Challenge #1 - Formartine & Buchan Way

After a few Sherry's at new year M & I agreed to partake in a series of challenges throughout 2009, and the first challenge of the year was to walk the Formartine and Buchan Way from Dyce to Maud yesterday.

The Way starts at Dyce, passes to the east of Newmacher and through Udny Station before reaching Ellon after 13 miles (21 km). It continues north through Auchnagatt before reaching the crossroads of Maud. The Ellon to Maud section is 12.5 miles (20.1 km) long. Having parked about a mile from the start of the journey, we covered a marathon distance of about 26 1/2 miles.


The journey began at 08:30, with the start of daylight.

A frosty morning, with a strong southerly wind helping to push us along.




Some tricky sections to negotiate, but easy for my offshore lace-ups.

With no stops other than a freezing 5min seat on a rock at Udny Station for a sandwich, the Challenge was completed in 7 1/2 hours, arriving at Maud 4pm just before we ran out of daylight.

Sore but not broken, Bring on Challenge #2.