RanaldRory

  TGO Challenge 2023   Loch Hourn “Find beauty: be still”   [i] After four days of heat, the morning light has revealed a fresh dusting of snow on the Grey Corries, and I am working my way up a trackless ascent of Coire Ceirsle towards Leana Mhor. The clouds play a slow dance with the sunlight, and there’s a gentle rising of the mists covering the great north face of the Ben. I make a note to keep a watch on their progress as I haul myself up through the heather and bog, and then remember. It doesn’t matter if I get to camp at 5pm or 6pm. It doesn’t matter if I stop a couple of kilometers short, I just pick up the distance the next day. It is day five of the TGO Challenge and there are still ten days in front of me. I have the freedom to stop, sit and just take it in as the cloud carefully eases its way up and over the top of the Ben in a vast silence. It is a beautiful moment and my first unexpected lesson. Two days later and it is the end of a long 35km day. I am tired, my f