Winging its way into grough’s email inbox is an update from the dynamic pair behind the King of Walks.

Just to jog your memory, the two Aberdeen academics set off from the little-known inlet of Elvis Voe (pictured above) near Bressay in Shetland to the farm named Presley in Moray.

Nick Spedding and David Gray completed the 420-mile trip earlier this year.

Nick said: “The King of Walks was an attempt to do something a bit different, firmly tongue in cheek, see a bit of Scotland that we didn't know too well, have a good time, and raise a pile of money for Cancer Research UK – £10 000 at the last count.

“And I did manage to bag several new Corbetts, although walking 400 miles across Scotland without adding a single new Munro was a bit careless, although it gets tricky when you're down to 14 to go.

“We certainly cannot claim that the KoW was arduous – the most difficult it got was the final slopes of Seana Bhraigh, seen below, fighting the winds to make the cairn.

“Admittedly, the Radio Scotland hillwalkers' forecast had been explicit about gales at 3 000 feet, so we only had ourselves to blame.  If we were to do something again, we'd probably look for a route that has the prevailing winds behind us! 

“We've no plans for another venture just yet – not until we can think of another collection of agonising puns to drive us on. Best we've come up with so far is Frank(furt) to Sumatra.”

Only bone of contention between the two walkers seems to be the price of David’s high-tech titanium Spork and the monetary equivalent spent by Nick on a knife, fork, spoon, teaspoon and a bottle of Cabernet Sauvignon. grough sees it as the age-old battle between minimalism and the attraction of the grape. So what would you spend your brass on: £7.50-worth of cutlery or the same amount on cutlery and wine?