With the Scottish Great Trails completed, we have reached the end of what has dominated our lives since January 2023. Completing them is bittersweet. It marks the end of a truly fantastic adventure and the start of something new and fresh. But it also comes with a sense of loss, melancholy, and a desire for more of the same! For now, we need to reset, to be a family that is not dominated by one thing; the hike, and to plan the next phase of our lives. This is not the end, this is a new beginning. The start of something else, something different, something new. This is a new adventure that I hope you will continue to share with us.
So why the procrastination?
Writing this feels like an ending. Eve and I don’t want it to end, not yet. Sarah feels relief from the endless worry and logistical planning. Although the start of this new phase is exciting for all of us, it is also daunting! Hiking and being outdoors, the adventure is all too familiar, comfortable and reassuring. The future has an element of the unknown, but maintaining what we have been doing for nearly three years is also unmaintainable. We must learn to change and adapt as individuals and as a family. This is scary, this is why I've procrastinated writing this newsletter. It’s forcing me to think deeper and more profoundly than I have for nearly three years.
Scotland's Great Trails | The end of an era and the start of something new
Starting out on the 23rd January 2023 was cold. The ground was covered in ice that blocked our path as we set out from Callander to follow the Great Trossachs Trail. 20 months later, on the 6th of September 2024, we paddled towards a non de script floating pontoon on the Caledonian Canal at Inverness. This marked the end of an adventure spanning well over 2000 miles, taking us across Scotland in every direction and through every type of weather. This was not quite the ending I had imagined 20 months ago. After so long and so many challenges on the way, there is no ‘end’ that would have lived up to my expectations. I think the rose-tinted spectacles were on and came off with a bump!
That last day on the Great Glen Canoe Trail was drawing to a close, with twilight turning to night and a thick blanket of fog descending. The noise and bustle of the city were all around, and with tiredness and exhaustion creeping in, there wasn’t much time to absorb the enormity of what we had all achieved. We wanted to escape people, the smells and the noise and be together peacefully. We yearned for the wild and remote places we had been hiking through.
What this ending did give us was something only we could understand. It didn’t need conversation or big gestures. The silence between us was deafening. In many ways, it was the perfect ending, but one we could only really appreciate in hindsight. It was understated, without fanfare or grandeur. It was simple, just the way we like things! Less was most definitely more!
This adventure is over for now, but I hope, most sincerely, that our relationship with you, the reader, is not!
Over the weeks and months, I will have much more to say about this transition to something new. I still don’t feel we have concluded our End to End and JOGLE from 2022 or started moving on. I know life not being dominated by being ‘on the trail’ will give us a new beginning, but right now, it is hard, and we are all, in different ways, struggling with the enormity of the change. But this is all part of the adventure, I suppose. One we will have to learn to embrace and grow from. This is what adventure is about; highs and lows, starts and ends, but always being willing to accept change, even when being autistic, doesn’t help the feeling.
JustGiving & Scottish Autism
We haven’t reached our JustGiving target, but be under no illusion, we are overjoyed and chuffed to bits with what we (you) raised in support of Scottish Autism. £10000 was always a big ask, especially after the previous year's success when we hiked End to End via John o’Groats to Lands End in aid of the National Autistic Society.
When we set the target of £10000 for Scottish Autism, we discussed the amount as a family—a lot! We came to the conclusion, “Aim big… what's to lose?” So we did. We set the same target as we had the previous year and hoped!
We had some huge donations, with the largest individual donation being £500, which was mind-blowing. I will never forget recording a thank-you video in the snow for the people who donated it. But what always amazed me and really made me stop and think were the small donations of just one or two pounds or the obscure amounts. I can't help but wonder if these people had donated the last few pennies they had in the bank. Of all the things these people could do with the last of their money, they donated it to our fundraiser! I am lost for how I can express my emotions and thanks. You, sir/madam, are an inspiration to us all. A selfless act that nobody will ever know you did. That is pure altruism. I applaud you and thank you unconditionally.
To anybody who has donated to this fundraiser or any other of our charitable endeavours, from my heart to yours, I thank you most deeply and most sincerely!
