My journey from Wick to Inverness goes smoothly: I say goodbye to all these impressively committed people in Wick harbour, cruise in a relaxed manner, moor up in front of the first lock to the Caledonian Canal and go through its registration procedure (Scottish Administrative Unit…). – What keeps me busy during the trip is the fact that, due to the weather, I won’t be going around the north-west corner of Scotland and therefore won’t be visiting the Outer Hebrides. Instead I will drive through the Great Glen resp. through the Caledonian Canal (which was completed in 1822).
I described this decision to sail through the Great Glen a few days ago as not particularly sexy – where is the seafaring challenge of sailing through this excitingly beautiful area? – Have I strayed from the path of the ‘Circumnavigate Philosophy’?
It is exciting that I question and evaluate my actions so self-critically via the concrete design of the geographical route. In fact, two hearts beat in my chest: the geographical and the social route! – As long as both routes are congruent, everything is perfect. But now they have drifted apart; the route to the Outer Hebrides is ‘no man’s land’, no harbour far and wide (and no infrastructure and therefore no petrol) and therefore no meeting possibilities. Instead, there is currently a lot of weather turbulence.
The route through the Great Glen, on the other hand, brings me to the people who have found or created a livelihood in northern Scotland. And because the Great Glen with its lochs, first and foremost Loch Ness, is a highly frequented tourist area, there will certainly be a lot to observe (a tourist is watching tourists…). I decided to do this.
Docked at the marina in the channel ‘behind’ Inverness, I first have to refuel; I want to have my tanks filled up as much as possible, so that I can also move freely on the west side of Scotland, in the island world of the Inner Hebrides (where fewer people live than here). – Returning from the car refuelling station, opposite me is a RIB that seems to be constructed according to the same concept as my ArgoFram – have I found soulmates here?
This inflatable boat is a bit smaller, with an enclosed cabin in the middle of the hull, and with a mobile tent for sleeping at the stern. And: it has a diesel outboard engine – diesel, unlike petrol, is available in every harbour in Great Britain!
Those who have come here with this RIB know exactly what it takes to travel or holiday independently in this area. And indeed, I meet a couple who want to travel largely autonomously and enjoy ‘home’: He is an engineer and retired physics teacher, she ‘his beautiful wife’ and together they are a great, fully matched couple. They are very attentive, and after we have got to know each other a bit, they invite me to afternoon tea on their boat (and serve lovingly prepared treats). In the process, we talk about the insanity of the current times, and I understand more and more what lies behind the façade of those Scots who disagree with current politics but are in the minority. (For example, this boat builder explains to me how shaky the current coalition in Scotland is: Ms Sturgeon’s SNP wants independence first and then the oil business, while the Greens as coalition partners want to save the world and therefore gain power.)
In order to hold on to power, or rather to get to it, both parties are prepared to get into bed with each other. Conflicts are inevitable; this can be seen beautifully in the case of oil: The SNP can only finance the dream of Scottish independence with oil, while the Greens really demonise oil – oil is evil and the oil fields off the coast should be closed… – The fact that plastics and medicines and many other things are only possible on the basis of oil is brilliantly suppressed by these circles, my interlocutor exclaims (as far as an educated older gentleman with an exemplary attitude is able to exclaim at all). Nothing adds up here, he says, but for the sake of power they bend and distort reality in a way that makes one’s hair stand on end; he wonders what he has been able to convey all these years at the higher level of education when young adults in particular follow this Green Party and its ideology….
The weather is great, the tea tasty, and we turn to our boats – in fact, like me, they had been guided by the same ideas in their Boat-construction. And so this fine, cultured and sporty couple try to circumnavigate Scotland in their (re)built boat and enjoy the beauties of their homeland. They do well!
In the evening, I walk into the city – and experience an atmosphere like in the Mediterranean: people sit out of bars on the pavement (which is not really possible in Scotland; the bar is indoors and the beer, if outside, is drunk standing up). But the unusually summery weather leads to unusually summery behavioural adjustments. I like it; I still don’t drink beer, but I ordered a panaché, which they don’t know – exciting discussion until I hold the glass with this juice in my hands… That’s how to travel!