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21 January 2007

THE FAR NORTH

I remember driving to Scotland 29 years ago in my Mini Clubman and following signs on the A1 to ‘The North’. We drove for two solid days northwards and still there were signs to ‘The North’.

The North was a romantic destination that we never quite reached. It felt good not getting there. I quietly wondered that should we arrive there, there might be painted on the reverse of the sign that said ‘Welcome to the North’, ‘The South.’

And now I am plotting my way along ‘The North’ to the very North bit and the very North Easterly bit. It is a strange experience.

Having read a lot of people’s Lejog reports, quite a few complain about the bleakness of the place and tedious road walking. I like bleak! (Some might say I like tedium too.)

The Far North seems a very strange place on the map. There seems to be quite a lot of boggy bits and not many roads. Quite a bit of boggy bits: Good. Not a lot of roads: Good too. But it does look a weird place. There seems to be strips of country that link together that are not as boggy as the others, and so I am mixing the walk up into part these areas and part the boggy bits. Just for fun.

At the moment the end of June seems a million years away, just as the Far North was 29 years ago in my Mini.

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