meal;  thankfully she had some whiskey which Lesley & I were very grateful for! We slept well that night sharing the bothy again with other walkers & sharing stories!

Lesley and I taking much appreciated refreshment!

Day 3 Walking to Sligachan – back to the campsite.   This was an 8.3 mile walk through the Cuillin and then along the Glen of Sligachan.  Once again carrying our packs! This should have been a walk with lovely views but sadly right from the start there was a cold north easterly wind blowing down the glen –  we were going up the glen! The clouds were low when we started, then the rain came and kept on for nearly 2 ½ hours – sadly looking at the views was not our priority!   

Cuillin the dog keeping a check on each of us!

Our lunch stop! Says it all?

After walking close to 6 hours & 8 miles this was a welcome view – we were nearly home!

These walks were memorable and I am so glad to have done them and to have done them in support of Neil’s trust fund.  Walking to Loch Coruisk may appear foolhardy but believe me we would not have done it in bad weather nor if we had  felt unsure once we got to the bad step; we both checked that out with each other before we embarked on it.

Alice  Mackenzie

June, 2017

27th April – 1st May 2017

The Bell’s Bothy Challenge – well I tried to rise to it.  

After leaving my car in the lay-by near Kilmarie I set off for the Bothy – not easy with a pack weighing over 25kg.  Only one box of wine but maybe the butternut squashes,trainers, etc didn’t help.  Despite friends being concerned about me walking alone across open Skye countryside with limited (non-existent) map reading skills, the path was easy to trace and the view down onto Camasunary beach was beautiful in the late afternoon sunshine and with the sound of a cuckoo in the background.

Never having stayed in a Bothy before and despite following the MBA website on the building of this replacement Bothy, I was unsure what to expect.  In the end I chatted away the evening and spent a cozy night (give the person who invented self-inflating sleeping mats a gong:-) sharing the platform with a Scotsman, his french girlfriend and a German father with his son and daughter. 

Plenty of room along the bench the following morning for all our stoves and the first coffee of the day before tackling the horrendous tidal rubbish along the shoreline and beyond.

Despite chilly and wet weather being forecast, we were treated to beautiful skies, no rain and warm sunshine.  With help from various users of the Bothy, over the next few days about eight of us collected and piled up a huge quantity to be transported out.  By now I had moved across to the house which was surprisingly well equipped considering its remote location.   We were fortified in our endeavours by substantial breakfasts, lunches and dinners (well, we had to lighten the load to be carried back out).  After the efforts of the days and the hope that we made a contribution, however small, to the beach-clean, it was great to spend the evenings in good company with lots of laughs

Stiffness was soaked away in hot baths, the wood burner kept us warm and toasts were raised to Neil in whose memory we had all been drawn to this special place.