Sponsored Walk on Far North Route

On 9th May I am going to do a sponsored walk along the 14-mile Forestry Commission track between Forsinard and Altnabreac in aid of the charity Depression Alliance Scotland. As I was inspired to organise and carry out this walk during a trip on our Far North Line, I would like to tell you a bit about it here in the newsletter.

I made the journey on an absolutely glorious day in August 2007, marvelling at the astonishing range of colours and textures to the scenery; the line has so much to be proud of and so much scope to promote itself to visitors as well as fulfilling its practical function as a vital link. The intense teal blue of the North Sea to the right at Brora with the rich, positively shimmering inland greens and purples rising to the left got me musing that it is no wonder Clynelish tastes so good; a dram which commands respect.

At some point as the Class 158 sped through the Flow Country the idea for my sponsored walk was born. The splendid loneliness of Altnabreac seemed such a fitting destination to highlight the isolation faced by those with mental health problems and the walk enough of an effort to be an appropriately challenging project for a lifelong train-loving townie like myself, used to seeing the outdoors through a window.

The website www.jbutler.org.uk has a guide to the Forsinard to Altnabreac section and this became the basis for my plans and I highly recommend the entire site to anyone with an interest in walking.