Our Route

I spent two weeks traveling through Scotland with a group of friends relatively recently. We ferried from Amsterdam to New Castle with a caravan and roughly two metric sh*tloads(*) of nerdy equipment: Everything ranging from solar panels, over rc-drones to infrared cameras had been on board.
(*) 1 metric sl equals roughly 1,76 imperial butt tons

I prefer a quiet and serene vacation. Having as little internet access as possible and visiting calm and beautiful patches of landscape. Describing Scotland as perfect for this kind of holiday would be an understatement. It may be the very definition of it — especially since we traveled up to the Orkney Islands located north of the mainland.

As we gained latitude, encounters with the human species became scarcer while the raw beauty of the Scottish landscape unfolded before our eyes. Yes, magnificent landscape can be found almost anywhere — yet it usually feels profoundly cultured and refined in many places: Almost as arranged by previous generations; shaped by centuries of agriculture, borders and battles. Oh so contrary in Scotland! Mankind has not conquered nature here: Rocky ridges surrounding majestic bens, separated by deep glens in between and nothing but patches of turf wafting in the breathtakingly strong blowing north winds. Interrupted just by occasional towers and castles scattered around the landscape resembling long forgotten chess figures left behind by prehistoric titans. It felt like exploring an impressionistic oil painting with its vivid colour palette of azure skies, indigo waters and flakes of moss-green grass on meteorite-grey rocks. Just the lack of red tones baffled me — it may be due to the fact that brick houses and tiles are fairly common in Germany, though.

We sat on mountain tops, lay on sandy beaches and watched the sun setting for hours. We also visited several distilleries on our journey and therefore may have bent the import regulations on alcoholic beverages to a certain extend on our way back. It most definitely wasn't my last visit to Scotland.