Finding Hildasay: How one man walked the UK's coastline and found hope and happiness

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He will continue around the coast of Cornwall and along the coast of Gloucestershire before reaching Wales and the home stretch to Swansea. He said the book was “raw, honest and a true insight of what it takes to achieve something like this with no back-up, no sponsor and no money”.

Finding Hildasay by Christian Lewis | Waterstones Finding Hildasay by Christian Lewis | Waterstones

A self-described “all-or-nothing kind of guy”, Lewis has added even more to his adventure, completing the Three Peaks challenge – climbing the mountains of Snowdon, Scafell Pike and Ben Nevis – along the way. My foraging skills were something I was getting much better at, and if I had wi-fi, I’d always be jotting down tips in my journal and then putting them into practice. Whatever the exact figure, it is an enormous endeavour and one which is the subject of Lewis’s exhilarating book, Finding Hildasay, which he wrote on an A4 pad while walking, and is named after the uninhabited Scottish island where he lived alone for three months during the first Covid-19 lockdown.As we pulled out of Belfast Docks, to the north I could just make out the tip of the Mull of Kintyre, and to the east, the Mull of Galloway, the direction in which I was heading. The title comes from an uninhabited Scottish island where Christian spent three months – finding more pride and confidence within himself as he survived the experience.

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Sir Andrew Gregory, CEO of SSAFA said : “The word ‘inspiration’ is often overused; Chris really is an inspiration. Most were donated to him by family and friends: gas stove, map, sleeping bag, two days’ rations, and a tent with a hole in the top. The synopsis reads: "In August 2017, suffering with severe depression, Chris Lewis made an impulsive decision to set himself a challenge – walk the entire coastline of the UK. Excited and with butterflies in my stomach, I was suddenly hit with a realisation: not only had my gear grown in quality as my journey had progressed, but I too had improved. The Lewis I speak to today is a man totally transformed from the 37-year-old who first set out to walk the entire coastline of the UK back in August 2017.I’d known back then, deep down, that one day, as long as I just kept driving forward, good things could happen, and they did!

Life on the edge: meet the man who walked around the UK

He had decided to rely on the goodwill of the public for food, water, accommodation and equipment, living off the land when necessary. The day Caitlin left, he went down to Llangennith beach on the Gower Peninsula, where he had an epiphany. Finding Hildasay is Christian Lewis’s brutal but beautiful true story of survival, walking the coast of Britain – his dog Jet in tow – and finding a different way to live. Within three days of his life-changing decision, Lewis had gathered the meagre supplies he needed for the trip. We have a very small possibility of living a life on this planet and you’ve just got to bloody make the most of it.It was there, the most barren his route had become, that the more pride and respect he found within himself - and the more remarkable his journey became. It’s said, so many times, this connection with nature thing,” he says, particularly “being outside for long periods of time in places that make you feel so insignificant.

Christian Lewis: I walked UK coastline and changed my life in

Little did he know at the time just how long it would take to cross the finish line – and the encounters lying ahead would turn his life around. His “absolute highlight”, though, was the three months he spent on Hildasay, off the west coast of Shetland, during that first lockdown.Each night, regardless of how treacherous the weather or however difficult the day had been, the whole process of pitching a tent, collecting water, making a fire and cooking food — in essence, stripping right back to basics in a nomadic lifestyle — was fast becoming a far more inviting, freeing and peaceful way to live. Bag-free, good meals as well as being picked up and dropped off each day gave me a chance to get plenty of miles in.