Hi all,

Just got back from a 275 km / 171 mi hike in the Cairngorms, a tribute to the late great Andrew Lafferty aka Head for the Hills.

A few words to explain why I did what I did.

In 2017, I decided I wanted to go hiking. Started off in Germany with 3 days in the Black Forest, followed by a couple of weeks in Tasmania and later on I walked some multi-day long distances in the Canary Islands. To keep my condition up between hikes, I spent a lot of time on the crosstrainer, working out and watching Netflix, until I discovered that watching hiking vlogs on YouTube gave me the best motivation to keep going a little longer.

And so I stumbled upon the likes of Walk with Wallace, Scots Wildcamper, Hounds of Howgate, Browse&Edit (check out his excellent 1450 km-series!), The Cool Dudes Walking Club, and of course Andy Lafferty's channel, Head for the Hills. I watched the whole thing, all 194 videos, and loved his style with all my heart - his brutal honesty, his total dedication, and obviously his undercooled sense of humour, that had me nearly fall off my work-out device laughing a few times. Only after watching hours upon hours of his videos, I found out he'd sadly passed away.

I had grown so fond of Andy that I was truly heartbroken, and felt like I'd lost a dear friend. So, I decided my next hike had to be in Scotland, and it had to be the Cape Wrath Trail, and it had to be done in Andy's honour. Arrangements were made and I was all ready to go.

Then, in 2020, I fell off my bike and broke my right foot in 12 places. A 2-year period of rehabilitation started, again spending hundreds of hours on the crosstrainer to get my stupid foot going again, and I watched Andy's entire channel another time. And then another.

In April 2022 I was finally ready to go hiking again. But the partly trackless CWT was probably still going to be too hard for me - my foot works but gets very sore after a few miles - so the Cairngorms it would be, and I prepared my backpack (and an orange plastic bag, of course) for an 11-day, 171-mile route, up and down between Aviemore, Braemar, Kingussie and Ballater, visiting lots of places Andy loved and/or had camped at on his many trips in the area.

These two videos are the result of my hike. If I would make it, I did not know. But I would give it my best shot.
For Andy.

To all who hold him dear - it felt like an honour to be walking in Andy's footsteps. I will never, ever forget it.
Guido, aka King Clumsy, the Netherlands

Part 1:
Part 2: