Gavin McLellan / Journey in

As something long planned suddenly approaches, like the groundrush to a parachutist, I realise I don’t feel ready. On the bus now and feel like I’m on a school trip! Up until this point I’ve been checking my kit list, The strangest and most ironic part of the preparation was the last minute panic buying! Here I am entering a downscaling transformative experience in the wilderness and I don’t have enough stuff!

Unexpectedly I’m feeling a little nervous about the project for the first time; what will the group dynamics be like? How will we all get on? Will there be the usual suspects; born leader, distractor, sympathy seeker?

At least I have done some mental preparation. I’ve been imaging the experience as if a first time settler in Knoydart. Arriving on the shoreline of a never inhabited land. As a frontier pioneer where would I start? Shelter, water, food. Driven by these basic physical things I would go about creating, uprooting, making a base and setting out on trails. And yet it seems I’m not too far way from that person. All the decisions I make revolve around these basic needs and my part along with millions of others have made it unsustainable.