Hiking The Great Outdoors Challenge || My favorite hike EVER?!

Hiking The Great Outdoors Challenge || My favorite hike EVER?! | The Beauty of Knoydart

Рет қаралды 6,587

Күн бұрын

☕ www.buymeacoffee.com/Ellihikes
In May of 2024, I embarked on my biggest adventure in a while: Solo hiking The Great Outdoors Challenge (TGO), a self-supported hiking event across Scotland from coast to coast.
Come join me for the first days that saw me hiking from my start point in Dornie through Kintail and into Knoydart, an area that I've never been to before. The beauty of the landscape blew me away and this section might actually be my favorite hike ever!
Stay tuned for the next video and follow me on my hiking and wildcamping adventure across Scotland :)
🧭 Route:
Dornie-Allt a'Choire Reidh (16.8mi/27km | ascent: 1255m)
Allt a'Choire Reidh-Barisdale Bothy (9.9mi/16km | ascent: 560m)
Lots of love and happy hiking,
Elli
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Time stamps:
00:00 Intro
00:55 Exploring Eilean Donan Castle
01:40 Starting the TGO Challenge
03:01 What is the TGO Challenge?
07:20 Day 1
16:18 Knoydart and the PERFECT wildcamping spot
19:04 Day 2
23:20 Is this even real?

Пікірлер: 62

@margaretolover3316 Ай бұрын

Finally some decent weather Elli so happy for you after all your recent wet and misty trails. Looking forward to part 2 🙂

@ellihikes 20 күн бұрын

Thank you so much for following along 😊😇

@rjandy2 21 күн бұрын

Greetings Elli discovered your channel on my feed and was instantly captivated. Looking forward to your TGO journey as well as checking out your other playlists. New subscriber from across the pond.

@ellihikes 21 күн бұрын

Aww, thank you so much for the kind words 🥰 so glad that you've found your way to channel 😊

@user-man-guinon80 12 күн бұрын

Beautiful scenery and your personality slots in perfectly. You do an amazing job. Cheers !

@ellihikes 12 күн бұрын

Thank you so much 😊

@greifi7283 Ай бұрын

That is so cool, when I did the Cape Wrath Trail, I camped at exactly the same spot - and I was lucky, the tea room was open and I met my first Challengers and learned that the TGO existed.😊 Knoydart is amazing and you captured it beautifully! Looking forward to the next episode!

@m1klgordon Ай бұрын

Delightful vlog, Elli. Thank you so much.

@ellihikes 20 күн бұрын

Thank you for following along 😍

@THE-RIVER-RAT Ай бұрын

Hello Ellie and Otto A great start to what I'm sure will be a fantastic journey. Don't drink too much of that whisky or you'll end up walking around in circles 😋✌️

@ellihikes 18 күн бұрын

Thank you so much :) Hahaha, there was no risk - I literally had less than 10ml a day as I forgot to refill it en route 😂

@THE-RIVER-RAT 18 күн бұрын

@@ellihikesHow can you be in Scotland and forget to refill your whiskey flask (I believe it's against the law not too) lol

@martinforrester8249 Ай бұрын

You are doing great Elli. The scenery/landscape is stunning. The weather has been kind which gives good vibes for your start. Sleeping well.... fresh air, all the excersize.... and... a whisky before bed, you cannot go wrong.

@TalesFromAbroad-SJ Ай бұрын

What an amazing adventure on The Great Outdoors Challenge! Solo hiking across Scotland sounds incredible, and the scenery in Knoydart is absolutely stunning. It's easy to see why this might be your favorite hike ever. Your video really captures the beauty and challenge of the trek. Thanks for sharing your journey and all the helpful details. Can't wait to see the next part of your adventure! Have a great day. Cheers, Simon - Tales From Abroad

@damedavidfrith55 Ай бұрын

Thanks love your energy and enthusiasm for walking,happy trails 😊

@ellihikes 20 күн бұрын

Thank you for following along 😊

@Peter-MH Ай бұрын

This could well be the best scenery so far on the channel - absolutely stunning!! Looking forward to the next episode already 👍

@chrishiking8818 28 күн бұрын

Another great video in Scotland Elli, loved the area and so wild. Your drone shots are great too. Really nice seeing that smile on your face and the excitement too. True hikers always smiling and are happy being free to roam. Take beautiful lady 🌷

@mikePNW 29 күн бұрын

Sunglasses and a T-shirt!? Finally that beautiful weather you've been waiting for! Really gorgeous area too. Another wonderful video Elli! Thanks for taking me along. Can't wait for the next one. Hope Otto is doing well, miss the little guy.

@cheekuenbird38 Ай бұрын

I admire your lifestyle ! So......beautiful ❤ thank you for sharing ❤

@ellihikes 20 күн бұрын

😇 Thank you so much for following along, that means so much :)

@lizwallace273 Ай бұрын

What amazing views! Such a beautiful area. Thanks for sharing!

