kidmapper

On walking & friendship between the lochs

What a treat to have a walking companion. Steve Taylor is the first person to walk away from the complex busy modern world and lose himself on the Kidnapped Trail with me.

He has taught me a lot about the therapeutic nature of walking. At this stage in the book, David and Alan are walking in the rain feuding about the money lost whilst playing cards in Cluny’s Cage. No cards for us, no money lost and no feuding. Just a peaceful, dry and thought-provoking saunter from Loch Errocht to Loch Rannoch.

It’s obvious, I suppose, that David is making a journey from boy to man in this book, but the during that journey he has lots of time to think deeply about what it is he’s losing, what he’s gaining and who will be the people to trust as he moves forward into and through the grown-up world of politics, money and war.

Will it drive him mad this peripatetic perilous adventure (as Giles suggests that I too may be losing my marbles) or will it be a giant step for manhood (to misquote Nick’s moon landing analogy)?

Yes, I see that this mission of mine has elements of madness. But as Steve has taught me, there is something very healing and therapeutic about long walks. I feel strongly I am going to come back a better man from this trip, just as the reading of a great book is seen to be ‘improving’. Has that happened to you?

Has a walk or a book (or both) changed the way you think about yourself? I’d love to know.

READING IN THE WILD 14: this is no way for two friends to take a small accident

Great news. Today's reading is performed by my good friend Steve Taylor, the first person to walk away from his busy life for a while and join me instead on the Kidnapped Trail. I cannot tell you what a tonic it was to have a travelling companion - and an intelligent, entertaining one at that.

Thanks Steve! Now who's next...?

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the fate of Scottish soldiers & Cluny as freedom fighter

I got lost yesterday and failed to find Cluny's Cage or its equivalent, due to inclement weather and some softy-southerner map reading.

I did, though, get the full 'moor' experience and came to understand what kind of mileage one can expect to make across this terrain. I walked roughly 13 miles stopping quite lot to film and stare at a soggy map and rave like King Lear on the heath (or was it more like Donald Crowhurst maybe?).

A lot of the time there was no clear path so I really was yomping across the heather. To my mind, then, all the distances described in the book are perfectly possible.

On a serious sombre note, as I walked alone I had a lot of time to think, and thanks to the book and to Trevor and to Twitter I ended up thinking about the death of Scottish soldiers in Afghanistan:

‘Kidnapped’ has a lot to say about soldiery, and even today British military life & history is very much woven into the Scottish psyche, no? We’ve used up a *lot* of young Scottish men over the centuries 'for King/Queen & Country'.

I was also intrigued to note that Cluny’s way of life as described in the book is uncannily like that of Bin Laden’s:

"This was but one of Cluny's hiding-places; he had caves, besides, and underground chambers in several parts of his country; and following the reports of his scouts, he moved from one to another as the soldiers drew near or moved away. By this manner of living, and thanks to the affection of his clan, he had not only stayed all this time in safety, while so many others had fled or been taken and slain."

So Alan and the rest of the Jacobites are terrorists then, are they? David is hanging out with terrorists, and finding them to be not so bad after all.

Is that the message we take from this section of the book? Perhaps we should refer to Alan, Cluny et al as 'freedom fighters'.

p.s. Big thank you to @LittleOnion for sharing this link to a website that teaches you the proper way to guddle a trout: http://bit.ly/9rlgn.

READING IN THE WILD 13: that strange house which was known in the country as Cluny's Cage

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lost on the moor

I have come to a very *very* isolated spot, perhaps a little too far north of where David and Alan walk, but with a great view over the landscape and the route that Stevenson is suggesting.

As some of you may know, I have been out of contact for a few days now, quite simply because there is no decent net access or mobile reception (for Orange and O2 at least) anywhere in this part of the world.

Is this the kind of place that the Digital Britain report needs to be addressing?! I am well aware that I am meant to be hiding from the world at this point. So silence is to be expected. But there’s silence and there’s silence.

When I look at the footage I filmed whilst out there I realise that the isolation is driving me slightly mad. Thank God I have company for the next leg: Steve on Friday, then Freya and Ingrid on Saturday.

I’ve also had a mail from Andy G saying he’s up for walking the final stage with me from 20th-24th August. Huzzah! Little by little I am recruiting a merry band of fellow kidmappers. Join us!

BTW I *do* know that there are people blogging from canoes in the Pacific and from the South Pole etc, and that really if I were better kitted up, I would have no problem staying in touch.

But I wanted to travel light and use only the kind of kit that I could buy off the high street for a few hundred quid: an iphone, a Flip camera, a lightweight notebook PC as the basics; a snazzy GPS tracker from Decathlon as a treat; and a ton of free or low cost web accounts.

See? Soon you'll all be doing this or something equivalent, rather than thinking of publishing as just another way of sitting in an artificially lit room staring at a screen.

READING IN THE WILD 12: Out on yon bald, naked, flat place, where can a body turn to?

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incessant hard travel

Novelists. They play tricks with time. Damn them. It takes three chapters to describe the events of 6th July and just one sentence to describe the arduous journey one is meant to undertake on 13th July.

I have chosen a relatively easy route away from Glencoe towards Kinlocheven and then up the Old Military Road (Was that there in David’s day? Surely it would have been a formidable obstacle to cross if it were. Must check).

Another (prettier) option is to walk all the way up the valley of Glencoe. And the proper climbers amongst you should be going across the ridge called Aonach Eagach looking down straight down into the valley. For details take a look at the description on Walk Highlands - and be afraid, very afraid.

Thank you for the support and interest I have been getting from you whilst I’ve been hiding in the Heugh. I did try guddling but was useless at it and saw no fish (but quite a few frogs). I have been singing a lot, but, Nick, you need to send me some lyrics, man!

Generally I have been talking to myself quite a lot, which I suspect is not a good sign. For all his fear and resentment of Alan, David was surely happy to have someone to travel with rather than try this trek alone. I’d still be keen for someone out there to join me.

p.s. a prize to anyone who makes a ‘fiery cross’ as described in the book and sends me a picture of it!

READING IN THE WILD 11: DEAR KINSMAN,--Please send the money by the bearer to the place he kens of.

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hiding on the moor

I have been without decent bandwidth for two days now. I suppose it's as it should be, hiding from the redcoats and evading capture - in the flesh or on camera. I feel I am letting you down. Normal service resumed tomorrow I hope. In the meantime, let Louis's marvellous drawing act as our test card. Add your own incessant electronic tone... Night night.