Scotland was fantastic. It was wet, windy and sunny all in the same day on every day, much as you would expect, but we got some spectacular sunsets (well, two of them) and just loved being outdoors in it all the same. We took a 9-hour train from London to Inverness on the Saturday that was actually really nice. We went first class (special deal they had) which was lovely, so we had a man who came around proffering drinks and nibbles throughout, and very comfortable seats. Once you get to the north the countryside (and much of it in the south as well) is fab, with great scenery. I can see why some of the artists of the past have fell in love with some of the scenery here...something I cannot quite put my finger on, but the light quality and colours are different here.

Next day we hired a 1973 VW Combi Van (named Olive) who became our mobile home for the next five nights. A pig to drive at times, but also very cool! Tuesday we decided to try to make the summit of Ben Nevis, which is quite challenging, as although it is only 1300 meters or so (it is the highest mountain in the UK) it starts at sea level. That said, we decided to make it even harder and NOT take the tourist track and so instead took a track that had us pass over three peaks between 1100 and 1250 meters that surround the north face of Ben Nevis. Cutting to the chase, we stood on the peak opposite the North Face at 1250 meters and were faced with what I call a 'dragons back', i.e. a ridge of stone about 1 kilometer long that is featured by being very narrow and having crumbling moraine and granite cliffs on either side - a bit of a challenge! Seeing we had already bagged three peaks that day and the weather was changing for the worse and our joint vertigo was coming into play, we decided not to push our luck to cross the dragons back to get to Ben Nevis, and instead went back down the way we came. We were quite knackered by the time we got to the road some 10 hours later and managed to get a taxi to take us back to Olive. So we did not get to the top of Ben Nevis by our own doing of deciding to go off path and making our own way on the North side of the mountain (tourists do not go there) ... not disappointed at all actually (Anni: speak for yourself, I'm gutted!) , as the views and the shape of the three mountains around Ben Nevis were amazing, with a steep, deep valley between them and Ben Nevis and just the 'dragons back' linking them to Ben Nevis, you can imagine the cauldron effect of the mountain architecture....we definitely would not have sen this from the Ben Nevis tourist path. So a good day, but a tiring one. Funny thing was, when we got in the taxi we had a 10 minute ride with a taxi driver who I think must have had Tourettes (is that spelled right?) or something. He was angry with the world and the government in particular (it is Gordon Brown who personally puts up cost of petrol on Fridays just as Touretts taxi man is about to re-fuel - but that is a state secret you know!) and his Scots accent made the F and C words (which were usually joining by "...ing") all the more harsh. I was thinking he would head-butt the dashboard next, as he was running out of ways to make his language any more colourful. It was very bloody funny - esp. at the end when he wished us a lovely evening! :-)

Anyway, the next day we pootled off toward Malaig and stayed the night on a white sand beach (Morar), just 10 minutes out of Malaig. The beaches here are lovely, interspersed with rockpools etc and very few people (too cold to swim of course). The sunset that night was fantastic and we sat on said beach until after 11 pm waiting for it! The northern summer means it is still daylight at 10pm, as you know, so sun down was around 11pm. Well we then took Olive on the ferry across to Isle of Skye and on through the Cuillins range to a wee place called Glenbrittle. Wow - really impressive place and these mountains apparently kill people on a regular basis. It is not the height, it is their shape that does it and they attract climbers from all around the world and I can see why. Olive was parked at the base of one of the range with the sea directly in front of us, so not a bad outlook at all. The wind blew up a storm in the night and some of the tents around us had disappeared by the next morning or were in various stages of collapse, but we were fine in the Combi. We decided to stay at sea level the next day and did a run / walk out to a peninsula at the edge of the Cuillins. Really bleak, wild and lovely which suits us just fine, as we can do bleak and wild quite happily! We were out for 6 hours or so and saw old ruins left by Vikings who settled and then long since abandoned the area (I had not realised they were here....but makes sense as I know they made it to Ireland, so this would have been on the way). I upset Anni a little by disappearing to climb a cliff. It was just one of those things where you want to get the adrenalin going by climbing and half way up you realise that it is hard to go forward and there is absolutely no going back, i.e. beyond point of return.....but I managed it OK and was pretty pleased to get to the top. Lots of self-talking on the way up kept me focused on my next hand- or foot-hold and stopped me from swaying with vertigo which I seem to get more these days. Still, in spite of it being a bit of a cold wet day, my palms seemed very sweaty all the same!

Next day was very wild and walking was not gong to be fun, so we headed back to the mainland and across Scotland toward the north east and Inverness. We stopped for the night about an hour out of Inverness and simply found a picnic area deep in one of the forests and stayed there the night. The weather improved so we did a woods run that night, which was really nice. Next day we were back to Inverness to drop off Olive and then on the plane and back to home. It was a really nice holiday....just not long enough and I am now looking forward to the next one!