Hay's Way: Storm Kathleen joining me for a walk

Tent drying in the wind on a rail next to a golf course

It was becoming all too good to be true that, a month into Hay’s Way, there had only been one day of downpours that made me look up to the sky and shout ‘why?’

That all changed this week, though, when Storm Kathleen arrived.

I took a bit of comfort from the name as I have a best pal called Kathleen. But that faded quickly when the horizontal rain made it clear it was here to stay, for days.

I don’t think the storm warnings even covered where I was walking in East Lothian, which almost makes things worse.

A few people have asked how am I managing to stay dry walking and camping in this weather. The truth is, I am not really. I have a Haglof waterproof jacket and some hand-me-down waterproof trousers that do a pretty good job at protecting me for half the day, but by the end I rely on hand dryers in public toilets to keep me going.

Trying to walk across some very exposed land in East Lothian in high winds

I also have a cheaply made patent leather cap which keeps the rain out my face. It has weirdly drawn a few compliments, including one from a person who said it made me look like some model from the 60s. It must have been on one of those glorious Easter weekend days when they were blinded by the sun.

Despite arriving mostly damp at either a camping spot, B&B or where someone has kindly offered up a bed, my kit, so far, has remained dry.

Selkie, who is part of the Shaw Stewart family, who offered me shelter from the storm this week

The secret? Sandwich bags.

When my mum handed them to me before I left, I thought she was mad. But I couldn’t do this trip without them. Not only do they help keep things dry, but bagging items up separately in them is also an efficient way of keeping my kit organised.

As for the tent, if it’s been raining in the night I tend to find a rail or a tree to hang it on to let it dry in the wind before packing it up. Which brings me onto the wind...

The wind has been more of a challenge than the rain this week. I have been mostly camping on beaches and, while warming up in a pub after pitching my tent one evening, a local said ‘I hope you haven’t tried to peg it in the sand in this weather.’ And he was completely right. When I got back, the top sheet of the tent had blown off. Luckily, though, a gorse bush a few hundred metres away had caught it.

It’s also demoralising when you know you have a long walk ahead, but the headwind is so strong you aren’t actually moving forwards and find yourself looking like one of those static inflatable stick figures flapping its arms manically in the wind.