I've been to Scotland many times, always to different areas. This time I discovered yet more places, and I was amazed how beautiful it is. In the whole of the Scottish Highlands, which occupy 60% of the country, there's beautiful scenery wherever you go, often with fine 360-degree views which change every km. I went to look at hostels for my website, which provides a good opportunity to follow routes I wouldnt have tried otherwise, but every road went through continuous beautiful scenery.
This time I started in the Trossachs, which is just 20km N of Glasgow. The area comprises woodlands, mainly birch trees which are just starting to turn colour, craggy hills with forested lower slopes, open moorlands where the heather has finished its season but is still a pleasant shade of yellowish-brown, a few mountains, and lochs that you come upon unexpectedly, seen through the trees or right by the roadside. You can drive along quiet roads -- one of them is a 30km-long no-through-road that ends on the shore of Loch Lomond! -- through birch woodland, then between little hillocks with glimpses of hills beyond, then alongside a small loch, with a mountain as the backdrop.
On the second day I looked at some hostels in Perthshire, an equally beautiful area adjacent to the Trossachs, but with scenery on a grander scale. I stopped in Aberfeldy, a pleasant small town in a valley setting with wooded hills around. In that area is a yew tree estimated to be 5000 years old!! One hostel, on a farm, had a fantastic view looking down Loch Tay, one of the longest lakes.
I was then on my way further north, and the hostel owner advised me of a better route through the back of the county. That provided more wonderful scenery as it became more mountainous, before I hit the main A9 road where it started going through the wild, rather bleak country to the Drumochter Pass. I then came down to the broad vale of Strathspey, where I stayed at a friendly hostel in Newtonmore.
I had 2 days here in Scotland's 'Big Country', between the massive Cairngom plateau and the lower Monadhliath mountains, and broad vales between with patchy open woodland, green fields, and a few lakes. You've probably heard of Aviemore, the centre of this area, but that is the least attractive bit -- a shapeless village with no centre, built for tourism only. Taking heed of the weather forecast, I chose the first day for a walk, and other visitors to the hostel told me of a hike up a good track nearly all the way to the top of a 1000 m mountain, Carn Ban More, on the edge of the Cairngorms. The drive there on a fine cold morning lay along Glen Feshie, yet another very beautiful valley where I had not previously been. With a starting point at 300m, this was one of the easiest 1000m climbs I've done, with fine views, although scudding clouds made the mountaintops unclear. It was windy on the way up, as indeed had been forecast, but on the top those winds were wicked! About 30mph steady from the SE. I could have walked further along the plateau, but I would then be coming back against the wind, and that really would have been extremely exhausting, so I did not go much further. Lower down, the weather was sunny and quite warm.
That evening I decided to get fish and chips, which can be bought anywhere in Scotland. Well, except in Newtonmore. Restaurant meals were outrageous prices, so I drove to Kingussie (5km) where there was a fish and chip shop. Well, except this week, when they were taking their annual holidays! So I drove to Aviemore (another 16km). Fortunately, the F&C there were really good, and I took them back to the hostel. It seemed a long way to drive, but the cost including petrol was far less than a main course in most restaurants.
The next day, though still warm (14C) was wet on and off, and I spent the day looking at hostels. By far the most interesting was the Lazy Duck, 2km from Nethybridge. You drive down a track, stop to open a gate, and end up in wooded grounds occupied by ducks, a cat and dog, and very friendly owners of a bush hostel with modern conveniences but including a cosy roofed patio where red squirrels came to feast on their nut feeder. You can walk from the hostel gate onto moorland with views of the Cairngorms.
