Wednesday 28th September

The sun is still shining when I wake and the rabbits are still breakfasting. The fishing boats have all headed out for their day’s work but most people are still asleep. I have a long way to drive and so head off in good time. I follow the A1 north along the coast and admire yet another glorious day. I have foregone socks and returned to sandals and sleeveless tops and it is still too hot. Trusty Ka clocks 100,000 miles after we cross the Scottish border. Sterling service from a small car designed to be driven in a city. It’s taken me up hill and down dale and across rather too many fields. And there are a few hundred more miles to go today.

The Forth Bridge sees the first hundred miles complete and I stop for coffee in North Queensferry, slightly too early for the (gluten free) chocolate brownies which are still baking. I try to check messages but getting a phone signal is elusive and being able to pick up email even more difficult. It may be the 21st century but the internet is for people who stay home with a broadband connection. The weather remains sunny but as I travel further north farmers are still harvesting the crops. In the south, the harvesting is done and everything ready for next year’s crop. Up here there are still combines in the fields and plenty of tractors trundling along the roads.

I take the A9 north and Inverness is 120 miles away – and I’ll have another 70 miles or more after that. So I keep driving. Farmland, moorland, Cairngorms, Highlands, hills, dales, peat bogs, distilleries, more farms, more hills and heather and still the road goes on. Eventually I get to Inverness and stop at Tesco. Here, wonder of wonders, I manage to find a post office and buy a stamp to send a birthday card to the US. I have been carrying this card for weeks but there is a distinct shortage of post offices these days, and those that still exist have long queues. Now the card is on its way – hope it arrives before Christmas.

Then it’s back on the road and now heading west – not such a good idea as the sun is setting and much of the time it’s hard to see anything but how smeary the windscreen has become. Glorious evening but want to get to my hotel in Sheildaig before dark – the last 20 miles or so are on single track roads. This usually means peat bogs and/or sheer drop on either side, no reassuring cat’s eyes and locals who have inch perfect knowledge of the roads. In daylight these are great driving roads, after dark it’s rather more scary. The sun is setting fast and the hills are soaking up the last of the light. I make it to the hotel by twilight and have local scallops for supper. And now to sleep, it’s been a long day and I’ve driven more than 300 miles. Time for a rest.