Summer in Bonny Scotland

What do you call six weeks of rain
in Fort William? . . . the summer holidays.

Well that was exactly our holiday experience this summer in Scotland.

Of course I brought all the wrong clothes; too many short-sleeved tops and no raincoat. Thank goodness for layering and my Lafuma fleece jacket that I threw in at the last moment. My trusty brolly was of no use against the gale force winds forecasted by the friendly weatherman.



Despite the wet and gloomy weather, the drive from Edinburgh to Fort William and then on to Broadford in the Isle of Skye was a journey of discovery of Lochs lined up end to end. Western Scotland simply oozes tranquility and calm.













Every fifteen to thirty miles (yes they've not gone metric), a village creeps up and just as quickly vanishes before your eyes. Obscure as they may be, each village is the hub of a variety of activities like hiking, fishing, canoeing, yachting, biking (mountain or racing) as well as hearty dining, pubs and of course B & B's.

In a lightheaded moment, I found myself singing strains of "I'll take the high road and you'll take the low road. . . tra la. . . on the bonny, bonny banks of Loch Lomond", a song I learnt from my days at Light Street Convent in Penang. I dare say kids these days are hardly exposed to this genre of song anymore.

Summer is the time to let your hair down and delve into hobbies big time.The convoys of big bikes, small bikes, swanky vintage cars and Lotus sports cars whizzing along the country roads prove that the British have a penchant for their wheels.