A Change of Place

Up (by mistake I have to admit) at 0400 yesterday and off on the 0700 ferry to Glasgow.  Scotland is a bit like New Zealand in some ways.  One of those is the fact that if you want to drive from North to South from Inverness to Glasgow there are only two basic routes: down the centre or down the West coast.  Neither is a particularly good road and the principal one, the A9 down the centre which carries a great deal of traffic, is single carriageway for most of its length.  The A82 down the West is entirely single carriageway and exceedingly windy as well.

Unfortunately the A9 was blocked from 0200 by two lorries which collided head on killing the drivers instantly.  The road remained blocked until the evening whilst crash investigators studied the site and the debris was cleared.  In the last 10 years 71 people have lost their lives on that stretch of road.  The Scottish Government is, however, tackling the problem. The road is scheduled to be dual carriageway by 2025.  By that time another 100 people may have lost their lives and countless hundreds been injured.

I have a video camera in the car which records the road all the time that the car is moving.  I can see it becoming a requirement by some insurance companies in the not-too-distant future.  It has made me much more aware of my driving and the driving of others.  Yesterday the camera recorded two incidents of reckless, nay dangerous, overtaking.

I had a comfort stop by the village of Glencoe at the National Trust for Scotland's visitor centre.  Whilst there I photographed the glen:

So now I have a week or so in Scotland's central belt before returning to Lewis.