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And they were purists. They started not just at John o' Groats village but at the northern tip, Duncansby Head. Gary estimated that, choosing scenic routes rather that walks along direct motorways, he and Wendy would do twelve hundred miles: two million steps; take three months. Ranooch MoorEarly in the book a place which really provokes Gary into soliloquy is Rannoch Moor, near Tyndrum. ' … a vast wilderness of peat bogs, streams, lochs, and lochans, a fifty-square-mile elevated plateau encircled by mountains.' 'I found it to be a wild and lovely place. Something about it – something to do with its vastness and openness, and its harsh untamed beauty – seemed to set my soul free. 'Generally in my everyday life, my thoughts writhe and churn inside my head like the proverbial can of worms. But there, on the moor they seemed to find release. I felt smaller than I usually do, and less important than I usually do, and it was a good feeling.' DistinctiveThis experience leads Hayden to think back; to a camping, walking, rethinking-of-his -life's-stance holiday. On it he bought a copy of Plato's Republic and then says, 'I walked with Plato.' 'Plato introduced me to philosophy: and philosophy introduced me to Epicurus, Bertrand Russell, William James, Gensei, Hegel, and all the other great thinkers who have kept me company ever since.' This typical Hayden – a walk, a place, a thought, a reflection, a statement – makes the book what it is.
ChangeOne of the 'great thinkers' who turns up a number of times in this story is Jean-Jacques Rousseau. Towards the end of the three months journey Hayden reflects about Rousseau's experience of living on the Island of Saint-Pierre on Lake Bienne, Switzerland – sitting on the beach – idleness. Here is Hayden quoting Rousseau: 'it was enough to make me pleasurably aware of my existence, without troubling myself with thought.' And here is Hayden: 'All of those slow miles through towns, villages, farmland and forests, all of those slow miles over moors, mountains, and hills, all of those slow miles beside lakes, rivers, and streams, all of those slow miles had brought me , little by little to a very special state of mind.' The journey began for Gary Hayden as a challenge. It finished at Lands End, using Rousseau's words, as 'the height of happiness.' □ Book details: Published by Oneworld Publications 2016: ISBN 978-1-78074-656-2 John McInnes Friday 29 May 2020 ##########
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