@ellihikes 20 күн бұрын

Thank you so much for following along 😇

@alexcrichton6864 Ай бұрын

Well done elli,great work, and good weather for a change!keep it going, and take care 😊

@ellihikes 20 күн бұрын

Hahaha, yes - I was so happy to get some dry weather 😅 Thank you so much for following along :)

@BoredManOutdoors Ай бұрын

Fantastic - I look forward to following your adventures... 😊

@ellihikes 20 күн бұрын

Thank you so much :)

@keithdavo Ай бұрын

great video and a stunning area, especially in such good weather. yeah, the route to barisdale looks a doddle on the map but is a bit of a trek!

@user-ez5jj2hq3k Ай бұрын

Hi elli, bin wieder total begeistert von deinem neuen Abenteuer. Eine wunderschöne Landschaft, bin gespannt, was noch alles kommt. Und das Wetter, mal kein Regen. ❤🎉

@alangauld6079 Ай бұрын

I knew you'd enjoy the TGO challenge. I did it in 1982, 83 and 84 and would like to do it one more time... When I heard you say you were going over the Forcan ridge I nearly fell off my chair! Definitely not one to do with a backpack... Fortunately, you were only going round the base. I was in Knoydart, camping near Sourlies, in late May and came out with a bad case of trench foot after being ankle-deep in bog for three days! I'm looking forward to your next video as you do battle with the zig-zags :-) PS. I busted my tent pole in a gale in the Lairig Ghru last week so I'm using it as an excuse to buy a Durston! 🙂 Your videos have been quite influential in my decision to go with it rather than the more familiar European brands.

@ellihikes 18 күн бұрын

Oh wow, that's amazing that you've completed several crossings before :) I really did enjoy the challenge and being lucky with the weather obviously helped a lot too! Sorry to hear about your foot problems, I can totally imagine that the area would be really bad in wet conditions, even in the dry weather there were still areas that were so boggy. I hope you like the Durston, it definitely worked very well for me for hundreds of miles :)

@ianpadley3334 Ай бұрын

This is your best yet. Stunning Knoydart hike. Looking forward to part 2. So pleased you finally saw some sun. I was hiking at the same time further south, was amazing weather but I missed the aurora too!

@DestinationUnknown4x4 20 күн бұрын

So awesome 👌 been debating going back to Scotland ❤

@ellihikes 13 күн бұрын

It's a beautiful place for hiking for sure 🥰

@michaelatkinson8291 Ай бұрын

Knoydart is stunning & was also at the centre of the Highland clearances. Great video x

@z0uLess Ай бұрын

Looks like a lot fo fun!

@ellihikes 20 күн бұрын

It's been a great journey 😍

@michaelburke248 Ай бұрын

Hi Eilli Cool clange . Great video, thanks.

@ellihikes 20 күн бұрын

Thank you so much for watching 😊

@stephenvicary9243 Ай бұрын

Another excellent video Elli. Quite a mix of views this time and some colourful landscapes to boot. Plus some decent weather at last 😎. (You should get paid by the Scottish Tourist Board as you show off the country spectacularly). Great presentation as always. Looking forward to the next episode 👍🏻

@catarinalarsson2605 Ай бұрын

Such an inspiring video and would love to do something like this 😮

@markrae3355 29 күн бұрын

Your wonderful and will make it, your a superstar 😊

@Earlofmar1 Ай бұрын

deliciously crazy!

@alanbrown9178 Ай бұрын

Have just noted this. Have been looking forward to seeing how you tackled it..... Never tried it myself.... and now a bit old, unfortunately. Will get a mug of tea and settle down to watch!! :-)

@alanbrown9178 Ай бұрын

Later...... most enjoyable video... I have a lot of happy memories of all the places that you covered today. Most recently was last year at Barrisadale..... where I got caught in my tent in a brief, but ferocious storm thunder and lightning right above me and a friend.... our tents were sound though! By the way.... did you notice when walking down into Kinlochourn that there were Australian eucalyptus trees? I have no idea about the story behind them.. but would be interested to find out. Happy walking!

@snowymatrix Ай бұрын

Nice one, I'm halfway through your LEJOG walk but had to jump on this adventure! You didn't miss much at that tea room. I had the misfortune to visit there in 2018 on the CWT and if the miserable owner allows you in because he doesn't like back packers you'll need a second mortgage to pay his bill! 😂

@TheMadmacs Ай бұрын

so beautiful

@rnjeh Ай бұрын

Scotland is beautiful, but I’d love to see you hike other locations as well.

