We would just like to thank our intrepid explorer retired officer Tony Catlan for his support raising the fantastic sum of £890.
Tony took on the Cape Wrath trail (Fort William to Cape Wrath) to raise funds for the Scottish Police Benevolent Fund. In the end he walked 248 miles, climbed a total of 43,000 feet (one and a half times the height of Everest), all while carrying 20 kilos of equipment on his back.
The trail is not for the faint hearted or inexperienced. Tony said the weather conditions were kind to him, but he still regularly woke up with ice on his tent. He snapped a walking pole, got cracked fingers from the cold and nearly stumbled onto a snake. There is limited phone signal on the route so if anything goes wrong all you can do is hope it’s not too many days before you bump into the next person on the trail.
The entire route is challenging, but Tony said the hardest bit of the trail was behind the Torridon mountains. At one point it took him 6 hours to cover 6km due to a massive bolder field and boggy terrain. He said, the views from Beinn Eighe were worth it though.
In all it took 17 days to complete the challenge, although not content with that he spent a couple of days camping and cold water dipping in the North Atlantic before finely returning home.
Tony used his time wisely on his mammoth trek and managed to learn some Robbie Burns, ‘A Man’s a Man for a’ That.’
Well, when we caught up with this Man, he was thankfully taking a well-deserved rest and enjoying home comforts and a cuppa.
Thanks again Tony, we are incredibly grateful for your efforts and the fact you chose to support the SPBF, giving us vital additional funds so we can support serving and retired officers/ staff and their dependents in time of need.
