Mike Cawthorne is no stranger to the Scottish hills in
winter. His first book, the excellent Hell of a Journey, is about a
continuous winter walk over all the 1000 metre summits. Walking Through
Shadows is also about a winter walk, but a very different one. In it the author
and a companion set out from Whiten Head on the north coast to walk south to Knoydart
with as little contact with habitations and people as possible.
Their route is
tough, eschewing easier options for the remotest ones. In summer it would be
challenging. In winter, with blizzards, bitter cold, short days, long nights, and
deep rivers, it’s really testing, especially for Mike Cawthorne’s companion,
Nick, who isn’t as fit and who suffers daily from sore and blistered feet. That
they finish the walk together is a testament to their friendship.
The hardship and tough going are intended. The walk comes
across as a mix of pilgrimage, penance and wake. It’s undertaken in memory of a
close friend, Clive Dennier, who died at their destination, and whose body wasn’t
found for months. His story is told in bursts of reminiscences throughout the
book, his presence always there.
Walking Through Shadows isn’t an easy read but it is
a worthwhile one. The harshness of the Scottish winter and the sorrow for a
lost friend are intermingled. The descriptions of the landscape reveal both its
stark beauty and its hostile bleakness. What it’s like to walk and camp in this
cold land day after day is captured well.
The nature of the land and how damaged it is comes up again
and again. Isolated and remote it may be. Untouched it isn’t and there’s no
pretence that this is anywhere near a pristine wilderness. At the same time the
author obviously loves and cares for it.
Walking Through Shadows is an unusual,
thought-provoking and very worthwhile addition to the literature of the
Scottish hills.
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