Some statistics

The main objective of the trip was to climb at least 30 Marilyns and thereby take my total of Marilyns above 600 at which point you can apply to enter the Hall of Fame. A Marilyn is a hill with a drop of at least 500 feet on all sides.  I climbed 37 on this trip.

In total I climbed 76 hills during the 26 days I was away. Of these only Ben Hope had been climbed before.  Included in the 76 were 5 Munros, 5 Corbetts and 6 Grahams. 52 of the hills were pathless and remote.

The wildlife in Northern Scotland is amazing. I saw so many things including several golden eagles, a sea eagle, an otter mother and cub feeding, mountain hares, hen harriers, Ptarmigan, an osprey fishing, dottrell, great northern diver, snow buntings, cuckoos, dippers, ravens, geese, seals and of course hundreds of deer.  I even saw 3 zebra but they were inside the zoo as I biked past on my way from the overnight sleeper to home.

Including the journey home, the final figures were 394k walked, 206k biked, and 19,585m of height climbed.  This is well over twice the height of Everest. Most days I saw nobody else on the hills unlike the queues on Everest and even on Snowdon.

And so many people to thank including Fiona, Graeme, Mike, Graham and of course my wife Philippa for her encouragement and support.  Without them and a few others, this trip would not have been possible.