So You Want To Walk Across Scotland?

Tomorrow I will start walking Scotland coast to coast. Yup, you read that right and no, I’m not crazy. Mulalo, my South African best friend, has endearingly called me “mpengo” (“crazy person” in Venda) since the day I suggested climbing Devil’s Peak four months ago. (finally got him to climb it with me last week, who’s the crazy one now??) While walking across a country may sound a bit crazy, there’s a story behind it.

As some of you may know, I have synovitus in my right knee from a bad dancing injury five years ago. My friend flipped me incorrectly and instead of landing on my feet my knee was slammed, with momentum, into the floor. Ouch. The swelling was so bad it was too painful to wear pants for a couple of weeks and there was talk of a cartilage tear in my knee joint. But without a conclusive answer, I refused to get surgery.

A while back, I finally went to a knee specialist and was told it was synovitus, swelling in the knee joint. He said that it was a common problem for young, active women. Yup, sounds like me. The bad news was that there is nothing to help it. The good news was that it usually went away on its own after a few years.

The thought of it going away had me so excited I was crying as I left the hospital. Crazy thoughts started whirling around my head as to what I would do without the injury if only I could. Because it seems to have answers to most everything in life, I went straight to the bookstore. Within ten minutes I had a huge National Geographic World Atlas book spread across the reading table, country maps soon followed. I wanted to see it all, walk over mountains, hike til my legs fell off. Because, hey, I’d be able to without pain.

And so, the idea of walking across a country was hatched and tomorrow it will become a reality. Coast to coast, miles of countryside, mountain tops, trails beckoning. The magic moment of my knee healing itself hasn’t come yet, but no matter.

I’ve started dreaming and I refuse to stop now.



What would you do if there was nothing holding you back?