Within two hours you can reach just about everywhere if you stay in Glencoe, Scotland. It is a remote and bautiful glen and you can get to the lovely misty Isle of Skye, to Loch Ness and the Monster country, to Edinburgh, to the West Coast and you can watch whales.
But don't try to do it all. That is a terrible mistake. You'll wear yourself out. The beauty will rush past. You'll meet no one interesting.
This is what most people do.
You are 12th in line behind the caravan at the front. A slow right hand bend comes up and you drift out to see if cars are coming, but you notice the car in front has edged up to make it difficult for you to overtake.
"Look at that castle over there, Dad,"
"In a minute, son,"
Then your concentration slips and disaster strikes. You took your eye off the car behind and now he has whipped in front of you. The speedo tells you you are doing no more than 45mph. You are tired, irritable and bored. That's not a holiday.
To-day Gillian and I toured Scotland the correct way. We started out as usual with little idea of where we were heading.
"South?"
"Ok."
"Stalker Castle for soup and a roll?"
"Why not?"
A ride along the edge of Loch Linnhe, on a little road, with the mountains of Morven across the water. No traffic. Yesterday's cold front had passed over leaving a cool, clear and sunny day. The air was fresh and you could see for miles down the Sound towards Mull.
"How about taking our little North Shian road?"
"Ok"
Single track road, with hardly any passing places. If you meet a car coming the other way the chances are that one of you will have to reverse, but you'll exchange a wave.
"Wonder where the old slipway is, we found it before remember?"
This is where the people, and cattle, used to cross in a big rowing boat ferry 200 years ago when they travelled the down the coast from North to South. Cuts off a days walk round the coast, and many famous people in history have used it. It is about a mile across and the Spring tide flows strongly.
So we stopped to ask Charlie Moore who was planting some larch trees in his garden. We didn't kow him, but that does not stop people from talking together with strangers.
The answer lasted for an hour as we swapped stories of the roe deer in his garden, the old ferry, the new pier restaurant owners in the village, and the evening when he froze in his garden as an otter walked by his feet. The answer included his early days in the Orkney Isles.
His neighbours get some groceries for him, but he walks three miles to the nearest bus. Lovely man, didn't sound Scottish at all, but that's the Orcadians for you.
Back to the cottage half an hour later taking in little Port Appin and its small passenger ferry to Lismore on the way. Total distance travelled? About 25 miles.
That's the way you tour Scotland properly. You don't go past it in a car. You go into it with the people.
John Winkler
www.bayviewkentallen.co.uk/touringscotland.html
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