The Cape Wrath Trail has been on my ‘One Day’ list for around a decade now. Originally thinking of a self-supported run, but that isn’t going to happen; my distance running days are long over. Also, as the years pass, I am increasingly interested in being in a place, even of a place, rather than simply passing through a place; speed has lost its appeal.

At this stage I am not sure if I am even up to walking that sort of a distance …

The last twelve months have not been the best. I suffered from an unexplained excessive post exercise fatigue for the whole of the last summer right into the autumn, where even a short walk or run would drain me for days, sometimes weeks. I think I am over that now, I have not felt like that since I finished a course of antibiotics for Lymes in October, having developed a persistent headache after managing to collect a large number of tick bites on our September week in Assynt (which makes me wonder if I might have been struggling with Lymes the whole summer).

I have also been dealing with a sore hip for a while; I have had the occasional discomfort for years, but the lack of exercise over the previous six months has massively exacerbated the problem. I have been doing physio for that since the start of the year, and have made good progress, enough to be fairly confident it’s a soft tissue matter, rather than anything more sinister. (I am not long back from a wonderful ski touring trip to Kosovo and Albania which passed without any issues, so I am quietly confident it is manageable.)

In case anyone might get the impression from the above I am grossly underestimating the undertaking, I am not. I am well aware the odds on me completing the whole route are not good, but completing it is not the point, plus there is only one way to find out; if I have to give up after even a few days, I am OK with that.

And I am desperate to get a long break, the day to day rut is doing my head in. And so I have started making plans …

I am inclined at this point to walk up from north to south. There is lot to be said for walking in the usual south to north direction; the aesthetic of heading out there to the edge of the world, so well captured by the title of Alex Roddie’s book The Farthest Shore, appeals to my inner romantic. But the logistics of heading south seems much simpler (I can just take a train to Inverness and then a bus to Durness still wearing fresh clothes), and it leaves any unfinished business nearer to home.

For similar reasons Alex gives, I am also very much drawn to the Alex Roddie variant, starting from Ardnamurchan rather than Fort Bill: there is an appealing symmetry of joining up the most westerly and northerly points of the Scottish mainland. Plus, I have not spent much time in Moidart over the years, and like the idea of making a notional connection between the Seven Men of Moidart and the Seven Men of Knoydart.)

Time-wise, I am looking at October. In many ways this might well be the worst possible time, it’s the height of the stalking season, and while weather in Scotland can be quite nice in the autumn, odds are quite high it could be abysmal for the duration. But other constraints mean it’s either that, or not this year, as this is my only chance of blocking off whole 30 days for this.

It’s early days and there are numerous unresolved questions …

The biggest of these is footwear. My go to shoes for that time of the year would Hanwag Tatra Top boots, but the nature of the terrain and weather make it very likely the boots would be sodden for the duration, which is far from ideal, so trail running shoes with waterproof socks are an option I am currently considering as well. (I have run thousands of kilometres in the Scottish hills in the past in such a setup, so have a pretty good idea of the limitations; the big concern is October can be too cold for this when not on the move. Also, I’d need a fresh pair of shoes somewhere along the way.)

My choice of shelter for that time of the year would be my trusted Akto, and I’d be willing to put up with it being slightly heavier, but for this outing it’s too small, as I’ll be spending 13-15h a day in it, due to the limited daylight. This calls for something bigger, that I could cook in, and which could also be quickly pitched mid day when stopping for a lunch. Based on Chris Townsend’s blogs and reviews I am looking at MLD Trailstar (I am pretty sceptical, if not outright cynical, of gear reviews, but Chris is one of the few people who’s judgment I trust). The Trailstar fits the bill well, but I am nervous about the lack of door at the entrance (in recent years the named storm season has been starting early).

Based on my experience with my large format camera bag of 16-17kg, I want to keep the bag below 15kg. This will be challenging, and will require a new backpack. But I don’t want to go down the whole ultralight route on this either; notably I intend to eat well, and hence cook, rather than just munch of half-rehydrated barely warm substitute for food (been there, done that, thank you). If at all manageable, I’d like to take a Trangia to this end; with all the utensils and 7 days of fuel that makes 1.6kg, so subject to review (I have a well tested ultralight alcohol set up, but the Trangia is the ultimate stove to actually cook with).

There is the perennial question of which camera … on this one, I think the Rolleiflex is the answer (my ideal camera for this would be Mamiya 7II with a 150mm lens, but I don’t have one, and they are silly money these days). The Rolleiflex with a 7 day film supply works out 1.7kg, which is quite a lot, so I might have to reconsider this (the Mamiya wouldn’t be much less).

I don’t want have to deal with the whole modern charging mess, so I am thinking off turning the phone off for the duration; I’ll need to test how long the battery in my ancient inReach still lasts, but I think it should be enough to keep going for a month if it only gets powered up once a day to send a message home and to get a weather forecast (the weather forecast is one of the most valuable features of this gadget).

Resupply will be critical, at no more than seven days apart; shorter would be better. Some could be just dead drops, but needing to collect the boxes afterwards complicates things; but need to work out the rough itinerary first.

As I said, early days. 🙂