Well, home at last after an eventful finish!
Mick and I met at Kylesku as planned, and camped virtually under the new bridge over Loch a' Chairn Bhain. It is a stunningly beautiful part of the world, but unfortunately the local midges were out in force and HUNGRY – for human blood! Even dressed in full battle armour and Eau de Midge the situation was ... difficult. And Mick had brought only a bivvy bag and head net, so he was more exposed than I was.
We walked the next day and camped at the top of a long narrow valley above the tree line. Next morning Mick decided to abandon me to do his own thing, and meet up again at Cape Wrath by catching the ferry and shuttle bus out from Durness.
After looking at the weather forecast with 3 days to go, I decided to compress the third and second last days into one, add on a further 4 miles and get to Sandwood Bay for Saturday night. This would make a long day, finishing at peak ‘midge time’, but would give me best chance of reaching Cape Wrath in time to catch the shuttle bus to Durness without needing a last camp at the end. Although the weather turned damp until about 5pm the arrangement worked out well, and had the great advantage of finishing at Sandwood in a stiff breeze – no midges!

From speaking to people who had previously walked from Sandwood to the Cape, I was expecting an extremely hard last 8 miles taking most of a full day. As a result I awoke at 4-50am and got underway at 06-20. But I must have struck lucky in my route finding because I arrived at the Cape at 10-30am, taking not much over 4 hours, and 2 hours before the first bus!
Mick duly arrived on the bus, and presented me with a celebratory stiff slug of VERY GOOD single malt whisky (aahh!) and a book explaining how I should have done it. This involves taking a motor car and staying in comfortable B&Bs for 2 nights at each stop, with a day’s stroll around the locality each time. NOW HE TELLS ME!!!
After an eventful dash through the night involving filling with the wrong fuel in Mick’s motor, rescue and repair by a local highland garage, and a few catnaps on the way south, we arrived home at 10am on Monday morning, 11th August’08 – job done!!!!!!!!!!!!
To close I would like to thank everyone for their charity donations and for their support and good wishes, and make particular mention of Linda and Joe Trickett on the Isle of Arran, especially Linda who allowed me to commandeer her laundry room for a much needed clean-up operation (hope the smell has faded by now); to Lorna Cosgrove for her very welcome text messages of support, which always seemed to arrive just at the right time when morale was heading down to rock bottom; to Mick McHugh who undertook to retrieve me from the wilderness and helped feed the poor starving Scottish midge population; and to my dear wife Helen, who kept me on track throughout and without whom the whole project would never have got off the ground,.
Last piece of advice for life? When the Scottish midge is hungry, stay in the pub! Cheers everybody. Roy

PS The last photo is of my favourite hill - Suilven!

Having told you that the last entry was the last until Roy gets home, I have now received a blog in the post from Roy - so here it is! H

Thurs 31 July 08, vicinity of Corrie Hallie (beneath An Teallach)
Well all you good people, this will be my last blog live from the "coal face".
Today's traipse consisted of 18.5 hard miles from Kinlochewe (pronounced Kinlockyou) to help make up for the day's delay when my parcel failed to arrive there. Apparently the dear old PO send mail by air to Inverness and distribute from there. But the day my parcel was due, a storm at Inverness prevented them landing. Fortunately it was OK the next day so I only lost the one. That wouldn't ordinarily matter so much, but I'm on a schedule to meet Mick at Kylesku on 7 August for the last four days. I'd hate to be late when he's making such a humongous journey.

I've got the perfect wild camp here., aided by a strong breeze which keeps the little (and large) biting blighters at bay. (Midges and `clegs' - clegs are a kind of Scottish horsefly which actually take small lumps out of you when they bite, they do draw blood!) I'm sitting on a large rock outside my tent on a beautiful evening, a bubbling burn just 50 m away for water, and nobody for miles to disturb the peace.

And all in the backdrop of An Teallach. I retraced my steps here from Corrie Hallie, having called in at the Stepping Stones" arts and crafts shop, hoping to find a tea shop or cafe. Sadly there was nothing - in fact Corrie Hallie consists solely of the Stepping Stones place. However, a lovely lady called Janet gave me a cup of coffee and a plate of biscuits, and revived my spirits enough to propel me back up to this lovely haven.

Sat 2 August, Ullapool
Here I am at Ullapool, last place to take on provisions for 8 days until the tiny hamlet of Kinlochbervie just two days from Cape wrath. Having an extra night's stopover here, allowing me to dry out before the final push. I've decided to revisit the country to the north and west of here, taking in Stac Pollaiah (pron Polly), Suliven and Lochinver on the way to meeting up with Mick.

Yesterday was a wet traipse of 6.5 miles to Inverlael (pron Inveray, followed by a further fast eight miles up the length of Loch Broom into Ullapool. The walk was punctuated by an encounter with another lovely lady at Inverael who supplied me with tea and toast. She had lived in the same house for 77 (yes, seventy seven) years and had no wish to leave it in spite of her two daughters wanting her to move to Ullapool to be close by.

I'm hoping to revisit this area soon with Helen - the warmth of the people really can take the bite out of the wind - and the midges. Well, here's hoping for some good weather for this last ten days or so, with a bit more gritting of teeth I may yet see an end to it - just got to remember to keep putting one foot in front of the other!

And so to close, I would like to thank all who have taken an interest in this little project, and all who have given or are giving to the two charities involved. I hope that Friends for Leisure and East Cheshire Hospice have been able to raise a goodly sum in addition to the contributions attracted directly from our own efforts. Best wishes to one and all. Roy

Hi folks
Well, we're nearly there! This will be the last blog until the man himself writes a final sign-off in ten days or so - the end approaches!

Roy has found the last few weeks hard - not physically so much as emotionally. He's up in the Scottish wilderness now - the part of the walk he most wanted to do - but he's overdosed on incredible views and ready to come home. Several times he's had to carry enough food for four days because there was no shop or habitation of any kind, which he would have relished if it didn't come at the end of several months "on the go".

Following the trend over the course of this walk, he has had more extremes of weather, with scorching hot days and muggy nights. The midges and ticks have been a real problem in spite of the Jungle Formula I've been sending him, and as you will see from the photos below, his silly hat has come into its own.

A friend of ours, Mick, has bravely volunteered to meet Roy at Kylesku (I hope you've all got a good map) on 7 August, walk the last four days with him and then drive him home on 12 or 13 August. So maybe Mick will put in a guest appearance on the final photos.

Here are the latest photos, but as usual I don't know where they are. Roy did mention a particularly dangerous ledge above a cliff, so maybe that's the one with a bit of boot on it. All for now, H