Chasing Light

Where are we heading? Top of Ben Hope. Why are we doing that? I don't remember that reason. Why is it dark? It's not even 7 o'clock in the morning.

We are attempting to climb Ben Hope in the far northwest of Scotland, the most northerly Munro. And then we are going to drive all the way to Durness and play Durness Golf Club before the sun sets on the winter solstice on the 21st of December.

We were meant to be up here doing another film but plans changed, and we had everything organised, so we thought, given that we do adventure and sports films, that we would come up and do our own adventure and sports film.

The challenges are definitely going to be the filming in the darkness on the way up the hill, and the weather's not looking great at the top of the hill. Then trying to play half decent golf and capture much of that before the light fades at the end of the day.

So I'd never climbed a Munro in the dark, but there we were at 6 o'clock in the morning, still with about 2 and a half hours before any light would appear. Head torches down, following a tiny pool of light, just on and on, relentless up the hill.

If I'd seen just how steep some of the bits were and how far it was, my mental attitude might have been slightly different. But because I was just looking at a pool of light covering about 5 metres in front of me, I was just putting one foot in front of the other.

So, how far up are we? About half way. Okay, to the plateau. No, to the summit. To the summit? One and a half. Really?

I think we worked well as a team. I think we looked out for each other and we kept a steady pace. I had to keep stopping to adjust my layers, and I think we had quite a long snack break at about 600 metres up.

I think more than anything the darkness and hostility of the wind and the mist battering you from one side is a memorable experience. It's a little bit blowy.

So we're now up in the fog. I think I kept saying to Stefan there was only a few hundred metres to go. There was a few hundred metres for quite a long time.

About 100 metres from the top, the air temperature must have dropped below freezing because the ground started to get icy. My hands were starting to get really cold and everything just became much harder.

The wind, it was gusting at... It was a continual gust. It wasn't gusting, it was just a continual blowing at like 40, 50 miles an hour. Which was equally exciting and unnerving all at the same time. Especially knowing that there was such a sheer cliff face to my left the entire way up. Which is the exact direction the wind was blowing.

Just after half past eight in the morning, in the darkness and the gloom, we arrived at the top of Ben Hope. To get up there, I mean, there were no views from the top. It was just cloudy. Very windy. We didn't hang around for very long at the top.

Quickly got off the top back to below the cloud, by which point the sun had shown its face and there was the most extraordinary views across the lower slopes of Ben Hope.

So we're now hurrying down the hill to see if we can get to Durness for nine holes of golf before the sun sets.

That's my shot of the day. What a location. It's just like the bay, the waves crashing in, the big dunes in the distance. It's just a stunning location for a golf course. And you've got the hills in the background, and the sun is obviously still low at that time of day, that time of year. It just looks spectacular.

One of the most extraordinary golf courses I've been lucky enough to play.

Don't hit many of that straight. Oh, no. It's in the sea. It's in the sea.

It's a remarkable course. It's up and down. It's by the sea. It's by the loch. It's up the hill. It's down the hill. It's a lot of fun to play.

That is just about one of the most picturesque approach shots I think I've ever hit. Stay up.

All the shots he got on me were duffers, and that was most of them. Oh no. Links golf. That's what we're playing.

I wonder what you'd do if you hit a sheep. Would you report it? We were playing a golf course where it's obviously used for grazing sheep and stuff. And you're kind of hitting hoping you don't hit sheep, because that would just be awful, to hit a sheep with a golf ball. Right, I'm aiming at Betsy to the left. We had a shepherd on his quad bike collecting dead sheep.

There's a lot of quirky blind shots, and of course if you haven't played that course before it's very hard. There's a lot of time discussing with your playing partner which direction we're playing and which green we're getting to. And try not to electrocute yourself from the fences that surround the greens.

The game started very, very close. I took the first hole, Stefan clawed one back immediately. And then, I would hate to say it, but from there I took control of the situation and won about two or three holes back to back.

Do I need this to half the hole? Yeah, you do.

From that point I think we halved a couple, before I sent a drive a long way down the middle of a fairway and chipped on for a two putt par. And that put me in a strong position, three up with three to play, before the par three seventh down the hill over the sheep. Where I think we halved with fives, but that was enough to secure a victory for myself.

He wins. That was the win. You won. Playing for pride now. Good game.

The sun was setting, the most amazing colours all around us. Shadows way across the fairway. What a place to play golf, eh? It is stunning. It felt wild and it felt remote and it felt like a proper kind of challenge.

The ninth hole, which is just the perfect way to end a course in such a spectacular location. Hitting a wedge across sea and cliff and rocks to a fairly small, slightly raised green with little to no light at that point, was a real challenge. And more or less summed up the day, which was chasing the right conditions and light, and trying to pack in as much as you can onto the shortest day of the year.

Close enough. If I was to do it again, I would have less camera equipment.