Hi
I heartily endorse the idea that a holiday in the wilds of Scotland can
be recommended. But, compared to the rest of the UK I believe that one
has to be aware of a few things. Piers Henry can give more details in
specific cases I am sure, but over many visits in years gone by (none
in the recent past) I have learned a few things while cycling to the
far NW, holidaying by car there with and without a family, and on
business. 1) Scotland can be much bigger than you expect at first, and
as a result you can be in a main population centre eg Thurso or Wick
and still a hundred miles from a major hospital (eg Inverness). Also,
I remember staying in a nice B&B in the NW near a 'major' road junction
with a sign for the three nearest main towns (Ullapool, Inverness, ?)
which were all over 80 miles away. By American standards, these are
not great distances, but they are quite large by European standards. 2)
In the autumn, weather can change relatively quickly, especially when
there is a ridge of high pressure. One hot sunny Saturday in August,
when I arrived in Thurso the beach was full of sunbathers (though the
water of the Pentland Firth was too cold to encourage swimming); a few
days later I came out of work nearby in the early hours of the morning
to find the car windows covered in ice. Years earlier on one memorable
summer's day, I pedalled from the youth hostel at Tongue in the NW to
that in Castletown near John o Groats, into the teeth of a cold
easterly gale and that was a hard days cycling. At least, nowadays one
does not have to worry that all petrol stations and shops are shut on
Sundays for religious reasons as used to be the case, but I imagine
camp-sites can still be difficult to find because of the nature of the
ground.
Personally, I like the west coast from Fort William northwards, and
I think someone else has mentioned Lochinver and the views of the Seven
Sisters mountains. While I have never actually managed to fit in a
visit, the gardens at Inverewe are famous as a result of the relatively
mild climate in that area (gulf stream effect?), while my wife enthuses
over the geology of the Ardnamurchan peninsular (which area includes
the westernmost point of mainland Britain!). I have stood on the top
of Ben Nevis (4000+ft) and admired the view on a bright June day, (and
slipped on snow on the way down) after having given up the attempt to
walk up it the previous August due to driving rain.
The scout motto of Be Prepared is appropriate and asking the list for
comments sounds a good start to being prepared.
A final comment, from my own experience of driving on the 'wrong'
side along mountain roads in Europe, narrow roads are one of the places
where one has to be most careful about remembering that you are driving
on the wrong side; an alert passenger beside you can be most useful
when the road widens and you have to negotiate oncoming traffic. I am
not sure (Piers, can you comment?) how many roads in the Scottish NW
are still single track with passing places but such situations used to
be common, and I imagine mobile phone coverage will tend to be patchy
(again Piers might be able to comment on the preferred operators).
Brian Gray
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