Very spontaneously I decided to jump on the train to Glasgow a few days ago to meet a close friend for a short week of camping.

Although the Scottish Highlands are quite far up north it is easy to get there by both train or plane without wasting too much time on travelling.

As I was lucky enough to have my friend’s car available from Glasgow onwards we decided to head over to Isle of Skye which—by what I’d heard—is one of THE pilgrim’s places for landscape photographers. We had a quick stop in Fort William on the way.

 Well, Skye has certainly a lot to offer, both for landscape photographers as well as for nature lovers. However, having limited time available, the options are a little more limited as long day hikes require a little more preparation and time. Furthermore, Skye in June is a NIGHTMARE regarding tourism! At every little space available there is a camper van stopped and spoiling the view for everyone else. On top of that a lot of the visitors driving these camper vans have hired them and are—more often than not—unfamiliar with their use. It took us two days to become fed up of the situation and we decided to head back to the mainland and heading up towards John o’ Groats, the most northern point of the UK mainland.

John o’ Groats, however, is—just as The North Cape in Norway—just a stopover to take a quick selfie and check in on social media. It is also crowded with tourists and their camper vans and there isn’t much to see anyway in my opinion.

We eventually started heading back towards Glasgow where I had to catch the 16:40 train back to London on Saturday. Since we still had two days to spend we explored many small roads which often didn’t seem to be meant for conventional cars but which were almost always free from camper vans.

Although I did take my camera, of course, I didn’t make use of it too much. I needed some days rest from busy life in London and being stuck somewhere with my camera is usually not the best thing when I am travelling with someone, as communication stalls and the other person is limited in what he or she can do at that time.

I did, however, realise that Scotland is definitely on my list for future—more in-depth—photo projects. How I will do this, entirely by foot or using a more off-road suitable vehicle—will have to be decided.