BH900 – An antidote to the NC500

• Edinburgh to Edinburgh
• 900 kms

All the waters I have journeyed on during this trip have been well travelled by many paddlers. However, I am not aware of anyone stringing them together before in a single journey.

I’m calling this route the Brave Heart 900. Lower your pulse rate (bpm), be Brave and enjoy the Peacefulness of the Metric 900 kilometre journey around the heart of Scotland.

900 kilometres is very close to being 500 nautical miles, but I have purposely avoided using this number. Mariners, sailors, and many sea kayakers measure distance in nautical miles. I prefer kilometres as I navigate mostly using OS maps, which use the British National Grid metric coordinate system. The use of a metric measure also reflects Scotland’s overwhelming desire to remain connected with Europe. I also find it mildly irritating when sea kayakers shorten “nautical miles” to “miles” and assume context is enough to distinguish between statute and nautical miles. The use of kilometres avoids this, potentially dangerous, misunderstanding.

For non-paddlers, I believe this route, with a few minor alterations, could also be hiked, but please… leave your Porshes at home.