One last sojourn to climb Scottish hills..?19 10 7 (14) 2025 2 4

The first person to engage in conversation with was a lady sitting on my right as I occupied the window seat of 3 on the starboard side of the KLM Flight, a Boeing 737-800 operating between Helsinki and Amsterdam. At first I was somewhat reticent considering my advanced years and the fact that she was trapped as it were between two men, but when after my ordering a miniature 185 ml bottle of red wine when she followed suit and ordered white, I decided to try my luck. 

Thereafter the flight went remarkably quickly as we exchanged stories about how we came to be leaving Finland: she having visited her aging mother and fellow siblings up country, during her annual pilgrimage, now en route home to her husband and family in The Netherlands, me for the second of my biannual visits to the British Isles, and more particularly Scotland to climb a few more hills. Much ground was covered on both sides and as we approached Amsterdam I told her how I had been somewhat reticent to open up a conversation. Then she responded how she was married to an older man whose hair was turning grey, who wore a beard as I did, and to cap it all had the same Christian pet name as I… She then asked my age moreover and when I told her mine I felt empowered to ask hers, when she said she 62, then added how she prefers older men, hahaha.

Perhaps this experience primed me for more encounters later that day when during the half-hour bus journey between Edinburgh Airport and the City I engaged the pretty young Polish girl who happened to be sitting opposite, someone who had lived already 3 years in UK, who told me about the hills she had climbed with her boyfriend and surprised me with her readiness so to engage, a very vivacious young lady.

Next day as I travelled onwards from Edinburgh I sat opposite an Ethiopian lady replete with head gear and we exchanged notes about the gentleness of Islam, as my wife and I had experienced it in Oman and Dubai, when we took a vacation there to visit our godson a year ago. She too had lived in UK some years and was married with children and was returning home to Perth.

Returning to Pitlochry I was greeted by many of the people from my earlier stays in May and early June: Toni the Welsh manager and Philip the German guy on reception and Haley an Australian girl in her late 20s early 30s were all present when I last departed and later I got to reacquaint myself with Sergei, Toni’s Spanish partner…   

Next day I took a taxi at 7:20 to the start of my walk for Carn nan Gabhar, the remotest of the summits of Beinn a’ Ghlo, and achieved its summit at 12:20 after starting my walk around 8 am. En route down I had the good fortune to meet this guy Keith who was returning home himself by the same route, who kindly took me the last few miles in his car parked at the start of our walk. He was a most engaging person who had completed his round(s) of the Munro hills years before. K related an interesting tale about how he had been walking with a couple of young Police Officers who had certain duties which brought them into close contact with the Royal Family. Unfortunately for Prince Andrew he was singled out as someone who would have his people make arrangements for him to meet heads of industry in Scotland but who a few days before the appointments fell due would cancel all except those to do with his golf club, thus ensuring he had free flights, etc.

With K we ended our walk by sharing our BlogSpot id's but I believe his is infinitely more popular than mine, but nay bother…

Well, I met and enjoyed the company of many many more people not all of whom could be described as the kind of people one would seek out for a longer friendship, but interesting in the sense of how others still reacted to their choice of chat, and thus betraying how they could well be the kind of people for a more prolonged friendship.

One such person was the American lady Megan from Colorado who had left the US first to spend a year in Italy where she began to learn Italian to converse with the Italian side of her family, and then moved to UK where she had held down several jobs and where one could imagine she had been successful throughout. As one of the volunteers at my main hostel it didn’t take her long to begin Reception duties and take on the role of preparing meals for the other volunteers perhaps numbering ½ dozen in total, and who sought me out to bid me farewell on one of the occasions I was leaving, and who during our conversations got to share much of her life’s experiences and its aspirations.