I’m currently sitting with my kit sprawled out across the floor, checking, double checking, and triple checking my pack list, portioning my food into little bags, and generally feeling apprehensive. I get this feeling before every single challenging thing that I ever do, regardless of my level of skill, competency, and preparation, I still get a niggling (and completely unfounded) sense that everything will go wrong. This whole summer has been an exercise in saying bollocks to that and doing it anyway. Trusting the process, trusting my mind and body, and loving it.

I met Andrew for a coffee earlier and we reminded each other that nothing really worth doing isn’t in some way anxiety or apprehension-inducing. Sometimes it’s great to have a friend to remind you of the things you should remind yourself. I like that as a lens to view yourself through… To talk to yourself the way you would a friend. Most of us are much kinder to our friends than we are to ourselves, and that’s a bit mad, isn’t it? Anyway, I’ll stop waffling on like I’m about to release a self-help book. I’m in no way qualified, but do like musing on the way we talk to ourselves and each other. If we don’t think about these things we don’t get better at them.

In a few days, I will be setting off on my final big adventure of this year, an attempt to walk the Cape Wrath Trail. Despite its legit sounding name, there is actually no official trail. It’s a broad name for several route options stretching 200-250 miles from Fort William to Cape Wrath, the most North-Westerly point of the mainland United Kingdom. It takes in some of the most remote and beautiful parts of the West Coast, from Knoydart, Torridon and Assynt, past some of the UK’s best bothies, and typically takes 2-3 weeks to complete. The going is tough, largely pathless, and much of it is essentially going to be crossing a huge bog in the rain. My longest back-to-back walk before this has been 5 days, so it’s a big step up!

The idea of travelling this route came to me around 8 months ago, googling and looking at road trip options in the north of Scotland. I discovered Cape Wrath as a potential spot to visit, before learning that it was inaccessible by car, and only by ferry or on foot. This piqued my interest a bit more, and I ended up lost in the depths of Google, ultimately discovering this mighty long-distance hiking trail, widely considered to be the hardest in the UK, and then deciding that it was something I wanted to have a crack at.

I’m glad to be being joined by Ayoob, whom I’ve known for a little while now and already shared many great adventures with. If you were to ask me, ‘How many people would you be prepared to do a 2-3 week backpacking trip with?’, the list would be a short one. Ayoob is firmly on that list. Without wanting to sound like I’m blowing too much smoke up his arse, he is one of the most level-headed, reasonable, and empathetic people I know, and I’m confident we will have each other’s backs and uplift each other’s spirits in the inevitable challenging parts of the journey.

I’m currently levelling my expectations in the knowledge that even if we’re hit with adverse conditions or bad luck and don’t manage the whole trip, we are still set to have one heck of an adventure!

I’ve packed my camera, a little Panasonic LX15 I’ve got to replace the poor soggy Fuji, and a pen and paper to keep me occupied. Walking aside, the real challenge is going to be to learn all of Jay Z’s Reasonable Doubt off by heart.

See you on the other side!✌️