Day 10 (I think): Shenavall Bothy Some of the wettest days have gone and now I am being shot full of hail stones with what feels like a machine gun. Shenevall Bothy was great. I made a fire with some bog wood which must have been hundreds of years old. There are no trees here, …
Cape Wrath Trail
18th February 2017
Cape Wrath Trail 7: Wet, Wet, Wet
To Shiel Bridge I woke up at 5am atop of the spur. It was the only place I could have camped. Truthfully, I didn’t wake up because I didn’t really sleep that night. The wind was howling around me and it was raining buckets. The water was beginning to permeate my bivvy so I just …
Cape Wrath Trail
17th February 2017
Cape Wrath Trail 6: The Big Bealach
This day would be the highest and longest day of the Cape Wrath Trail yet with a coverage of well over 30km distance and an 800m ascent. A total of 12 hours work. I started at Barisdale Bothy and the path alongside the sea loch to Kinloch Hourn was surprisingly tiring, as it undulates up …
Cape Wrath Trail
16th February 2017
Cape Wrath Trail 5: “Scotch Mist”
Inverie to Barisdale, 13km 4hr Day five brought my first spell of rain which dissipated by late morning. I sheepishly left the comfort of the bunkhouse, hoping it had stopped and it did by 11am. The warmth and sun of the previous days had made the air very humid, and the lack of strong winds …
Cape Wrath Trail
14th February 2017
Cape Wrath Trail 3: Sourlies Bothy to Knoydart
I had slept at Sourlies Bothy (soor-lees). The wind had howled around that tiny hut in the sea loch all night. At around 40mph it whistled down the chimney and rattled the cutlery. It did not perturb the bothy mouse, who was noisily looking for my food. Funnily enough it was his noises that kept …
Cape Wrath Trail
11th February 2017
Cape Wrath Trail 1: Freak Tides
I had slept in Fort William YHA and my planned start was thwarted by a freak tide. To start the trail to Cape Wrath you must catch a short ferry ride over Loch Linnhe. It should only take about 5 minutes and costs the princely sum of £1.50. But today the winds were up. I …
Cape Wrath Trail
10th February 2017
Cape Wrath Trail 0: Approach to Fort William
I got a familiar train to Fort William. It even had the same conductor, with the same sense of humour as before. A small four-carriage train that splits in two directions, one half goes to Oban and the other to Fort William. As we delved deeper into the West Highlands it dawned on me what …
Cape Wrath Trail
9th February 2017
Cape Wrath Trail: Food and foraging
As a general rule, you should eat around 1kg of food a day while hiking otherwise you will lose weight. The calorie content should be well above your normal daily intake. Obviously, the more food you take with you the more calories you will burn to carry it, so planning food is about striking a balance between calories …
Cape Wrath Trail
8th February 2017
Cape Wrath Trail: Winter Equipment List
In February 2017, I completed the Cape Wrath Trail in 18 days. Here is a breakdown of the gear I chose to take. The Scottish Winter Can be both difficult and unpredictable, requiring some special thought into what gear to take. My kit list for The Cape Wrath Trail was very minimal, comparing more to …
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8th January 2017
Lampers: A night hike and a near miss?
A few hours walk around the River Roach, Essex. I took this photo of the river. It was taken at around 9pm with a 10 second exposure. This is not a sunset, this is light pollution from Southend-on-Sea. If you look carefully, you can see my walking poles in the foreground. — Around 10:00pm on …