A pair of intrepid fund-raisers have devised their own Route 66 from the roof of Scotland to its North Sea shore in a unique charity challenge.
Last summer, pals Andy Jarret from Arbroath and Portlethen’s Andy Milne raised thousands of pounds in a summit-to-sea venture which took them from the summit of the nation’s second-highest mountain Ben MacDui to the North Sea at Spey Bay by foot, mountain bike and kayak.
The exhausting adventure delivered the four-figure boost to the Help for Heroes charity, and now the duo have turned their fund-raising sights towards service families after dreaming up an even greater endurance test.
On June 18/19, the two Andys will rise from a night spent atop Scotland’s tallest peak to embark on another walk, cycle and kayak journey to its North Sea conclusion but easy is not an option.
“After doing Ben MacDui there was really only one way to top that, and that’s by starting on Ben Nevis itself,” said former Courier reporter Andy Jarret. “You can quite easily summit-to-sea from Nevis by dropping down into Fort William and heading southwest along Loch Linnhe but where’s the challenge in that?”
Instead, after the six-mile descent from Ben Nevis, they will bike along part of the Great Glen Way into Fort Augustus before settling into the kayak for what could be a punishing paddle up the entire length of Loch Ness, and into the River Ness for the final push to Inverness and the Moray Firth.
Andy Milne, an oil industry technical manager and former member of 15 PARA, Scotland’s TA parachute battalion, said this year’s choice of charity, the Forces Children’s Trust, was a perfect fit from 2010.
“After last year’s event raising money for wounded veterans, we felt it was natural to do something to help the kids of wounded servicemen and women and especially those who had lost a parent,” he said.The pair can be sponsored on their fund-raising page at www.justgiving.com/summit2sea-part2.