The amount raised so far is a massive £6566
At some point, we will have to close the fundraiser on Just Giving. For now, we will leave it active, and I will let you know when we plan to close it. I secretly hope that some rich TV star or wealthy benefactor ‘tops it up‘. I'm not going to be crossing my fingers, though!
Just Giving page
We need a break from Facebook. I have never hidden my deep dislike of social media in its current form and, more specifically, Facebook! I do not like writing for social media, losing hundreds, if not thousands, of hours of writing into a black hole, never to be seen again or deleted by the platform for some obscure reason.
Facebook has, in its defence, been a brilliant tool for reaching and building relationships with people who find us. Most likely, that's where you found us! But I have never played well with the Facebook algorithm. My posts are too long, my images are too big in number, and what I write is not designed for their algorithm.
The Facebook trolls
I never discuss or mention the trolling and vile things we get sent. It’s absolutely disgusting, and we have twice had to seek ‘help’ as it’s been so specific! This is another reason we want to limit ourselves on social media. It feels toxic, and after several years of it, I’m fed up with it! I know the same people can still come on here, but I have more control and freedom away from Facebook.
Are we going to keep using Facebook?
Yes. We will keep posting on Facebook, but not at the rate we have been or in as much detail. It’s simply unsustainable for my mental health. I want to keep in contact with you and those who have followed, liked, and commented. I can tell that, although we might never meet, you are as much a friend as anybody else, and I genuinely hope this can continue here!
What’s going on with this website…?
Despite many attempts over the last 18 months to move most of my writing from social media to this website, it hasn’t worked particularly well. The reason…lack of time! Writing a website post or newsletter is more challenging and time-consuming than writing a Facebook post! But I love writing, the process, and everything that goes into it, and Facebook is not the place for this (my) content, and it has never really been!
I am so sorry, seriously and deeply sorry if I ever let anybody down who subscribed to our website and felt I didn’t deliver. It wasn’t for not trying, and we (Sarah and I) had many ‘debates’ about the website and its future in our little corner of the internet.
Looking to the future…
With the completion of the Scottish Great Trails, I have the time and energy to invest in writing for you on this website. As well as that, the move away from Facebook to here is also a move designed to preserve my mental health. Being on Facebook is not a healthy place for any length of time! This website, blog and newsletter is the new Facebook for the long-form content that I love to write. Facebook (and social media) will be used for it’s intended purpose; short updates and pictures.
Blogging with Dyslexia
As you might know, I’m Dyslexic. Writing is insanely hard at the best of times. It doesn't come naturally. It takes me three times as long as anybody else, but I love writing. I love the process, and I hope you get some joy from reading it. I have so much going around in my head that I want to write about here. You honestly wouldn’t believe it. Top that off with Autism… the word ‘obsession’ just doesn’t cut it.
Anyway, I digress. The main reason for telling you about this is to try and appease my ‘imposter syndrome’ but, more than that, to attempt to justify (warn you) of all the spelling and grammatical errors that I know do punctuate (like the pun?) all of my writing. (I know I don’t really have to justify it, after all, people don’t have to read it).
Occasionally Sarah will proof read what I write, but the truth of the matter is, I don’t want to rely on her and Sarah doesn’t always have the time! Proof reading my writing takes a long time especially when its borderline illegible! I don’t always know what I have written after I have read it back!
But I do have a solution that I hope will help. I have subscribed to a service called Grammerly. Grammerly is a premium subscription service that helps to correct peoples writing. It’s an online proofreader, that I hope will at least remove the worst of the errors and stop me sounding like a complete a fool.
At somepoint I will write a full post about (my) dyslexia to disuss some of the practical aspects (including home educating Eve) and why on earth I have chosen to write a blog and newsletter for everybody to read.
And finally…
So there we have it—the end of that and the start of this…. It’s been an incredible journey, and we are proud to have shared it with you.
We do not know what the future holds right now. So many unexpected things have happened, and so many more things have changed. It’s a brave new world, and we are as excited as we are nervous about what comes next. What I can tell you is that it’s going to be an adventure, and I hope you will be there to share the highs and lows with us!
Until next time.
Your friend, Ian
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