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Travel Reports

A New Chapter

May 262016

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After three weeks in the very north of Scotland, Hanna and I decide to go on traveling individually. She booked a flight from Glasgow to Canada and I will make my way to Spain.

After our time in Fife, I am walking the West Highland Way. It feels very different to experience Scotland by foot. Cold and wet nights in the tent are part of the Way, as well as stunning views from the boggy hills. On my way I meet Denis and Rosie from Glasgow. Denis runs a Free Lunch Café. Once a week they cook lunch from saved food (from the veg market) and give it away on a donation basis. Hanna creates her own Blog and reports about the cooking for Denis' Café.

While I am walking the West Highland Way, Hanna visits an old watermill in Golspie, in the very north of Scotland. She likes it so much there, that we decide to hitchhike back to help out at Becky and Bob's after our time in Glasgow. Bob, Kiwi and former sheep shearer, grinds organic flours and meals in this beautiful old mill from 1863 (restored in the 1990ies). Every morning we have the world's best porridge and the three weeks go past way too soon. While Hanna is helping out in the house and in the garden, I take care of lifting flour sacks and creating a new website for the mill. On our last day, Bob offers us a road trip through Sutherland. Up here you will hardly meet another person, but experience amazing landscapes. We will definitely come back!

But now it's time to say goodbye to Hanna. It's not easy for either of us to go on individual paths. But we feel, that it is still the right decision. And so I leave her going to the gate and I drive back from the airport to my friend Juri in Glasgow. I can stay there for a wee while to relax in a familiar atmosphere, before I start traveling on my own.

Denis invites me to a weekend canoeing on Loch Lomond, the loch where we once met. I don't think about that twice. You may not believe it, but I actually came back with a proper tan (maybe a bit more towards sunburn). And I met a bunch of amazing and interesting new people. Now I am ready to go down south.

Karen and Alan, friends of Becky and Bob, invite me to stay at their place in Yorkshire. It's nearly impossible to hitchhike there, but they come in my direction, because they have been shopping not far from where I have been dropped off. Yorkshire welcomes me with some heavy rain! Now it's time to say goodbye to Scotland. And I am back in England, nearly the same place where I have been nine months ago. That is a rather strange feeling. But probably not for too long, because the next big destination (for now) is: Pyrenees!

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Nearly on top of Ben Lomond, Scotland

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Golspie Mill, Sutherland, Scotland

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Our first proper Ceilidh (Scottish folk dance)

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Loch Eriboll, Sutherland, Scotland

Comments

Hanna26 May, 2016Our story well told. :)
Tina26 May, 2016Looks good, Alfie. Very best wishes to you and to Hannah. Must be a strange beginning but the chords will see you through! Tx
Alizée 21 June, 2016So cool !

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