Woolton Hill villager completes Britain's toughest trek
230 mile challenge through remote Scottish regions
A WOOLTON Hill villager has completed Britain’s toughest trek over hundreds of miles in the remote regions of Scotland.
Mountaineer and explorer Lee Farmer completed the challenging Cape Wrath Trail solo this month, in just 15 days.
The unique trail combines a complete lack of signposting and way-markings and a variety of route options rather than follow one fixed trail.
Often described as the hardest long-distance back-packing route in the UK, the 230-mile trail starts in Fort William and finishes at Cape Wrath, the most north-westerly point on the UK mainland.
“There is nothing between Cape Wrath Lighthouse and the North Pole, some 2,700 km away,” said Mr Farmer, who spent many weeks planning the route of his June solo attempt, including what food and equipment to carry. “It generally takes 16 to 22 days to complete the trek and only around 120 people a year attempt the challenge.”
He was able to send three food supply parcels from Woolton Hill to be held in hotels at key locations along the trek.
Mr Farmer walked for up to 13 hours each day, averaging 15 miles a day.
Bothies, the basic shelters that are common to the remote, mountainous regions of Scotland, afforded him some shelter from the elements, although he said he also camped wild.
“There’s around 100 bothies situated throughout the more remote parts of the UK – simple stone buildings with no electricity, sanitation, or water, but arriving at one after a day of being in the wind and rain and being able to dry off next to a log or peat fire is good for morale.”
Mr Farmer said it was a “tough, testing trek for anyone”.
“You have to brave remote, featureless moorland and mountain terrain over which you must navigate comprehensively and suffer wind, rain, midges, bogs, several tricky river crossings, negotiate tidal areas, as well as time your arrival at Cape Wrath when the MoD are not using their firing range area there..
“If that weren’t enough, there's then potentially a further 11-mile walk or, if you’re lucky, room on a minibus carrying sightseers, that can take you to a pier to catch a small passenger ferry that runs twice a day, depending on the mercy of wind and tide, to take you over the Kyle of Durness to the nearest road at Keodale near Durness.”
The explorer, who became the 180th Briton to summit Mount Everest in 2008, also completed the Namib-Naukluft Trail in 2014 – the toughest trek in Southern Africa, and said he was looking forward to planning his next expedition.
