Explorer Celebrates His 70th Birthday by Trekking 1,250 Miles From the Tip of Cornwall to the Top of Scotland

After traversing the Southern Uplands of Scotland and the Pentland Hills – hidden gems that many walkers overlook – he then followed the West Highland Way to Fort William where he clocked up 1,000 miles and took a brief pause for his mother’s 100th birthday.

Celebrations over, he then set out across the rugged and wonderfully remote North West Highlands of Ardgour, Knoydart, Torridon and Sutherland, exploring the bothy network (a bothy is a rudimentary shelter that passers-by can use for free) along the Cape Wrath Trail and pitting himself against the elements with the onset of Hurricane Bertha.

After completing his journey, it then took John four times as long to write a book about his experiences as it did to complete the walk, because he had to refer back to his three notebooks, GPS tracking data and hundreds of hours of digital voice recordings he made along the way.

John builds a fire in order to ward off the midges at a campsite near Loch Stack on Day 103

This map shows John's well-planned route, which is 380 miles longer than the traditional Land's End to John o' Groats route

by JENNIFER NEWTON FOR MAILONLINE

This article first appeared on http://www.dailymail.co.uk. The original can be read here.