Crossing Scotland (13th -14 July 2021)

Making our escape from damp Mull, we drove east along Ardnamurchan and the northern side of Loch Sunart, for about 50 miles. There were some fabulous views such as this bay, far below the road.

It's actually quite a difficult drive as the narrow road twists and turns, rising and falling through woodland and you are constantly looking ahead to the next passing place. In fact the driving style in all these parts, requires you to be ready to stop fairly promptly at that next passing place, as a vehicle might be just out of sight. It was surprisingly 'busy', although we had forgotten what busy is!

At the Corran Ferry you can take a sneaky trip across Loch Linnie and before we knew it, we were amongst the towering mountains, driving south through Glencoe. 

Unfortunately the rain there was even wetter than on Mull and that epic drive was not quite as spectacular as we had hoped. Still, we did stop halfway up, to reminisce about a family walk up to Bidean nam Bian. I don't really know how we managed this with two girls aged about 10 and 7 but we and they did. It's about 10 miles and 1200m of ascent into the one of the classic mountains in Scotland. We finished the day in the Clachiag pub and other walkers who were following and trying to keep up, congratulated us for our speed and ability.

Today we could only stand and stare through the drizzle and mists and then continued up the valley and past the ski area at the top and onto Rannoch Moor. Now we were back in 'busy' with cars driving at full pelt, swerving in and out as they tried to make faster progress than the main stream.

It was nice to be in these mountains and we turned left to cross the country and headed to the Scottish Borders (a county) where warm weather was still forecast to continue.

We made an overnight stop at a caravan site where the lady in charge thought nothing of keeping her lawnmower running for an hour whilst she chatted to a resident caravanner. I even walked to where she was standing, about 300m from the mower, to tell her but she was cool about it.

The rain held off until the food was cooked on the barbie but we ate inside.

The next day after an impromptu pull-in and short chat at a garage selling and renovating Land Rovers (Lix Toll garage), we continued south and east towards the coast just south of North Berwick.

On the way we stopped for a coffee at a memorial to Colonel Sir David Stirling who was the founder of the SAS Regiment and to all those who have given their lives whilst serving in or with the SAS Regiment. What an amazing airy place it is, with a super statue and a detailed biography of the man. I read it all and then walked around.

In 1941 he was a Lieutenant in the Scots Guards, serving with their Commando regiment. He suggested there was a need for small teams of parachute trained solders to operate behind enemy lines, to gain intelligence, destroy enemy aircraft and attack their supply and reinforcement routes. L Detachment SAS Brigade was formed and operated in North Africa in November 1941.

It seems as if the initial teething problems were countered by his "enthusiasm and endeavour" and they rapidly expanded. In spite of being captured and sent to Colditz, he was freed at the end of the war in Europe and promptly planned to re-deploy to the far east but the war ended there before they travelled.

He received his knighthood in 1990 but died later that year. I wonder why it was left so long to recognise him?