@BaltistaniBoys Ай бұрын

Absolutely amazing visit Gilgit-Baltistan Barah Valley. Moses peak you can see magnificent view of k2 world second highest peak. Add this sound in your bucket list

@gregoryoutdoors Ай бұрын

Looks epic Elli, its gonna be on my list to do later on, views and place looks epic too! Btw I used to live in Stonahaven for 2 years haha its a nice wee town you will like it :)

@MrBarneymcgrew Ай бұрын

Absolutely beautiful, thanks very much (again), and blimey you're knocking off a lot of Scotland this year. Are you intending to set foot in every square mile?

@ellihikes 18 күн бұрын

Hahaha, that comment made me smile :) Very true, I've really hiked in a lot of areas all over Scotland this year. It's just my happy place, I love hiking there :)

@orlannerab451 20 күн бұрын

MY IDEAL

@AmblingMan Ай бұрын

Was it you in the x-mid on the campsite near Dornie? I arrived on the later bus and was in my Notch, I signed out at 7:30 and didn't see any Dornie starters at the start, or at any point on my crossing. It was a warm couple of days but I'd headed E and was high up where it was a bit cooler. I was in the perfect place to see the Aurora, but was fast asleep :D You're making the TGOC look too easy 🤣

@martinkrygerpoulsen1703 Ай бұрын

It looks so good, despite that I miss seeing your shortlegged friend on the trail… 🙏🏻 Love to see your neverending smile and happiness for what you experience 🥰 I have one question for you, now you have walked so much in Scotland. If you should recommand a 100 Miles walk, anywhere in Scotland (not WHW) what would you pick? ❤

@nickwinter991 Ай бұрын

Great to see you in your Happy Place, with such good weather, especially after some of the bad weather you had in April! I was really hoping we would get to see your TGO Challenge hike soon, so thank you. You don't make it easy for yourself though in your route planning, do you - after two days' walking you are further West than at the start! I suppose you did say you wanted to test yourself a bit, but these are serious hills... Can I ask a technical question - how do you measure your distance walked? As an example, in early June I was at BTW campsite at Tyndrum, planning to do some of the Ben Lui and other hills nearby. However, the forecast was bad - snow on the tops, wind gusting to 50mph and wind chill of -10C. Not my idea of fun, so instead I had some nice easy walks and did a couple of short sections of the WHW. On the map, Crianlarich to Tyndrum looks about 11km, say 7.5 miles, but my Fitbit counted 20,000 steps so that's about 10 miles. The difference is obviously mainly due to the path being much more "wiggly" than measuring distances on the map. Similarly, Bridge of Orchy to Tyndrum is about 12km or around 8 miles on the map but again my Fitbit counted around 20,000 steps. Steps will be shorter going uphill, and walking poles can affect steps counted, although will probably result in undercounting rather than overcounting. I'm guessing you either use a map or maybe GPS but either way you are probably actually walking a lot further than the distances you show! Thank you for another beautiful video. (But better not tell Otto this might be your favourite hike ever!)

@ellihikes 18 күн бұрын

Thank you so much for the kind words and encouragement, that means so so much :) Hahaha yes, true! I actually started to walk west before actually heading east 😅 But the area had been on my bucket list for so long and I knew it might be too hard for Otto (at least when the rivers are in spate), so I thought I'd take the opportunity :) I always use my Garmin GPS watch (the Instinct 2 solar) to record my hikes and I think it's quite accurate as it measures the distance with gps and not through calculating the steps. At least it's pretty similar to what my phone records automatically (through the Samsung Health App). Thank you so much for following along and your continued support 😇

@nickwinter991 17 күн бұрын

@@ellihikes thanks, Elli, that's interesting. Intuitively, the accuracy of gps in measuring distance walked will depend on how wiggly your path is and how frequently it samples your location. On an almost straight path it could be eg: every 30 minutes, but if you are bog-hopping and constantly having to deviate around boggy bits, rocks etc., it would almost have to sample every few seconds to pick up all your complex changes in course. I wonder if the position sampling frequency is something you can set or if it is predetermined? I might do some experiments with my phone satnav and I'll certainly have a look at the Garmin Instinct 2 Solar. Probably about time I got into the 21st century with my navigation! I always have a paper map as well as the maps on my phone, but I guess on a long trip like the TGOC your pack would be full of heavy maps if you did that!🙁

@stuartmacleod2177 Ай бұрын

Looks incredible Elli, you got amazing weather! Where did you get your titanium hip flask from? Looks like a nice addition!

@ellihikes 18 күн бұрын

Yesss, I was really lucky with the weather :) Thank you so much for following along! The titanium flask is from the brand Keith, I found it on amazon, it's very lightweight :)

@scrumpopulous 18 күн бұрын

Why don't they allow dogs on the challenge?

@ellihikes 13 күн бұрын

The coordinators don't go in too much detail, but they mention that this rule is in place "to maintain good relationships with those working on the land"...