Day 3 – The loneliness of the long distance walkers

Wednesday 3 Aug 2011. At 4.45am Sally and Lucy rose well before dawn to make sure all the guys were ready to go for the 6am start. Not only did they have to slave away to get the porridge ready, but had to prepare and pack the kit (food for the route, map checks, radio still working, the list goes ever on) and boil pan after pan of water, because the team had drunk so much during the night to replace lost fluids. Unfortunately, the water didn't cool down in time so there team were lacking slightly in water. However, having done all of this meant that Tom, Ceri and Alex could maximise the time they were resting and recovering. For them it was literally, get up, throw some clothes on and go.

One team that hadn’t been resting during the night however, but merely re-grouping and lying in ambush for some prey, was the massed midge battalion that occupied the area outside of the bothy. The team literally couldn’t take breath without inhaling a lung full of the damn things, so everyone had to leave the bothy in full midge protective clothing, and no washing up was done because they were so bad. The guys spared a thought for all the RAF Officer Cadets from Cranwell who had to sleep in tents outside the bothy all night.

Whilst Tom, Alex, Ceri and Becky headed off into the hills once more, the rest lugged the support kit to an RV with Lewis Ashton. They stowed the kit and drove to the closed point of Day 3’s campsite. However, due to the remote and wild location of the site, the support team had to repeat their ‘donkey’ roles and lug the support kit to the shores of Loch Ericht. The task was made slightly easier however as the support team were able to use mountain bikes to cover the distance, in order for the team to ride the bikes out. Everyone seemed to be enjoying themselves in sun and Lucy thought she would brighten the mood further by taking a tumble head first into a ditch! She claims it was all for comedy effect, but the rest suspect an ill-fitting, vision obscuring cycle helmet is to blame ( yet I am happy to report that Lucy didn’t sustain any injuries).

A spectacular sun set bathed the shores of Loch Ericht in a golden light as the support team made the 3 hour long walk into the bothy to be in place for Tom, Alex and Ceri’s scheduled arrival at 7.15pm. The support team had trekked in with tonnes of kit for the boys and spares of everything as they had been away from the vehicles for 2 days now. Lots of food was also brought in as the days are so long and the boys had requested extra rations. However on the way the support team met two guys who were very interested in the mission.

 The beautiful view from the campground

The location was absolutely stunning, but ruined by the midges onces again. The sun was setting on the loch  and other than one single tent outside the bothy it was a very peaceful and quiet evening.  Whilst waiting for the boys, the sunset clearly had an effect on at least one member of the team, as Henry Munns decided to serenade Lucy and Sally with some singing. What he lacked in talent, he certainly made-up for in enthusiasm, however even this didn’t prevent the girls from rapidly diving into their day sacks for MP3 players.

To try and recover at least a few ‘man points’, Henry then decided to show off his fire lighting skills in the bothy’s fire grate. Sometime later and with much help from the girls, there was a roaring fire. As the support team ate supper, they began to wonder where the Munro team had got to. They couldn’t raise them on the radios and the team had missed the scheduled arrival time by quite some way. Henry, Lucy and Sally decided the best thing to do was get a little sleep and wake at 11.30pm to see if they could contact the team. Meanwhile, back in Edinburgh, Rupert Laing and James Fish had been watching the team's progress on the GPS spot tracker (provided by TrackPlot) as they worked into the night. Both the support team and the Edinburgh office were very relieved to see the team arrive at Loch Ericht at 11pm. The terrain had been much, much worse than Tom, Ceri and Alex had realised and the weather had closed in to slow them further.


As soon as the runners arrived, the support team provided them with hot soup before swinging into action to make sure the team were ready for the next day. Wet, cold, sun burnt and hungry, the support team made sure that the team's swollen and blistered feet were taped, aching limbs stretched out and masses of pasta bolognaise consumed (whilst in their sleeping bags). Each member of the support team now looks after a specified member of the running team, to make sure that the correct things are brought out to for them at night etc. The guys managed to finally get their heads down at approximately 12am, with the alarms set for 5am, a mere five hours away....




The guys have now climbed over 20 munros which is almost 10 percent! The best Munro so far however has to be Beinn na Lapp which was climbed on the 3rd and dedicated to the Scots Guards. Media team member Sophie Archibald and her father climbed it ahead of the team and celebrated John Archibald's 60th birthday at the top with a smartie cake and champagne! Sad to have missed the runners they left another surprise Smartie birthday cake at the top for the team which went down a treat!

If you would like to support the team on their incredible mission, please visit our website to sponsor a Munro or simply donate to DecAid's chosen charities. Stay tuned for more updates!