The First March

This was a tough introduction to Highland Marching and those ‘pioneers’ of this first event deserve great credit for what was achieved. None of those involved really understood (apart from one) what was expected of them and, indeed two (or was it three?) of the intrepid marchers were clapped out by the end of the first day. Lack of training by some (and in specific instances none whatsoever) indicated a lack of understanding of what it actually takes to walk 20 plus miles a day – for seven days – and the inaugural march had the makings of a disaster.

The Marchers arrive at Brockville

The 160 mile route they took was:-
Day One – Sun: Inverness to Carrbridge (27 miles)
Day Two – Mon: Carrbridge to Newtonmore. (25)
Day Three – Tue: Newtonmore to Blair Atholl. (30)
Day Four – Wed: Blair Atholl to Dunkeld. (21)
Day Five – Thu: Dunkeld to Kinkell Bridge. (22)
Day Six – Fri: Kinkell Bridge to Stirling.(20)
Day Seven – Sat: Stirling to Falkirk (15)

On the evening prior to the march it was the ICT Supporters Club end of season party and players’ awards presentations, which the Marchers attended. This meant an evening of the booze, a late night and, in some cases, a sore head in the morning. Not the best way to prepare for a long walk down the road you would think.

The march started from Caledonian Stadium at 9a.m. the next day, the troops headed for the town centre (as it was still known in those days) before heading out on the old General Wade’s Military Road – a tough up hill climb. By the time they’d reached the top a couple of the troops were feeling the pace. The long first day caught out those who hadn’t trained hard enough and blisters were very much in evidence.

Of the five starters on day one, only three started the next day and of this crew, Interthenet and Gringo Jnr went on to complete the whole walk. A tremendous achievement – especially considering the state their feet were in!

The route down to Falkirk was a mixture of road and ‘off’ road, some of it planned, some of it not. Generally speaking the whole planning of the route was done to as fine an art as was possible (given that we’d not done it before) but it was never really adhered to and the event began to get a bit straggled here and there. Short cuts didn’t always come off and difficulties were encountered at various times.

A support vehicle assisted the marchers by carrying the rucksacks and providing the transport to the overnight accommodation at the end of each day. The accommodation (predominantly B&Bs) did become quite expensive. There were many things that weren’t quite right and all these problems were discussed in a full de-brief of the walk and lessons were learnt for the benefit of future walks. It was a painful way to find out the March’s shortcomings.

Gringo Jnr's account can be found here