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The Guardian - UK
The Guardian - UK
Travel
Alice Morrison

The Scottish explorer who fancied an adventure closer to home: hiking the Highlands’ Affric Kintail Way

A stream winds through dramatic Scottish glen with green hills, mountains, and scattered trees under cloudy skies
River Affric at the west end of Loch Affric in the Scottish Highlands. Photograph: Paul Glendell/Alamy

‘I miss my camels. I miss the sun. I miss the vast emptiness of the desert plains …” These are my thoughts as I trudge through thick conifer plantations and my fifth consecutive hour of rain at the start of the Affric Kintail Way in the Scottish Highlands.

My last big adventure was a world first. I became the first recorded person to walk the full length of Saudi Arabia, north to south, from Jordan to Yemen. It took three years to organise, then 112 days of walking half a marathon a day, and I had a backup team plus Juicy and Lulu, my naughty but nice camels.

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