Filling in the blanks

Writing while away in Scotland was a lot harder than when I was off round England. Then, I was travelling by train and had that idle time to think more about what I was writing and what would be the most interesting things to include, with very little distraction. Driving for up to 5 hours a day was really knackering and in the evenings, when I should have been writing, I just wanted some food and sleep. What I did manage to throw together was rushed and pretty weak, and I missed out so many things worth including.

The prospect of exploring Scotland by car was daunting, particularly because I've always found long-distance driving to be pretty tedious. Saying that, long-distance driving is usually done on motorways, which aren't designed to be interesting in any way. But with Scotland's winding country roads to explore and a cool (-er than I'm used to), comfortable car to drive, the long distances were not off-putting at all, and something I actually looked forward to.

Driving during the day and staying in busy towns at night offered a nice blend of quiet, enjoyable solitude in the car and then mixing with company in the pubs and hostels later. Driving with a companion would have been fun as well, but it wasn't something I felt I was missing. Alone, I was free to explore at my own pace, to stop off when and where I felt like and to have total control of the music in the car; with a companion I would have been compelled to share and be diplomatic with my activity. On my way to Callander I considered for a split second picking up a couple of young hitchhiking guys who had a sign saying "we're really nice people!", but concluded that a), only hitchhiking serial killers would have a sign like that, and b) I would be absolutely gutted if I picked them up and round the corner were a couple of hitchhiking American college girls. There weren't, because stuff like that only happens in teen coming-of-age comedy films, but you should never gamble with the universe like that.

I would definitely recommend a tour of Scotland to anyone that hasn't seen any or very little of it before. It has the most beautiful scenery I have seen in Britain (so far), and, looking back, I can't think of anywhere I stayed that I flat-out didn't like. Obviously I had some incredible luck with the weather which definitely played its part in my enjoyment, and seeing Scotland in the sun is definitely the best way; the couple of days when the weather wasn't great I felt like I really was missing out on something. Unfortunately there's no way to predict when the best time to visit Scotland is to get the best weather - it really is just down to blind luck. I just hope my luck continues for the next few weeks...