The sense of accomplishment lasts a few weeks\u2014a bargain.<\/p>\n\n\n\n
The Great Outdoors Challenge was my \u201cdiscovery,\u201d with a major assist from Roger Hoyle, and lesser assists from Kathy Lally and Will Englund, who introduced me to Roger in Moscow in the fall of 2013. So, I feel proprietary about it.<\/p>\n\n\n\n
The people who do the event\u2014\u201cChallengers\u201d\u2014are energetic, talkative, and modest people with interesting stories to tell. They speak English and tend to be old. They inspire and are pleasure to tarry with.<\/p>\n\n\n\n
The Challenge is the only perfectly run event I\u2019ve ever been around. The coordinators who run it (and the other volunteers they impress to help them, and us) are models of selfless and thoughtful devotion to a complicated enterprise. No corner is cut, no detail is overlooked. Watching it unfurl each year is both education and entertainment. It\u2019s the way things should work.<\/p>\n\n\n\n
Scotland is beautiful, and Scottish people friendly.<\/p>\n\n\n\n
Going away for most of May also prods me to finish things. After a career of nail-biting deadlines all I do now is bite my nails and break self-imposed deadlines. <\/p>\n\n\n\n
However, in the two months leading up to this event I hosted two of my oldest friends for a five-day visit after talking about it for 20 years; did a three-day volunteer program in a prison; made arrangements for two home-improvement projects to be done while I\u2019m away; pitched a complicated story to a reporter; drained the hot tub; finished planting the vegetable garden; and (hours before I left) mulched two saplings. <\/p>\n\n\n\n
I should go away more often.<\/p>\n\n\n\n
That said, whether I go away to do this again next year is uncertain, which I know I\u2019ve said before. It may be time to walk across Ireland, or around Wales. <\/p>\n\n\n\n
However, I definitely wanted to come back one more time so I could visit a monument to a long-ago ancestor, John Brown (who interestingly is not from the Brown side of the family). He was shot in cold blood by the religion police, which in 1685 were also called the army.<\/p>\n\n\n\n
Just this afternoon, as I waited at a bus stop in Auchinleck to go the two miles to Cumnock, where I am now, I chatted with a woman with three face nails and an accent that was hard to understand through. She asked why I was here. I told her \u201cto see the John Brown monument at Priesthill.\u201d \u201cI\u2019ve been there,\u201d she said. \u201cVery pretty.\u201d <\/p>\n\n\n\n
That\u2019ll be the subject of the next two blog posts. Grab a drink and buckle your seatbelt.<\/p>\n\n\n\n
Which gets me to my route for this year. (Despite what I\u2019ve said, the Challenge is all about the route. But that\u2019s a blog post in itself, which you\u2019ll be happy to know I won\u2019t write.)<\/p>\n\n\n\n
This year\u2019s route is not inspired, and not even very new. I\u2019ll be traversing some unfamiliar territory, but also a fair amount that\u2019s old. The route is also soft\u2014eight nights of camping and five nights of staying indoors. But it has something to recommend it: I\u2019m sure I\u2019ll meet people.<\/p>\n\n\n\n
Two of the five crossings I\u2019ve done were at the edges of the permissible territory. In one I met no Challengers in 13 days; in the other only a few. This time, I want company. <\/p>\n\n\n\n
Here is my route for this year. <\/p>\n\n\n\n
![\"\"](\"https:\/\/aweewalk.com\/wp-content\/uploads\/2024\/05\/Screenshot-2024-04-30-at-10.56.52-PM.png\")
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