Marching on

It’s been a while.

This blog isn’t dead, just slowing down somewhat as I attempt to juggle the time demands of walking and writing about walking. It’s a tough balancing act – get it wrong and I spend every waking moment sitting in front of the computer with no time to actually get out and do the things that I need to write about. Fortunately living in Edinburgh means I’m within easy reach of a whole variety of different outdoor playgrounds, with no need to plan trips weeks in advance – just walk/cycle out the front door to reach the sea at Portobello and Granton, the Pentland and Lammermuir hills and a host of interesting cycle paths, islands and rivers. I’m far enough north that buses and trains to the Highlands are reasonably priced, and diesel hasn’t yet got to the stage where a quick jaunt to somewhere remote is unaffordable.

So. Progress.

My Pocket Mountains guide to walking on Arran is due for publication in May sometime (fingers crossed), and I’ve begun work on both the Ayrshire and Orkney books that will follow over the next year or so.

As well as researching and writing routes for Walkhighlands I’ve been working on a series of gear reviews over the last few months – there isn’t a particularly lightweight bias to these due to the wide ranging experience and desires of the target audience, but they’re a lot of fun and I have a worrying amount of editorial freedom.

The lack of posts on this blog is a direct result of my blogging activity for Outdoor Enthusiast magazine. Again, a totally different audience and specification, but it’s ticking along nicely and I get to play with video and have ‘Editor’ on my CV. I also get another load of gear to play with – this time across the whole spectrum of outdoor activities ranging from skiwear to cycling to diving.

At the end of the month I hope to get away to backpack the Cape Wrath Trail – not an ideal time of the year but hopefully before the midges come out in force and ruin things. After chatting to Midge Forecaster General Colin I reckon they’ll be out in early May given the mild winter.

I plan to do a lot more cycling over the summer months as I research my Orkney walking guide – the inter-island ferries are very expensive for vehicles but free for bikes, especially folding bikes like my Airnimal Joey Sport (Tramplite Edition). My little yacht is sitting on the quayside at Granton awaiting a lift-in at the end of April – the sailing in the Forth isn’t quite as scenic as the Clyde, but with the harbour just up the road I think quantity will make up for quality.

Oh, and I’m doing the odd bit of engineering in order to pay the larger bills – pretending to know something about electricity and microgeneration but really just being good at Google. Joking, joking….