Deciding to walk 160 miles in a week to watch a football match is something only an Inter' Nutter could be capable of. Interthenet, being just that, wanted to do nothing more to celebrate his 50th birthday than walk to Falkirk to watch his beloved Inverness Caledonian Thistle.

When the idea first came to him after the third (or was it the fourth?) Newcastle Brown at Hogmanay in 2002, ITN quickly started raising interest amongst other 'nutters, and reckoned it may raise the profile of Inverness CT if it was also to be a charity event.

He reckoned it would be good if they could walk from the penultimate fixture to the last game of the season (loads of time to recover over the summer, see& ). The fixture list threw up the challenge of Inverness to Falkirk - some 160 miles down the road. There are many Internutters in Inverness, and some managed to build up the strength to join ITN on this soon to become, 'annual outing'.

We asked for assistance from our fellow Internutters, and an answer to the call for help was long awaited. First Seoras answered the call, followed by Uncle Albert. With Seoras needing to arrange time off work etc, it was eventually UA who drew the short straw in assisting with the - soon to become - Charity Event.

After much debate on which charity would benefit from our funds, The lovely Lyndsay - of Moray Firth Radio Charity Trust - pleaded for our assistance."MFR Charity Trust?" we hear you cry& Yes. MFRCT; a local Radio station helping disadvantaged people in and around the Highlands of Scotland. As a result, t-shirt designs, sponsor forms and a lot of effort was made, and the call of ICT to provide the support bus was duly appreciated.

The Route - With ICT at home to St. Johnstone for the penultimate game, and Falkirk away on the last, there was no other option but to walk the 160 miles down the A9 to get to our destination (when we say "down the A9", we really mean following the basic route of the A9, for we might be mad, but we certainly aren't mad enough to walk on the A9, or even alongside it - no it's the scenic route for us!!!). With Carrbridge, Aviemore and Stirling being the targets, ITN set about planning a decent route, which would see an average daily walk, on and off road, of almost 22 miles over the course of 7 days.We would leave Caledonian Stadium and head south, proceeding through Inverness City Centre to gain access to General Wades Military Road. From there, we would keep to GWMR almost full route to Falkirk, taking in Aviemore, Blair Athol and Stirling in the process. We would also need to fight our way through Bannockburn - the scene from William Wallace took his troops to fight the English in the 1300' s.

We were expected to finish at Brockville Stadium, to watch the final fixture of the season, between Falkirk and Inverness CT at 3pm!

ST JOHNSTONE - THE MATCH BEFORE THE OFF

All the Highland Marchers had gathered outside Caledonian stadium, to await the start of the Charity Event in which they foolishly agreed to take part. The kilts were on show, the 3rd leg in hand (as it were), and not to forget the silly headgear of a see-you-Jimmy hat and a bright fluorescent woolly. A capacity crowd turned out to witness this mayhem, and many people were in awe of these intrepid troops. Cheers, jeers and not so many tears, as ICT went on to win the game, sparking speculation that this would have been a much harder week had we lost.

A beer back at the Innes Bar, and we set about agreeing a time to meet up at the Corriegarth Hotel. ITN was first to arrive with his family (well it was his 50th bash after all), with Elvis, Canary and Junior not far behind. No one is really too sure how the night went, or indeed how they got home or when. It must have been a cracker, with the only memory of a 'Proclaimers - 500 miles' huddle involving supporters and players' alike being a highlight. It was certainly a memory that sticks out above the hangovers of which were to follow for some.