THE GREAT OUTDOORS CHALLENGE 2005
Alan Sloman & Phil Lambert's walk
Alan Sloman's account
GOC2005 was going to be my official 10th crossing of Scotland and Phil's official 5th. (I say 'official' as we had both managed complete crossings the year of the Mini Challenge.) We had walked together before and had both also walked it solo. Neither of us had ever had to drop out on the walk because we both knew that it was not a challenge to be taken lightly, but if prepared for properly could be an absolute joy and pleasure of a holiday. In the past, we had both witnessed hapless Challengers who struggled under their gargantuan packs with little or no training under their belt, only to give up after the first few days with sore knees and dreadful blisters.
I was travelling moderately light, with an American lightweight pack, a titanium stove & pots, Anquet printout maps, a one man tent and my own dehydrated food that my wife had prepared for me in advance. Phil went more for comfort, with a monster 'very comfortable' pack and a two man palace of a tent. His only nod to weight saving was to forget the maps for the first five days of the walk! (He did, however, have the tide tables for Loch Moidart which would have proved very useful had he been mislaid in the mist...).
We had picked a fairly sociable route as I had chosen quite a lonely one for a solo crossing the year before. We had both sent three food parcels off to B&Bs across Scotland to ensure that we would never need to carry more than four days food and so keep pack weight down to a sensible minimum. Two weeks prior to the Challenge Phil & I (with a whole group of past Challengers) had taken the sleeper from Euston for a three day daunder through the highlands, just as a final test of equipment and fitness.
However, our practice walks had started back in October, when the application form had been sent off to Roger Smith.
