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17 May 2010

TGO Challenge: Day 1: Lochailort to Oban Bothy

It's difficult, trying to capture the first day of the Challenge: You have met a whole herd of people on the journey up and in the pub the night before the 'off' and everything has been abstract. Today though, these people have become your fellow travellers and you start to look out for them.

Phil and I had a leisurely start and were quite surprised at the rate and manner of our progress ~ we were very quickly at the first 'top' looking down the length of Loch Beoraid and scampering down towards Meoble on Loch Morar. We were going well ~ especially Phil ~ as he needed a double dose of Immodium. He had acquired the gait of Hercule Poirot so even I had noticed something was amiss.

The next section was up into Sleite Coire where lunch was taken in some style in a natural sofa, out of the wind, bathed in sunshine. The rock architecture hereabouts is fantastic, with huge slabs of glacier polished rocks overhung with hundreds of steps of more rock pushing through the mountainsides.

It was a relaxed stroll through this wonderland, carefully threading our way between the boulders and bog. We made Oban bothy before five, having been caught up by Andy Walker. Tents up and into the bothy to cook supper and make inroads into the flasks. We were joined by three Welsh lads, John & Norma and JJ.

Some have struggled today getting here near eight o'clock, but they are all resting and making ready for tomorrow's stunning walk.

Oban is a beautiful place and the bothy has had a lot of work done to it ~ the MBA should be proud of this place.

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