How I Spent My Summer Vacation, Scottish edition

“I travel not to go anywhere, but to go. I travel for travel's sake. The great affair is to move.”
― Robert Louis Stevenson

The older I get, the more I value being able to move, and to travel. I'd long had an overseas walking tour on my bucket list, with the Scottish Highlands at the top. This year I decided to make it happen.

In December I made the reservation with Country Walkers  for their Highlands and Isle of Skye tour, and I knew I needed to up my game when it came to walking. I was used to doing my daily 10K steps, and loved to walk around cities for pleasure when I'd be traveling, but I was nowhere ready for a walking tour. I spent the next six months investing in new hiking boots, a daypack, trekking poles, a hydration pack and some good socks. I also purchased a Florida State Parks pass.

The latter was an important motivator. I'm blessed to live in North Central Florida, a land of slightly rolling hills and numerous outdoor activity sites including state parks like San Felasco Hammock and Payne's Prairie. These areas provide plenty of opportunities to get out and walk in the woods (or on the prairie), a delightful Florida winter activity.

However, our rolling hills are no match for terrain like this, the view of Loch Lomond from atop Conic Hill (elevation 1,184 ft./361 m.). Yes, I climbed up here on a breathtakingly beautiful day, my first day trekking the Highlands.

We set out from Glasgow with the option of two walks, one around the loch and the woods of the Trossachs, the other up the hill. I lined up with the hill walkers. Since I hadn't come all this way just to sit on my butt I gamely climbed on, grateful I'd invested in good trekking poles. I have to say it was worth it for a scene like this. Afterward, when we'd discuss the merits of the easy vs. moderate walks I could tell myself, "You made it up Conic Hill, you have this."

The way the tour worked we would be transported to our trekking site while our luggage would be taken ahead to our next stop for the night. You can see from the map how we made a circuit around the Highlands and Skye, returning to Glasgow at the end.

Our group was made up of mostly more experienced hikers from more mountainous locales--Santa Fe, Denver, Australia--but I was pleased that I was never the last to straggle in. I had worried about that, especially when I casually asked a fellow traveler the first day what she'd done when she got to Glasgow and she said she'd taken a nine-mile hike around the city to relax.

But it was easier after that first day. Here's a shot of all of us at Rubha Hunish, the northernmost point of the Isle of Skye. In the background at the horizon you can make out the Outer Hebrides. I'm the short one in front with a blue jacket and a bare head. 

Of course, since it was Scotland, we also took time to sample a wee dram or two. I especially enjoyed the single malts collection at Cuillin Hills Hotel on Skye, and our tour of the Blair Athol distillery at Pitlochry.

But what I liked best was just being there, and seeing it on foot. The flowers, the lochs, Flora MacDonald's home and gravesite, the hills--all of it was breathtaking and truly one of the last best places on earth to visit in its natural state. No coach tour would have compared. Walking the land, even when we were stepping through sheep and their residue, made for a truly unique experience.

There were  so many other sights I could describe and pictures I could post, but the real takeaway from this trip was learning more about a part of the world I'd only read about in numerous novels or seen portrayed in films and television. It's a rugged, windswept country and I feel blessed that I could be a part of it, if only for a brief period.

Duntulm, Skye

Glencoe