From Dallas Dhu, across the Dava Moor, right to the furthest reaches of Lochindorb and beyond the Spey where Grantown rests, across the very wildest of the Aviemore tracks and ending on the snow-capped pinnacle of the Cairngorm Mountain - this is the awesome Wolftrek journey.
Traversing the plains once terrorised by the Wolf of Badenoch himself, this stunning 45 mile test of endurance is commenced in the name of the Wolf, and is not for the faint of heart.
It is also very poorly sign posted.
Lack of organisational skills was a slight downfall of this duty. We failed to have Red Echo 2 in time for the trip, so Craig and Charlie had to go in the Iveco minibus and fetch it from Aviemore, leaving Judith and me to find Dallas Dhu in my micra. Thankfully, Forres is relatively easy to navigate through, so we found it with only one wrong turning behind us.
Then we sat there for just over an hour. Which is quite embarassing, seeing as we were meant to follow the runners/walkers on from the starting post, chasing up the rear and meeting them at each check point along the way. By the time our fellow colleagues returned, the competitors were already miles ahead. Thankfully, it doesn't take long to catch up with people when your on wheels, so getting back on time track wasn't difficult. The problem was finding the posts we were meant to sit at.
By a sheer fluke, Judith and Charlie (the Iveco crew) stumbled across check point number one. Craig in RE 2, and myself tailing him in my micra, got very lost.
In fact, we passed point 2 and ended up, by chance of being flagged down by a confused marshal, at 3,4, 5 and 6 long before we were meant to. We were so confident we were headed in the right direction... but with none of us having any knowledge of the surrounding area, we were all a bit scuppered.
Our giant, and somewhat confusing, game of leapfrog had begun. Craig and I decided to ditch my micra at point 5/6 - the junction which turns down the A939 to Nairn, and also continues on to Grantown - and head back up to point 3/4 where we would then sit in RE2 and kill some time by speaking about cars.
Meanwhile Judith and Charlie continued on to point 2 - once again unexpectedly finding it by chance - and waited until the stop had cleared and had been closed.
Then they continued down the road towards 3/4, where Craig and I sat in wait. By luck I had made my way down to speak to the marshals, and caught sight of the thundering Iveco, which I then flagged down by nearly jumping out in front of it. We exchanged the new plan - the Iveco crew would sit down at 5/6, while Craig and me would wait until 3/4 was closed, and then hop over them and make our way to our finishing point at Lochindorb.
*takes deep breath*
This sounded like a good plan.
So Craig and me sat gossiping with our fellow residing marshals, trying to keep the midgies at bay with insect spray and (apparantly) midgie-repellent candles. I discovered how quickly heather caught alight that night, and before long we had a mini camp fire, rather than a midgie candle. Which was fine, cos it was starting to get cold.
By the end of our stint at post 3/4, we were hungry, cold, and pimpled.
We popped in past 5/6 to check on our colleagues and pick up my car, and we carried on to Lochindorb. I loved this stretch of the journey - the sun was just setting beyond the distant rolling hills, and the sky was a beautiful darkening blue, with a glint of red and orange streaked through at the horizon as the sun disappeared to make way for the night time. The silhouettes of walkers led the way down the single track by the loch's edge, and suddenly I felt as though I could drive for miles this way.
But we had to stop, and when we did it was attack of the midgies all over again, except this time we had no super candles to keep them away.
Our wait didn't feel too tedious - our Iveco pals were soon with us again, and now we were all starving and simply wanting to get away from the insect swarm building up around us.
There was no relief offered to us for either problem.
And now we had a new issue. The path from Lochindorb headed up an off-road track, which could only be handled by a 4x4 like RE 2. An old minibus and a micra certainly couldn't hack it, and so our journey had come to an abrupt end.
Or had it?
The organisers asked us to cover the walk from Lochindorb to Grantown. Although we were meant to finish at Lochindorb, we had no problem with covering the route further - we could easily hand over to the next crew in Grantown, and it was still far from our finishing time at midnight. But I couldn't tail Craig over the off-road track, which meant I would have to follow Charlie in the Iveco along the main road to Grantown, while Judith accompanied Craig in RE 2.
This was the new plan, and so we set off, yet again, into the newly settled night.
The road to Grantown was an easy one to follow, and the night was illuminated by a full silver moon. I even saw a shooting star! So suddenly, this extension of our services didn't seem too bad.
Charlie and I made it to Grantown in time to buy chips from a Chinese Take-Away - and get pestered by a group of drunks - before meeting the members of the next crew to take over from our duties.
It was close approaching half 12 by then, and I was tired. Never mind the fact that I had to drive all three of my colleagues home again in a car that two grown men and two teenage girls would only just fit into, at a pinch.
I was lucky - I knew which seat was mine cos I was the driver - has its advantages =)
Eventually, Craig and Judith appeared in RE2, ready for the handover to crew number two. Then it was the rather amusing jigsaw puzzle of fitting everyone into my car before setting off for home. My car protested against the sudden and unusual weight it was given to carry, and therefore wouldn't reverse up the slant of the high street, which was really very funny, I imagine more so to watch. What made it worse were the orders from the by standers:
"Put it in reverse!" *demonstrative hand gestures to accompany said command*
"It is in reverse!" *car revvs impressively like some disgruntled lion and finally claws its way backwards*
Anyway, long story short, we actually made it back to Elgin alive. My little mean machine impressed its passengers with its near 4x4 ability to keep all four tyres on the curvey roads, and I impressed myself with my driving skills to get everybody back alive and in one piece.
A good time had by all me thinks, although while some may complain otherwise, I do believe it was quite a fun duty. If we hadn't gotten lost, eaten alive, and squashed into a box on wheels for about an hour, I think it would have been very boring indeed.
But amazingly
I was lucky - I knew which seat was mine cos I was the driver - has its advantages =)
Eventually, Craig and Judith appeared in RE2, ready for the handover to crew number two. Then it was the rather amusing jigsaw puzzle of fitting everyone into my car before setting off for home. My car protested against the sudden and unusual weight it was given to carry, and therefore wouldn't reverse up the slant of the high street, which was really very funny, I imagine more so to watch. What made it worse were the orders from the by standers:
"Put it in reverse!" *demonstrative hand gestures to accompany said command*
"It is in reverse!" *car revvs impressively like some disgruntled lion and finally claws its way backwards*
Anyway, long story short, we actually made it back to Elgin alive. My little mean machine impressed its passengers with its near 4x4 ability to keep all four tyres on the curvey roads, and I impressed myself with my driving skills to get everybody back alive and in one piece.
A good time had by all me thinks, although while some may complain otherwise, I do believe it was quite a fun duty. If we hadn't gotten lost, eaten alive, and squashed into a box on wheels for about an hour, I think it would have been very boring indeed.
But amazingly
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