Consider the birds...

Look at the birds, free and unfettered, not tied down to a job description, careless in the care of God. And you count far more to him than birds. Matt 6.26

As I walked the West Highland Way I encountered many birds along the trail; almost ever present Chaffinches (in isolated parts, willing to risk taking crumbs from my hands), Bramblings, Buzzards, Crows, Hooded Crows, Rooks, Magpies, Greylag Geese, Lapwings nesting on the moors, inquisitive and watchful Robins, Blue Tits, Great Tits, Coal Tits, Goldfinches, Siskins, Tree Sparrows, Greenfinches, Goldcrests, Willow Warblers, Wood Warblers, Meadow Pipits, Collared Doves, House Martins, Pied Wagtails, Wrens, Thrushes, Blackbirds, Starlings, dogfighting Swallows machine-gunning one another with short staccato bursts of sound, Herring Gulls, Common Gulls, Oystercatchers, Curlews, Mallard Ducks, and Pheasants.

But there were also some real treats for me; breeding Shoveller Ducks on the moor near Loch Lomond, the daily sound of Cuckoos and a sighting of one calling on the edge of a plantation on my last day as I walked from Kinlochleven to Fort William (these guys are amazing, having left the jungles of Congo barely  6 weeks ago - they are busy raising the next generation in the wilds of Scotland before flying back to the warmth of Africa in just a months time! See http://www.bto.org/science/migration/tracking-studies/cuckoo-tracking for more about their amazing journeys), a Canada Goose with a dozen tiny goslings in tow on Loch Lomond, the ‘chat, chat’ call of Whinchat in the woods and Stonechat on the moors, not just one but 6 Dippers (usually a shy bird and not easy to see) along a single river one morning, the joyful sound of Common Sandpipers on a remote highland river bank, and surprised Dunlin breeding on an otherwise deserted mountainside.

Beware the wily fox!

My first night’s sleep on the West Highland Way ended with me waking to the sound of a rustling plastic bag close by. I jumped up and unzipped the tent thinking that gulls might be pecking under the flysheet at bags in my outer tent - only to find a cheeky young fox caught in the act of stealing my snacks for the walk which I had tied inside a shopping bag and left in the outer part of my tent under my cook pot with a small loaf of bread on the bag ready for my breakfast. 

Immediately I gave chase, barefoot and in sleeping gear, and as the fox ran for cover in some near by brambles with the bag in it’s mouth, thankfully quite a few snack bars and the loaf fell away from the bag. Perhaps because the bag was rapidly emptying, the fox paused just short of the brambles and gave me such a sneering look; as if to say, ‘You can’t catch me and you won’t get these back!’ before disappearing in the undergrowth to enjoy the remaining feast of Mars bars, chocolate peanuts, cereal bars, dates and apricots. I picked up the stolen property I could retrieve and crawled back into my sleeping bag - it was only 5am! 

Ten lessons from the West Highland Way

• It’s easy to set out with too much baggage. Just because something is useful doesn’t make it needful. It didn’t take too many miles to realise some extra items I had brought along were weighing me down and making the journey harder. 

• A few days in, I noticed that most people walking the Way were not carrying big backpacks like me, and when I asked why I was told that they had arranged a specialist courier firm to pick up their baggage and transport it to their designated drop off point each day - at a cost of only £35 for the week! Still I console myself with how much fitter I am for having carried my 40lb backpack 95 miles!

• After 6 days of walking up to 22 miles a day, I’m convinced that blister plasters are one of the greatest inventions of our times (having gone through 3 packets of them) - but maybe it’s only in our time we need such innovations because we walk so little and our feet have, by consequence, gone soft on us!

• Companionship is a beautiful thing. Though I enjoyed walking alone for parts of every day, it made my relationship and conversation with fellow ‘trail buddies’ all the more valuable. It helped me see the incredible richness in people’s lives brought about because they are doing something together; whether that’s Ali and Adam (ultra-light backpackers who taught me a thing or two about what goes in a backpack), the 6 ladies from Fife who made a daily cake stop 5 miles from that evening’s finish line, the 16 strong rowdy crowd from Alloa who have ritually done it every year at the same time for 10 years, or the 4 American students wild camping all the way, and many others I met along the way through the week.
  All are doing something worth celebrating far more that the West Highland Way; they are building relationships, celebrating and sharing life along the trail - joking, talking, laughing, encouraging. And as a ‘loner’ on the trail it was a privilege to be invited into their circles of relationship for a few miles or repeatedly over a few days.
  This reminded me that its not what you pack that’s most important, but what you can’t pack - family and friends - and seeing those deep relationships worked out on the trail was a great reminder to me of those I value and should invest in.

• Prayer at its most basic is talking to God; and I being alone in the wide outdoors is a great place to actually do that - keeping up a conversation with God about whatever is on my heart; people, needs, thoughts and ideas. And as I did this along the way there was also a still voice speaking to my quietening soul.

• Journeying is painful at times - blisters, wind, rain and tiredness are part of the reality of life. This made me think how these things must surely have also featured in the biblical journeys of Abraham, David and even of Jesus. Although they certainly make the journey harder to appreciate at times, they are part of what it costs to actually move forward and reach the destination.

• The wonderful thing is that God has made the body incredibly good at healing itself, with just a little help and tender care. A hot shower, meal and good nights sleep make another 20 miles possible the next day. And the optimist in me always insisted that if it had been a wet and windy day it was likely to be better weather the next.

• Everyone on the West Highland Way was moving in the same direction - well, nearly everyone - it wasn't until Thursday that I met 2 couples going the opposite way but that was apparently to catch a train! Everyone travels in the same direction, at different paces, with different loads and routine stops, and the beauty of it is that we criss-cross one another’s foot steps through the days. This brings out the best in folks - whenever I stopped for a rest everyone that passed stopped to have a chat, ask if I was doing ok and give a word of encouragement. It was wonderful to experience that from so many people through the week.

• Motivation matters more than speed. You can do the West Highland Way in 5 days (it took me 6, although the record is apparently just under 16 hours!), but completing it matters more to the walkers than how long it takes. Plodding along will get you there as surely as running - all that matters is maintaining the motivation to put one foot in front of the other.

• If I ever do this again, which despite the blisters and cramp, I hope to do, I’m going to need some friends or family to do it with - and some lighter gear...I had better start saving now then!