kidmapper

READING IN THE WILD 6: There is a regular ferry from Torosay to Kinlochaline on the mainland

THE VIDEO

THE PODCAST         THE TEXT 
          

diversions!

I strayed off the path today but how could I resist? An invitation from Andrew & Tilly to be the first guest in their new house on Mull - and the offer of a free meal to boot. Wow! That's set the bar quite high for the rest of you I must say.

I then had the task from Surrey to find a cold war bunker. And find it I did (thanks largely to the grid reference offered at Hilpers. The description reads as follows:

Name: LOCHALINE

OS Grid Ref: NM67444517

Date opened: March 1963

Date closed: September 1991

Location: In a large square compound in the middle of a field 75 yards south
of the northern arm of the B849.

Description: LOCKED All surface features remain intact with the green paint
peeling badly. A metal dome on the ventilation shaft and three guying points
indicates this was a master post. One louvre on the ventilation shaft has
been removed and is in the monitoring room. The hatch is detached at one
side but locked internally; it can be opened with a Scottish 'T' bar key.
The counterweight dismantled, and the parts lie at the bottom of the shaft.
The post is flooded to 4 inches. Much remains internally including the
shelf, cupboard, twin bunks with mattresses, WB1401 carrier receiver with
WB1410 filter unit, Tele-Talk, 2 chairs, siren box, large fire blanket box,
light, kettle, teapot, saucepan, notice board, FSM mount, waste bin and a
wooden shelf unit with 2 shelves. There is also a shelf in the toilet
recess. The hatch counterweight is broken and lies in the toilet recess.

The revelation was that the bunker wasn't locked at all, and if it wasn't for the fact that I was short of time (and a big scaredy-cat) I would have climbed down and had a nose around. Surrey - you'll just have to make do with some pics (more of which I'll post later).

All of this meant my reading was a little rushed (and troubled by wind if you'll pardon the expression). Still it is done in sight of where the ship of exiles must have moored, and I was amazed to think how many people left from this point to start a new life halfway around the world. The shadow of the Clearances is hovering over this story now.

READING IN THE WILD 5: I could not see how a blind man could be my guide

THE VIDEO

THE PODCAST         THE TEXT 
          

a day of storms and blindness

For the second day running I felt as if I was in the right place. In this case it was up a big hill in the middle of a storm pretending I was in the company of a blind highwaymen.

 

I rather liked the idea of a large game of blind man's buff out here. Does that appeal to anyone out there? Maybe next year.

We have at least started to meet some real characters: the debrogued knife-wielding guide, the blind highwaymen, the multilingual innkeeper. If you identify with any of these people and want to tell your story, get in touch.

In the meantime I'll make do with Surrey's emailed request to track down a disused cold war bunker in Lochaline. See Subterranea Brittanica. Is there anything I can find you?

READING IN THE WILD 4: I slept uneasily that night, fearing I should be robbed

THE VIDEO

THE PODCAST         THE TEXT 
          

maps & poetry

Having found the house in the hollow and the lone house, I’ve been on the hunt for the rich man’s house. If you don’t know what I’m talking about it means you haven’t been reading the book. (We’re on Chapter 15, text for 2nd July).

 

By the end of 1st July, David has reached the top of the loch at Pennyghael and at that point is taken out of his way to change some money. Looking at the map there are two main candidates for the house he went to – one going over the hill I walked yesterday into Lochbuie, and the other going back along the north shore of the loch.
 

Lochbuie is a tempting solution, chiefly because it offers a shorter walk for tomorrow. But the other option fits better for two reasons.

Firstly, I like the idea that the conman in the lone house took David the wrong way simply so he could lig in on a night’s drinking at another person’s expense and then lead the boy back on a path straight past his own house.

(I’ve made a very rushed and sketchy map for you, which I’ll fill out a bit more when I have time; indeed the main Kidnapped Trail map already needs substantial revision! Feel free to edit it yourself btw).

Second, when you go down this second route, you not only come to a grand house, but there’s also a beautiful old kirk by the shore. The romantic in me likes to think of the young Stevenson boating it from Earraid with his dad and his uncle and mooring here for a sermon and a prayer.

It’s the first time I felt that I might be getting into the writer’s head and standing in locations that actually germinated the story. It just *felt* right. I could start to imagine too how Stevenson might fit these locations, these real-life experiences of his childhood, into a made-up adventure story full of the action, suspense, peril and excitement that an ordinary day to day existence tends to lack.

This is why I am here: to work out where a story comes from, and to show how a good book always ends up being a manual for action; something portable that fills your head with thoughts and feelings, and then takes you out into the world, off on your travels.

READING IN THE WILD 3: an imitation of the tartan

THE VIDEO

THE PODCAST         THE TEXT 
          

Edging back into society

As I travel up Mull it’s clear even today that there is a gradual creeping back into society that’s goes on as you move up the island.

From being alone on the island, David first meets a kind and generous old couple in a hovel, then starts seeing people working in the fields, comes across various beggars and ends up at a proper house, then a rich man’s house, then a pub. (see how the hierarchy of abodes works here?)

I too have been meeting a few people, via this blog, via Facebook, via Twitter, via Youtube. Slowly but surely our tiny community of Kidmappers is growing.

Three specific examples:

Andrew: Yes! Please let’s meet on Saturday morning if at all possible. I’ve messaged you my iphone number in Facebook so give me a call. I can drop by Tobermory or Fishnish or Craignure.

The name of the man who is reading out Dickens on Youtube is fisharepeopletoo. It's 'Great Expectations' he's reading, *not* David Copperfield as I mistakenly mention in the video.

Marcela: thank you for the poem. It is fantastically appropriate and I fully intend to read it out in the wild tomorrow. For those who missed it, here it is again:

As from the house your mother sees
You playing round the garden trees,
So you may see, if you will look
Through the windows of this book,
Another child, far, far away,
And in another garden, play.
But do not think you can at all,
By knocking on the window, call
That child to hear you. He intent
Is all on his play-business bent.
He does not hear, he will not look,
Nor yet be lured out of this book.

READING IN THE WILD 2: The Ross of Mull, which I had now got upon, was rugged and trackless...

THE VIDEO

THE PODCAST         THE TEXT 
          

What is it like to be lost & homeless?

When I think of David Balfour - the boy in the book -  I think of a 16-year-old who’s lost his parents, his uncle has tried to kill him, he’s been kidnapped by pirates, there’s a been a gunfight, a shipwreck and now he’s trudging across this alien and unfriendly landscape.

‘Kidnapped’ really is a great read for anyone who’s making that journey from child to adult; that period of your life when you feel very isolated, that you’re on your own, nobody understands you, and you have to discover for yourself about other people, realising (often painfully) that the world is not black and white, that there are not straightforwardly good or bad people, but that there are shades of gray and that we align ourselves to friends who are sometimes noble, sometimes feeble, sometimes socially acceptable and sometimes lawless.

I am thinking about my friends and family a lot whilst I am walking across Mull. I am already wondering why I separated myself from them and chose to take on this crazy mission.

And now the weather is turning and the rain will soon be upon me. Things are definitely going to get harder along the trail. But they don’t necessarily need to be lonelier. Not if anyone out there chose to travel with me for a bit...