2018 TGO Challenge Day 13

TGO Challenge Day 13

Fetteresso Wild Camp Dunnottar Castle - 15 miles
 Total Trip Miles: 181.1

Wednesday, May 23rd, 2018

Day 13 part 1

Day 13 part 2

We woke up to our final day of walking.  With the extra miles we put in the previous day we only had about 15 miles to go.  We had originally planned to have a longer day today and camp near Dunnottar Castle, but we decided the previous day to push some extra miles and just finish early.  The allure of a possible bed was strong.  

We would be passing through the Fetteresso for about 11 miles of the 15.  I had always heard navigating in the Fetteresso was a nightmare because of all the tracks that were put in for the windfarms, but it was pretty straightforward.  The biggest obstacle was a bunch of fallen trees on the path we were on before hitting a road.  The trees appeared to have been there for a while because there was a narrow trail through the forest parallel to the path that people had clearly been using.  Once we hit the roads we made quick progress through the forest.  We only took one longer break because it was quite cold and we would quickly become chilled when stopped. 

We saw a few of these in the Fetteresso

Right before exiting the Fetteresso for good we had a quick glimpse of the North Sea.
 (Click to enlarge picture - it's hazy, but you can see a line where the water hits the horizon)

Right after exiting the Fetteresso we ran into Brad again.  He decided to stick with us for the last few miles of the crossing.  We took a path that led us through a bunch of gorse, but luckily this time there was a decent path through it and no injuries were reported.  

We came across a Garden Center that had a restaurant, so of course we stopped for lunch.

Last lunch of our crossing

After lunch we had a road walk to the coast.  It was through farmland for most of it, but at one point we came out to an intersection that went under one of the main roads and it was pretty intense with cars whipping by us for a few minutes. 

Getting closer!

War memorial just north of Dunnottar Castle

Our first glimpse of Dunnottar Castle!

We made it to the coast around 2pm (just estimating, I don't remember the exact time).  The security guard was nice enough to watch our packs for us before we walked the 180 steps down to the coast next to the castle.  First we took some pictures at the monument sign:

Dunnottar Selfie!

Dunnottar Castle

Heading down the steps

In the bay to the left of the castle (I'm looking up at it)

The whole team at the coast!

 

Panoramic shot of the bay

Kenny was relieved to be done

Looking up at the castle from down in the bay

A shot of the bay from up at the castle

And with the final trip down to the coast we were done with difficult part of the 2018 Great Outdoors Challenge...all that was left was getting to Montrose to sign out to officially complete the challenge.  But first, Brad, Leslie, and I decided to pay the £7 entrance fee to go check out the castle interior.  Click here if you'd like to check out some pictures from the castle.  

Yours truly at the end of the crossing

After we walked around the castle we had a quarter mile walk to the bus stop.  The bus ride was about 30 minutes to take us to Montrose.  While on the bus Leslie and I managed to book a room for the night at the Park Hotel, where Challenge control is located.  We also had a room previously booked for the following night, which would be the night of the Challenge dinner we were attending.  Kenny and Ava managed to get a room at the hotel next door and Brad already had a booking there.