Scotland’s summer delivered its best and worst to a pair of adventurers on a weekend Highland challenge.
In a midsummer follow-up to a first summit-to-sea trek in 2010, Andy Jarret from Arbroath and Portlethen’s Andy Milne set their sights on a 66-mile foot, bike and kayak journey from the top of Scotland’s highest mountain to the northern shore of Loch Ness.
Their aim was to raise money for the families of the Forces Children’s Trust and a memorial garden at RM Condor to add to last year’s four-figure sum for Help For Heroes.
That took them from the peak of Ben MacDui to Spey Bay but the step up to Ben Nevis looked like the wrong call when they faced the mountain at its seasonal worst on the start of their weekend journey last Saturday.
Their intention was to stay on the peak overnight and start the challenge from the top on Sunday morning but dreadful weather sunk the idea.
Ex-Courier reporter Andy Jarret said, “We started at 7pm on Saturday night and took three hours to climb Ben Nevis, but by the time we got up there the conditions were terrible. It took us the same length of time to come down the mountain in the pitch black and with visibility down to nothing.
“We made the decision to pitch up at the visitor centre and the foot of the mountain and got a few hours’ rest.”
Thankfully, Sunday dawned brighter for the pair to tackle a 32-mile cycle from Fort William, beyond Neptune’s Staircase and through the Great Glen to lochs Lochy and Oich before dropping down the Caledonian Canal towpath to Fort Augustus.
They were satisfied with three hours 20 minutes for the cycle especially against a determined midge population before a paddle in a two-man kayak up Loch Ness.
Andy said, “Conditions leaving Fort Augustus were reasonable and the scenery was gorgeous.”
Twenty-two miles later the shore at Dores the scene of Rockness a week earlier marked the finish of the 18-hour event for the ex-reporter and his namesake, an oil industry technical manager with Dril-Quip.
The former said, “The last two or three miles on the loch was very tough the wind was getting up a bit and the paddle was becoming a lot harder.
“But there was no sign of Nessie. At one point we saw a black shape moving on the loch which seemed too big for a bird but too small for a monster. It was only when we got much closer that we discovered it was another kayaker in a wetsuit, so the monster myth remains.”
He added, “There was a wee dram waiting for us at the end and that was very welcome and we hope we’ve comfortably broken the £1000 fund-raising barrier.”