The journey begins
We meet up on a dry autumnal morning in front of the City Chambers – a symbol of an age of wealth, exploitation and enterprise – not much change there then from the global world of today! The grey bus awaits, mirroring the grey Glasgow sky! As usual I’ve over packed – a lifetime of travel experience increasing the load each time to cover all eventualities –– good motto but costly in weight!
The skies increasingly lighten the further north we head. First stop Tyndrum and the last ‘meat’ before a vegetarian week! Arrive in Mallaig on a beautifully calm, sunny, cloudless day after an uneventful run through some of the finest scenery in the world with all its historic connotations from massacres to the romance of Flora Macdonald and the Bonnie Prince (not to mention the modern day ‘Hogwarts Express’). Curious how geography gets stuck with the human story – fabled and factual! “Though every prospect pleases and only man is vile” wrote Heber, I think, two centuries or so ago. The folks we met were in stark contrast to that but the scars of history and the clearances tell their own story!
Pleasant surprise in the form of a sleek, well equipped little motor boat easily taking our party of 13 and its attendant luggage. Some banter around the size and weight of luggage – now more pertinent as we descend the slippery quayside steps to the launch – no mishap – safely counted on and as in the days of the old school trip duly counted back a week later! School trips were never that secure often bringing back more than intended and on the odd occasion losing a few by the wayside. Elf’n Safety wouldn’t stand for that these days! The human chain formed at the other end saw the luggage safely ashore and whisked away on the back of the ubiquitous Landrover and trailer while we followed on foot. First time on Knoydart, the sheer beauty of the place with Inverie nestling silently on the shore takes the breath away. It is stunning in the October sunlight – possibly a first, but as we always tell our tourist friends, it’s really always like this. Aye right! But we are to be blessed with this startlingly crisp and blue sky for the next two days before the old Scottish clime regains its foothold! Enjoy while we can!
A walk on the wild side!
After the settling in on day 1, and of course, experiencing the first of the ‘vegetarian meals, (and my hat goes off to Rob whose culinary skills were outstanding, turning grassy stuff into something I hardly recognised but tasted delicious – rabbits have never eaten finer earthly produce!), we were up at the crack of doom and down to the Tepee (is that Tipi? – ‘big tent with a hole in the top’ to the uninitiated) on the shore with the light and sea and sky stunningly beautiful. There followed the preparation for the day out on our own.
The afternoon saw us venture out on the hillside though bracken, burn and bush in the midst of a glorious tapestry of autumnal colour. Constable in his finest moments could never have replicated nature’s own canvas. It is difficult not to feel at peace. The old hymn from the early 1800s speaks through the landscape: “Drop Thy still dews of quietness, till all our strivings cease; take from our souls the strain and stress, and let our ordered lives confess the beauty of Thy peace.” The afternoon is in marked contrast to the daily business of modern life, however fulfilling in its own way it may be. Reports and e-mails can wait – at least for today.
