May
6
Five friends and I have just spent a weekend in a log cabin in the Scottish Highlands. It was a bank holiday here - an important factor in getting away as 3 of us are teachers and when the kids are in school they have to be too!
Last year at a charity ball we bid successfully for a 3 night stay in the cabin. Although there was very little information about the cabin and its location we were swept away by the fun of the evening and wanting to support the charity. So when we got round to choosing dates when we could go and started to look in more detail at what we had bought alarm bells were ringing. The cabin is located next to Loch Ruthven which - on any map I looked at - was some distance away from anywhere!
Now I need to paint a picture here for anyone who has not driven on Scottish roads. The route to the north of Scotland from Edinburgh is covered by large chunks of dual carriageway - reduced to regular roads when a loch/mountain/river/valley gets in the way. Then there are the single track roads with passing places - and the route to our cabin would be using the entire range!
None of the 6 of us need to drive much. Certainly we don’t have to drive far. There was a considerable lack of enthusiasm for driving to the cabin so I stepped up to the plate and said that if we hired an MPV I would do the driving. Certainly my drivers license does not only restrict me to driving a wee car in the city - in fact I think I can legally drive any size of vehicle up to a bus and we didn’t need one of them so what the heck - I was game to give it a go.
So last Friday afternoon we set off with the sun shining and a stock of music from the early 70s. As I turned off the main road for the last leg of the journey we were straight onto single track roads with passing places…and then when we turned towards the RSPB bird reserve the single track road was also unsealed in some places. But I took it all in my stride. As we turned a corner the loch opened up before us and the spectacular scenery made the journey more than worthwhile.
I even managed to park the MPV - which is twice the size of my own car - in a multistorey car park to much cheering from my pals and with a pic to prove it!
We spent Sunday circumnavigating Loch Ness ( it makes me sound like an intrepid explorer!!). Before I go any futher I need to do my tourist bit
VISIT SCOTLAND - IT IS BEAUTIFUL
OK - now on with the story. We took in a short sail up Loch Ness and drove along the south side which runs right by the edge of the loch and is much quieter. After a long and exciting day we were heading back to the cabin from a different direction than before. As I turned onto the nature reserve road I realised that this was again a single track road but I could not see any passing places. What was I going to do if I was met by a logging lorry coming in the opposite direction ( Why a logging lorry?? Well in Emotional Intelligence terms it is known as catastrophising…). I drove cautiously along and turning a corner I was indeed confronted by an immovable object - or a bunch of them. A flock of sheep - ewes with their lambs - were heading in my direction. There was nothing else to do but to sit and wait til they passed - definitely an awwww moment.
What did I learn from my weekend having stepped out of my comfort zone? Well here’s a summary
- if you don’t try you will never know if you could have been successful
- by not trying you might miss out on something truly wonderful
- the biggest obstacles often only exist in your head
- each small experience can build into a full toolkit of skills very quickly
AND
- there is nothing better in life than spending quality time with good friends
That clinches it! The missus and I are definitely going to have to make it to Scotland one of these days!
(Hey, you should link this one to this month’s WILF - you’ve got at least four of the topics in here already: friends, school, time and mountains.)
Oh dear - you spotted my plan…yes indeed this post does form the basis of my WILF for this month…more to come
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