Day 6

Date: 06/08/09
Time: 21:30
Miles Travelled Today: 140
Location: Campsite in Applecross
Weather: Again. amazing all day

Today has been the first day that I have felt lonely on this trip. It hasn't helped that I am, once again, very tired thanks to the noisy neighbours not shutting up for a while, Ullapool harbour continuing to be noisy into the night and the rats with wings screaming in the campsite at about 5am. It took a coffee in the morning and another during lunch at The Torridon (best pub in Scotland 08-09 and I can see why) to get me through the day. I don't have a problem with my own company and don't mind being on my own at all, however a combination of the sight of lots of happy couples and families at each campsite I stop at together with the amazing sights that I am witnessing and wanting to share them with someone, has lead to a slight feeling on loneliness. It doesn't help that I am not one of those people who can randomly strike up conversations with people I don't know. I am rubbish at parties, I am not the man charming everyone, I am the one in the corner watching that man. In the end it was my decision to do this trip on my own so I have no one else to blame. Still, it would be nice to have someone to say 'look at that' and 'look at THAT' to on occasion.

I would have had plenty of opportunities to do that again today and Scotland continued to bombard me with beauty. Every turn in the road brings more sights to behold, this country is stuffed full of delights and, even with the amount I am travelling, I am only really scratching the surface. Talking about the travelling, today took me over the 1000 mile mark which is a lot in 6 days. It is not easy driving either (ignoring the first couple of days), this is full on, total concentration driving with a high proportion of single track roads, loose sheep, slow campervans, etc., not helped by constant distractions through every window. Looking back, I have made a mistake with my choice of transport. If you get nothing else from reading this blog, take the following two things:

1) Come to Scotland, I expect any part is lovely but the North coast is spectacular and the West coast is shaping up to be more of the same. Ignore the nay-sayers with their talk of rain and midges and the like; if you like scenary, mountains, lochs, coastline, beaches then you should be heading here immediately. Obviously if you like 30 deg C heat and a swimming pool by your villa, this perhaps isn't the place

2) Either bring a campervan with at least a toilet so you can take advantage of the opportunities to wild camp (turns out to be not so easy in a tent although it could just be me being a girl) or, if you like driving, bring a decent car (oh, how I long for my Lotus Elise) so you can enjoy the roads which, surprise surprise, are amazing. I have done neither, although faithful and dependable, my Almera is not an entertaining drive and I long for something that would extract the maximum out of the roads

There you go, you knew there was a reason you were reading this.

Due to the tiredness and the concentration required for the driving, I have decided to stay in Applecross tomorrow too and do some walking. It is a rather lovely little village on the coast with a beach, a few houses, a pub, a community hall, a campsite (which is cheap but, with only four showers, could result in queues) and not much else. Apart from the views of course which, true to form, are to die for. So, no driving at all tomorrow to give my brain and my car a rest and then probably onto Sky on Saturday. Unless I decide to stay here longer, who knows. The only thing it doesn't seem to have is WiFi so, by the time you read this, I will probably have left anyway. It feels odd to write a blog but not be able to post it until sometime after writing it but I am enjoying putting down what has happened during the day so as to aid my crappy memory when I get back home, if nothing else