Can't recall such a glorious start to the TGO Challenge. When I met challengers in Mallaig last week to see them off the sun was shining and I desperately wanted to stay in Knoydart for a few days and enjoy the beauty of it. No luck - too much work to do and I wanted to catch up with some other challengers.

On Monday evening I drove to Garvamore in the Monadh Liath and met some of the frontrunners from Shiel Bridge. I then wandered up to Melgarve and met up with some more, including Ken Knight from BackpackingLight.com in the US.

Ken, from Michigan, was having a little bit of trouble with his navigation and appeared to be a tad concerned but I told him not to worry too much - the Challenge is the kind of event where someone always turns up to help anyone in difficulty. It's a kind of magic formula that has worked well for 29 years...

One challenger who did get into difficulties was Niels from Denmark. He was in Glen Etive when he suffered some severe stomach pains so he pressed the 999 button on his SPOT Personal GPS Tracker. The signal, along with Niels' Google Map position, went to an emergency centre in Houston, Texas and they contacted the police in Fort William. In turn the police phoned the RAF and a helicopter picked Niels up and took him to the Belford Hospital in Fort William where he's making a good recovery.

Roger Smith first heard the news from Niels' sister, who phoned Challenge Control but by then everything had been sorted.

I reviewed the SPOT Tracked in TGO in the April issue and I believe this was the first real emergency situation involving the tool. I'm delighted it worked so smoothly...