Emotional end to Thurso man's 'Quest'
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IN one week Thurso man Mark Taylor has travelled the length of the UK putting himself through a series of arduous athletic events to raise the money needed to bring his little brother back to the UK.
Mark’s brother was involved in a motorcycle accident in Bali around three months ago and his family needed a huge sum of money to bring him home – which they finally managed on Monday.
As part of his own fundraising effort since last Sunday (October 2), Mark has conquered a stretch of the Pentland Firth, scaled the three highest peaks in the UK in 24 hours and cycled over 600 miles.
He finally finished his challenge – known as “the Quest” – on Saturday.
“I’m actually more achy now that I’m finished,” he told the Caithness Courier. “I think my body’s just realised that we’re finished and it can relax now.
“It’s quite an empty feeling, not having to get up and do something physical and getting a full night’s sleep.”
Mark’s challenge started on October 2 when he swam from Dwarwick Pier to Thurso beach in around three-and-a-half hours.
He was accompanied by fellow Quest team member David Spencer (45), from near Dounreay, and last-minute addition David Sutherland (55), from Wick.
Mark and fellow Quest member Sandy Christie then tackled Ben Nevis, Scafell Pike in England and finally Mount Snowdon in Wales in just 23 hours and 25 minutes.
“The first mountain that we tackled on the day of the swim was brilliant. Ben Nevis was perfect and you couldn’t have asked for better conditions,” said Mark.
“But on the second day, because we had done Ben Nevis so quickly, in three hours and four minutes, we began the ascent of Scafell Pike at around 2am.
“It was shrouded in mist and lashing with rain and we could only see a few feet in front of us. It was pitch black as well.
“We couldn’t even find the path and got lost in the car park.”
Between getting lost on the return down the mountain and motorway traffic in Chester, the pair were running out of time to complete the challenge in the 24 hours they had set themselves when they reached Snowdon.
“You’re supposed to allow around five hours for it but by the time we arrived we only had three-and-a-half hours left,” said Mark. “So we had to run up it and run back down it.”
For the final leg of the challenge Mark was joined by fellow Thurso tri-athlete Lorna Stanger in cycling around 610 miles from Mark’s family home in Derbyshire to the historic signpost at John O’Groats.
“The cycling part was good although we did calculate the mileage wrong. We had forecast for 540 miles in total, about 130 miles a day,” he said.
“But it just turned out more for some reason.
“I’d like to have done it quicker. I reckon we could have done it in three days of cycling but the weather was just so against us. It was just a really hard journey. I always knew there was another uphill to come.”
Mark said it was emotional cycling in to John O’Groats on the last day and realising with the help of his team, friends, family and local community he had completed the challenge.
