Borgie Lodge Hotel couple's Table Mountain wedding 'slayed the demon' of previous terrifying ascent
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There can be few more adventurous or resilient couples than Nigel and Andi Carter, who own and run the Borgie Lodge Hotel at Skerray, near Tongue.
Wild swimming enthusiasts, the intrepid pair recently plunged into the chilly Atlantic ocean and swam the one and a half miles from the deserted island Eilean Nan Ron to Skerray harbour.
But that is the least of it for Nigel (50), who hails originally from West Yorkshire and Andi (51), from Holland.
The couple, who were in event catering before taking over at the Borgie Lodge Hotel three years ago, met through work and their shared interest in mountaineering and climbing.
Both have various outdoor pursuit qualifications, with Nigel a qualified mountain leader following four months’ instruction at Plasy Brenin National Outdoor Centre in Snowdonia.
But a guided climb of Table Mountain in South Africa in March 2015 was nearly their undoing when Andi, who has the rare eye disease, megalacornea or thinning of the retina, began to experience problems part-way up.
She said: “I am blind in one eye and on the last pitch of the route, the retina in my good eye detached, leaving me with flashing, intermittent vision and total blindness. I had no choice but to finish the climb by feel alone with Nigel and our South African guide Cammy (Cameron Smith) shouting directions. It was horrendously frightening.”
The couple flew home the next day and Andi was immediately operated on. But afterwards she was completely blind and the expectation was that she would remain so – she was even allocated a social worker to help her adapt to a life without sight.
It was a truly terrible time for the couple, but fortunately, Andi began to experience a limited return of vision after a year or so.
All in all, it was a shattering experience that would deter any but the bravest, but Nigel and Andi slowly resumed their active lifestyle, adapting to Andi’s still poor sight by taking up tandem cycling and kayaking.
And, incredibly, when they decided to get married, they knew there was only one place for the ceremony to be conducted – at the top of Table Mountain!
“It was a way to cast the demons aside and move on fully,” explained Andi, who along with Nigel trained hard for the big day in 2017, which saw them climb the same route as before.
Both were beautifully dressed in full wedding gear for the ascent, with Andi in a flowing white dress and trainers, and Nigel in a pink tuxedo. Nigel led the climb but they were accompanied for moral support by their previous guide Cammy and his wife, who took wedding photos at the top.
And this time it could not have gone more smoothly, with the couple’s delight and happiness evident in the wedding images.
Nigel and Andi moved to Sutherland and took over the Borgie Lodge Hotel after falling in love with the wild beauty of the north coast.
The couple are keen to run adventure holidays from the hotel - mountaineering, wild swimming and bird watching in line with their own interests.
They plan to launch this arm of the business next season, having been delayed by the coronavirus pandemic.
In the last three years they have worked hard to improve the hotel and make it a comfortable place to stay. All the facilities and furnishings have been upgraded with Andi wallpapering most of the rooms herself during the winter break last year. Luxury beds and mattresses have been provided in all the rooms.
Storage and drying facilities have been added for guests’ bicycles. as well as two electric car charging units.
The couple are also starting to grow their own vegetables from raised beds in the gardens, which were put in place in the last year.
The Borgie Lodge Hotel has established a reputation for the quality of its food with meals created from locally sourced produce.
Aside from running the hotel, energetic and intrepid Nigel and Andi have typically been making the most of all the stunning north Sutherland environment has to offer.
And they are usually not alone on their adventures with Miya, their Border Collie accompanying them. The plucky pet goes hiking, biking, boating, mountaineering and swimming with the couple and also enthusiastically welcomes guests to the hotel.
The Eilean Nan Ron swim was planned with military precision in the knowledge that timing was key to the expedition’s success – the swirling currents round the islands present a hazard to unprepared and unwary swimmers.
Nigel said: “I realised it would be quite a challenge to hit the complex currents around the islands at the right times - if we didn’t do so we could possibly be carried out to sea.”
He studied the tides and currents and planned short windows of where they needed to be at certain times during the crossing.
Skerray man Scott Hardman, who has helped Nigel and Andi explore the area, took them and Miya over to the islands in his inflatable rig and also joined them for the swim. Another local man Gerry Shaw was in a boat close by. In the event the swim went like clockwork, taking one hour and 10 minutes to complete.
Nigel said: “Miya takes on her natural herding instinct when we are wild swimming – she keeps rounding us up and checking we are going in the right direction! She covers twice the distance we do.” During the swim they were escorted by seals and at one point a pod of porpoises swum underneath them.
Buoyed by the success, they are now planning to swim from Skerray Harbour to Eilean Nan Ron and back again.
