The Return of the Achnasheen 4

In August 1982 my brother John, cousin Norman, friend Andrew and I set off on a mighty cycling trip from Inverness to Harris, stopping at Torridon and Broadford youth hostels on the way. None of us has ever forgotten these three days, for a variety of reasons, and when I wrote about day 1 for the BBC Scotland/Scottish Book Trust project entitled Days Like This, it was a chance to share the experiences we had on that holiday and revive some of the painful and less painful memories we had.

The experience of writing and sharing that story led me to consider whether or not we could revisit that trip and retrace our wheeltracks now. Following a flurry of email and telephone contacts we have now reached the point where two separate expeditions will be setting out from Inverness in August one week apart, one comprising John, his son Callum (now 17) and Andrew; and the other comprising me and Norman. Family and calendar commitments have made it impossible for us to co-ordinate diaries for the same week, which is slightly unfortunate, but the spirit of the original journey will infuse both weeks.

My purpose in starting this blog is to write, largely for my own interest, about the preparations for the trip in August, and to record in some detail all the events that will surround it. We have no written or photographic record of the 1982 trip since none of us had a camera nor had forethought the invention of the internet, and we certainly weren't diarists. Memory is one thing but can be haphazard.

I also want to commit to print something of the experience I have had in losing weight over the last twelve months, thoughts which have been crystallised by a couple of chapters in the book I'm currently reading, The Man Who Ate Everything by Jeffrey Steingarten; richly entertaining and witty, he takes on trends and theories which have considerable modern currency and deflates them with precision. His thoughts on the low fat cooking fads of the 90s are well worth reading. I intend to link in my experience to his thinking.

I fervently hope that this won't be the only post or that when it comes up again it won't be to complain about another dismal World Cup performance by the England cricket team...