Digiteach alba

So we’ve taken two weeks off on holiday … the first time I’ve taken two consecutive weeks off in about three years.
This week brings us to the utterly beautiful Isle of Skye, in the Inner Hebrides of Scotland.

This isn’t the first time I’ve been here on Skye … I was first here when I was 7 years old with my parents and two sisters. In those days the whole island shut down on the Sabbath. These days at least Portree’s main supermarket is open, with many shops and cafes on Sunday. No longer are you stones by the natives for having a normal day outdoors.

What definitely has also changed is the level of traffic … and the standard of driving of visitors. I’m not talking about those with foreign number plates. Neither am I talking about those in obvious hire cars, like basic Ford and Vauxhall vehicles.

Nope, it’s all the other Brits who have come up here on holiday. For some of you, your driving, lack of attention, speeding and selfishness is breathtaking. I don’t know how there aren’t more serious accidents on Skye, especially in the tourist high season.

We’ve seen cars&caravan parked in a passing place, cars abandoned just after blind bends and hills as the drivers wanted a snapshot of something pretty, cyclists ignoring passing places and kamakazi-ing down single track roads on E-bikes, playing chicken with cars and vans coming the other direction with right of way and the worst … the absolute worst … drivers crawling along a single track road at 5mph with multiple cars behind them as they are looking at a pretty piece of landscape.

At times like these, I’m aghast at human stupidity and wish I could enbiggen my hands like Ms Marvel and swoOOSH these silly drivers into the heather, out of the way of sane, rational human beings.

With great natural beauty, comes great human stupidity it would appear.