CAPE WRATH TRAIL “This hike got into my soul.” These words were spoken by a fiftysomething Australian man clad in muddy rain gear, journeying south through Knoydart as I headed north, last September. As we spoke, pulses of rain passed in indistinct waves, stirring the steel-grey surface of Lochan a’ Mhaim. Craggy hills rose about us, bleached green-grey through the fine drizzle – their tops lost in a ragged pall of white cloud.
I had another 230 miles ahead of me: 17 more days of mountains, bogs and river crossings on the Cape Wrath Trail. My second attempt. My first, in 2019, ended with a knee-busting accident, high on a snowy mountain pass below the Forcan Ridge.
Ron – the muddy Australian – was on his second attempt too. Less…