Rat Race The Isles - day 1. Vatersay, Barra, Eriskay and an unexpected journey

 Path (noun, Scots): A way across ground where someone has been before. This does not suggest there is any sign of this person's travel nor whether they actually made it to the other side or not.

Hebridean Way (noun, Scots): A set of such paths joining the bottom to the top of the outer Hebrides.

We were advised at the briefing the night before we started to "embrace our bogs". The idea was that we should expect to get wet feet from the word go, and not waste time or energy trying to find dry routes round wet areas because there weren't any. 5 km into day one, the bogs were definitely embracing us. It was the sort of embrace given to you by your two-year-old where the next sentence is "please let go of daddy's windpipe". Winds gusting to fifty knots were not exactly helping the experience. We had started to wonder what sort of event we had taken on.

Everything in the islands revolves around the ferry crossing times and we were no different. We had to make it to the North of Barrow to catch our Ferry before 11 o'clock. In order to help with this, we had started out in the dark at 6 AM and run around the island of Vatersay, of which we did not see too much. Across the causeway to Barra, and straight up the side of the first hill - and into the first bog. Of about 97 that morning (approximate count). Welcome to Barra.

It's difficult to train in Rutland for this sort of terrain - Rutland's bog season is where the Rutland Water path gets a bit soggy near Egleton. This was the sort of bog where going knee deep was normal, and we were both sliding and slipping around. The climb wasn't so bad, but the descent was a killer. We got back onto level ground, ran a few km along the beach (beautiful), hit the feed truck for refuelling, and found we were at the back of the pack 5 minutes behind the cutoff time. We hit the next hill as hard as we could, but were straight back into the bogs and wind again. We finally emerged, in one piece but stinking of peat from the waist down, and still too late - we needed to be jumped forward in the minibus to make the ferry. Not the greatest of feelings on day 1.

The ferry this time was much calmer than the previous day, which was welcome - just a little roll on/roll off between the islands. A chance for a quick break and a cheese and mayo wrap (tastes far better than it sounds, particularly after a morning like that) and we were off again.

Except that we weren't. At the end of the first beach was a large rock we needed to climb over - and somewhere on top Andy slipped. We'd been slipping and sliding all morning, but this time there was a 4ft drop at the edge of the rock, onto a hard surface below. The ankle she landed on had no chance.

The rest of the afternoon was spent with some excellent field first aid from Robyn the expedition medic, and ambulance, and hospital in Benbecula. The diagnosis was a dual fracture and a dislocation - hospital in Benbecula, and a transfer by air ambulance to Stornoway the following day for an operation.

The best plans, as a bloke from round here once said, "aft gang agley". And my autocorrect doesn't like Robbie Burns.