[This walk was completed on Monday, 13th May 2024]
I cycle the long, straight road into Wick, find the side road that leads past the Trinkie swimming pool, and reach the car park at the end of the lane. Then, I realise I forgot to bring my bicycle lock! (It’s been a year since I walked the coast, and I have forgotten my usual routine.) So, with some difficulty, I drag my Scooty bike down a grassy slope, and leave it hidden from the road, lying against some rocks.
Rehabilitation after cancer treatment is: “a process of regaining and refreshing old skills, learning and refining new ones to enable you to live the sort of life you want,” according to Dr Harvey. I knew what life I wanted. I WANTED MY OLD LIFE BACK.
It was going to take time. One big milestone was tucking into toast and marmalade. I hadn’t been able to eat toast – or bread of any type – for many months. It tasted scrumptious!
I was right about my radiotherapy “wound” taking 6 weeks to heal. In fact, my ability to eat had become dramatically better at around 5 weeks. And now my fitness began to improve too.
So, I began going for longer walks. First just round the block, then round two blocks, then down the road to the nearest park. What a delight to see the cheerful yellow of crocuses in the park. At one point, I thought I would never live to see the spring. Now, spring was springing.
One week into the New Year, and my family came to visit – all three daughters and all three grandchildren – for a belated Christmas / early birthday celebration. I was still feeling awful – and tried not to show it. But my birthday flowers cheered up the room.
The only nice thing about being a cancer patient is that you get lots of sympathy. Over the next few weeks, as my treatment progressed, both old and new friends came to visit, I was sent cards, and I received some lovely flowers.
After some months of increasing tiredness, loss of appetite, and difficulty eating, I finally saw a GP on the 25th July, 2023, and was referred for futher investigations at the hospital, under the two-week rule. (For those who don’t know, the two-week rule is the target set to for specialists to see patients with a strong possibility that they might have cancer.)
Even though the two-week rule applied to me, I was still pretty sure that my symptoms had a simple explanation: a combination of increasing age and possibly a hiatus hernia.
Continue reading[Last Munro, partially climbed June 2023]
On the last day of May, 2023, I drove down to meet a group of friends in the Cairngorms. (You might think the Cairngorms are in the far north of Scotland. But the trip down south from Keiss was over 200 miles and took over 4 hours!)
This was a planned expedition with a group of around 20 of us, to support one of my old university friends, Orion, as he completed his last Munro.
For those who don’t know, the Munros are Scottish mountain peaks over 3,000 feet in height. The list was originally compiled by Sir Hugh Munro in 1891, but has since been refined. At present, there are 282 Munros, and my friend had completed 281 of them. Quite an achievement.
It was the beginning of June. A day of intermittent sunshine. Perfect walking weather.
[Bird-watching trip undertaken on Tuesday, 30th May, 2023]
I wake up this morning feeling fine. (Don’t know what was wrong with me yesterday.) But the weather is misty and drizzly, and I am in no hurry to set off.
The house I am staying in is a modern, modular house and I love it. [The photo below is from the booking website.] Nobody else was staying here last night, and so I have a good chat with the man who delivers the pain-au-chocolate rations for breakfast.
[This walk was completed on Monday, 29th May, 2023]
After lunch, I pack up my ruck sack and hoist it over my shoulders again. Onwards, along the road. One last look back at Broadhaven…
[This walk was completed on Monday, 29th May, 2023]
I cycle back to Noss Head, chain my bike up behind a fence made of Caithness paving slabs, and set off on today’s walk. Up the private road, towards the lighthouse. The lighthouse is another product of the Stevenson family – this one designed by Alan Stevenson.
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Report number:1234 Date: 4/5/26 Location: On the side of the river Arun just past Arundel castle 2 people with dog Laura’s report: “We were walking on the footpath and the cows were quite a way to our right, to our left was the river. The cows started coming over, we went down towards the river […]
Report number:1233 Date: 3/5/26 Location: Aller, near Langport, Somerset Family group & dog Libby’s report: “We were chased and pinned against the rivers edge by a whole group of cows who were kicking and jumping. They edged closer and closer until we were left with no option but to jump into the river and swim […]
Report number: 1232 Date: 25/4/26 Location: Between Overton and Erbistock (Wrexham). Approx What3Words = riverside.period.curtail 2 people no dog Frances’s report: “We crossed a stile into the field and immediately noticed a herd of cows on the other side. They seemed to be minding their own business and facing the other direction so we continued […]
Ruth's Coastal Walk (UK) 