Today my peripatetic lifestyle finds me in Inverness. I'm not here at the beginning of a surf trip along the Moray Firth but to compete in a Highland Challenge for the media. For some bizarre reason, I have been appointed captain of a team of four illustrious hacks, and will lead them to triumph or disaster (it matters not, for they are, as we know, twin imposters) over the next two days. We will be canoeing, mountain biking, orienteering and scrambling up a nice and easy mountain (Mt Suilven, a breeze for a man of my capabilities, if only I had any), competing against three other teams of four, all of whom are reportedly not quaking in their boots at the news that I am at the helm of said team. Regular contributor to this blog and surfing journo Alf Alderson has a bad knee and so had to decline his invitation, but I think that's just a ruse - there are rumours of a tasty swell arriving just as I will find myself half way up a mountain. No matter: the scenery is awesome, and certain defeat is as pleasurable in its own way as miraculous victory. Oh, the connection with surfing? It's that nice Swedish girl Jenny - a surfer who helped me out on my trips to the far north, as a result of which I rather rashly said '"count me in" to her Highland Challenge...
See www.visitscotland.com/adventure for more information.