News: Cape Wrath Trail features published

There’s plenty to read about my February Cape Wrath Trail in TGO magazine this month.

In my last blog post about the CWT, I promised that more detailed features about this trail would be published in due course. I’m glad to announce that the first of these features are now available.

The May 2019 issue of The Great Outdoors hit shop shelves today. In it you’ll find my main feature about the trail. It’s called ‘The End of Winter’, and as the name suggests this is a story about ecological angst and solastalgia – although when I began the trail I thought the story would be about internet anxiety instead.

I wanted to use the CWT as an opportunity to learn more about my feelings regarding technology and the internet. I did this by going completely offline for the full month of February, but you might have noticed that, despite my previously vocal position on these matters, I’ve been silent on them since returning from the trail – and I’m now more active on social media than I was before. The reasons for this are complex and nuanced. In my feature I try to explain how I was sledgehammered by perspective, made to realise that this was not the hill I wanted to die on. The short answer is that I’ve made my peace with these technologies and now feel able to use them in a more intentional way. Only by removing myself from that entire world for an extended period did I gain that necessary perspective, and I’m glad I did it.

But that’s by the by. I hope you enjoy this feature that has absorbed so much of my time, effort, blood and tears.

To go with my feature in print, I’ve published a bunch of accompanying digital material (and there is more on the way). You’ll find it in the new Cape Wrath Trail section on TGO’s website: a two-part planning guide (part one already up), a photo gallery, and more.

There’s more to come. I’m working on a really exciting group interview feature, chatting with a number of aspirant CWTers. Part two of my winter CWT planning guide will be posted in early May, and there will be plenty of content about the gear and food I took on the trip.

At some point I probably ought to make a real start on that book, too! As always, thank you all for reading my work and supporting the publications I write for. I’ve been truly humbled by the response to my outdoor writing over the last year in particular. It’s wonderful to do be able to do this for a living. It’s a privilege and a pleasure I don’t take lightly.

Header image © James Roddie Photography