Their story, in their words…
After a lengthy period of planning and deliberation, on August 10th it was finally time for our group to depart from Victoria Coach station to go to Glasgow. Though this part was relatively effortless, the lack of sleep on the overnight coach was an inconvenience. We arrived in Glasgow promptly at 6 am and, after a bite to eat, we got on a bus to take us to Milngavie where we could finally start the hike.
Whilst we were originally planning to start the day after, with the immense distance ahead of us and with plenty of daylight left, we agreed to get a head start on our journey. Despite some minor confusion with the signs and directions of the trail, the early parts of the challenge were mostly smooth and enjoyable. After a couple of hours of enjoying the beautiful Scottish scenery and enduring the scorching summer heat, we decided to rest in a lovely field to give our bodies some rest and enjoy a meal.
The day continued mostly uneventfully until we set up camp in a forest on the trail. It was at this point that one of us realised that over the course of today’s journey, their feet had sustained serious injuries. This not only slowed down his pace but also made walking extremely painful. We decided to rest for the night and decide what to do the next morning after doing our best to bandage up the injuries.
Unfortunately, a thunderstorm made it almost impossible for us to sleep as, along with the tent violently shaking, the downpour was able to leak through one of the tents. This only heightened our tiredness after the poor sleep on the coach. This in tandem with the injuries made it clear to us that we could not complete the challenge. We collectively decided that our wellbeing was more important than completing our goal and we continued on with our walk until we reached a place where we could get the bus to Glasgow.
After some minor complications with using public transport to get back to the bus station, we were able to book another coach home after a long wait. While we had completely failed in doing what we set out to do, we still value this experience greatly. It allowed us to accept that failure is a natural part of life that we need to accept and that there will be challenges that we can’t always beat. Despite our disappointment with not completing the hike, we believe our choice to prioritise our health was justified and applicable to our lives going forward.
