Roaming in the Wild

Rannoch Moor - around 50 square kilometres of not very much. But this soggy desert is the location that two brave travellers have chosen for their adventure. It's a place that has been referenced in many poems and stories over the years, a bleak and desolate place, dotted with lochans and bogs where lonely travellers perish in the nothingness. Film-maker Andrew O'Donnell and his pal Mark Taylor have made it their mission to cross Rannoch Moor in a Canadian canoe, via the waterways that link Loch Ba, Loch Laidon and onto Loch Rannoch. Their journey starts by the side of the road, dropped off by Andrew’s dad (or as he likes to be called, their 'technical coordinator'). The A82 - not a great place to start a boat journey, but is it really a canoe adventure if you don't spend most of your time carrying the canoe? This is the definition of an off-the-grid adventure, in the nicest possible way. There aren't many people living in this bare and boggy terrain. They hope to make it across this wild territory to Kinloch Rannoch in five days - what's the worst that could happen?

Loch Morar is the deepest loch in Scotland - who knows what could be lurking in its uncharted depths. Situated in Lochaber in the west of Scotland, it is a place teeming with mystery, and the surrounding mountains are both rugged and remote. Wildlife film-maker Andrew O’Donnell and his friend Mark Taylor explore this stunning wilderness by foot and by packraft (a lightweight, inflatable raft that fits in a rucksack). But if there is one thing you can predict in Scotland, it is unpredictable weather. Will the tricky conditions deter these brave adventurers? Of course not.

You have to be a special kind of couple to survive riding a tandem bike. It is around 70 miles as the crow flies between John O’Groats and Cape Wrath. But if you follow the road, it’s a bit closer to 100 miles - 100 or so miles that wildlife film-maker Andrew O’Donnell and his pal Mark Taylor decided to cycle on a borrowed tandem bicycle, with a trailer attached to the back. Their plan is to travel from corner to corner of the north coast of the Scottish mainland going from east to west. But as with every time you go roaming in the wild, sometimes you need to see what happens along the road.