Sam Heughan, recognized to legions of followers as Jamie Fraser within the standard TV present based mostly on Diana Gabaldon’s Outlander sequence, just lately determined it was time to stroll the rigorous West Highland Approach in Scotland, a long-distance climbing path that runs from north of Glasgow to Fort William within the Scottish Highlands. He wished a solitary problem and a pause within the performing profession he has labored tirelessly at, and packing 96 miles into 5 days appeared like it might present the correct mixture of endurance and introspection. In his exceptional, thought-provoking memoir, Waypoints: My Scottish Journey, he welcomes readers alongside for the journey.
Earlier than Heughan stepped out the door onto the West Highland Approach, he was a runner, not a walker. Marathons, sure; strolling slowly, not his factor. His tenting and climbing experiences have been restricted; he even thought climbing poles have been “cumbersome” and nearly threw them away as soon as he hit the path. His overstuffed rucksack, full with whiskey and cigars, weighed him down. The rain in late October nearly ruined him on the second day, and he quickly selected snug wayside inns over his tent. However he was nearing his fortieth birthday (making him the identical age because the Approach) and, regardless of these challenges, felt it was merely time he acquired this carried out.
Bracketing Heughan’s journey is an account of his go to to his dying father in faraway British Columbia, Canada. The person was a stranger who deserted his household way back, however Heughan and his brother felt nonetheless compelled to supply a goodbye. As soon as they arrived, Heughan was surprised to study that his father had been following his performing profession all alongside. He recorded their go to on his cellphone, however later, again on the set of “Outlander,” the cellphone vanished. It was, he writes, “a becoming epitaph.”
The award-winning actor, creator, philanthropist and entrepreneur gives loads of particulars of his stroll to Fort William, together with a frightening hike up Ben Nevis, the very best mountain in the UK. Alongside the best way, Heughan has a transparent, exact and entertaining fashion. He’s a humorous man, and his encounters with roaming sheep, different hikers and clusters of mushrooms are splendidly comedian.
If Waypoints have been merely about Heughan’s stroll, it might be pleasant, instructive and attractive. However it is a memoir, in spite of everything, and it’s his reflection on his life and work, interspersed with the challenges and discoveries of the Approach, that lend his story heft and grit.
