Scotish Holiday Makers..? 19 6 17 (5) 2025 2 4

Of course the very fact of being on vacation in foreign parts perhaps has the effect of making the meeting of random people an interesting undertaking especially when this is contrasted to living in a small town where everyone is pretty much acquainted with the rest of the inhabitants: if not so familiarly to engage in conversation of let's say a trivial nature then at the same time sufficiently knowledgeable about the people to know that passing the time of day would not be welcomed...

Walking holidays in UK then usually involve saying hello to people coming against one on say a countryside path while making way to pass one another, if nothing else, but quite often with a brief stop to exchange more information about for example the terrain ahead, as happened to my wife A-E and I as we approached another couple, he a Scot in his 70s from Aberdeen, she a Chinese lady much younger, say in her 50s from mainland China, their meeting so it transpired as a result of his career as a fisherman who told of his 50 visits to China, and of selling know-how about the fishing industry. She was impressed with my pronunciation of Chinese words, like Guangzhou, pronounced Guansho, no doubt the result of having a Japanese daughter-in-law and exchanging ideas with her? And then her name Wuzhou, pronounced Wusho, when she teased her husband about his ineptitude to do likewise. Whatever the event he was an impressive man who told how aged 69 he had climbed Mt. Kilimanjaro in Kenya which explained why he was wearing a rather large broad-brimmed hat that advertised the fact, explaining on this, our ascent of Meall Chuaich for perhaps the 6th time, how he had come to climbing the Scottish hills himself late in life together with a grown-up son, no doubt from an earlier marriage..? If his wife was ready to compliment my pronunciation of Chinese words, he was just as quick to display his prowess as a member of the climbing fraternity as we then continued our upward to their downward journey.

Next off I shall tell you about the younger lady from Quebec in Canada we met towards the end of A-E's stay at the Backpackers' Hotel on the main street of Pitlochry, perhaps the next day when she remarked how nice it was to meet people of our advanced years who were still engaged in such activities as a walking holiday, when so many older people lose the wherewithal so to behave.

  

When a few days later I took A-E to get her flight back to Helsinki I got to continue talking to this young lady, Hudson by name, who got to acquaint me with details about completing her recent University studies, and about saving the environment, which unsurprisingly had figured among her subjects, and when pointedly one day she enquired about my age: unimaginable in down town Finland where we live, such was the easy familiarity of meeting young people elsewhere on vacation. Later, before finally going our separate ways, and after each of us departing in between times for pastures new, but then returning to the splendid sanctuary of this fine establishment, me after a 3-day foray into the hills and my first 2 night stay at the bothy to claim my first new Munro hill, she with her backpack containing among other things a sleeping bag and tent etc., because of a knee injury and the need to rest up for a few days more. Before parting then we exchanged Instagram addresses and so were afforded a continuing link to gauge each other's progress before her return home to Canada and to the boyfriend whom she said was a Turkey Farmer, and me to dear old Suomi…

It was also in Pitlochry I had the unexpected good fortune to meet another guy traveling with his Spanish wife, he an ex-pat from Slovakia, who shared the 4-bedroomed dormitory I was allocated first alone after returning from my 2 nights away in the bothy, who educated me about the Olive Tree industry of Spain which he told grew 60 % of the world’s olives, though most people tend to associate Italy with Olive Oil, rather than Spain, saying how much Spanish oil is marketed through Italy… But at 55 this man contracted Gout and being the son of a medical practitioner he decided to research the causes on-line using the Internet when he came across the practice known as autophagy, as a result of which he was able to cure himself not only of his gout but all kinds of other ailments: the secret he said was to eat only once a day, for him at 2 pm when the body’s auto-immune system does the repairing after 12 hours’ fasting, during the next 10 hours before his once more feasting. Other conditions like for example diabetes are said to disappear with such a regimen, he told… Next I’ll tell you about more examples of extraordinary people I met along the way on this sojourn in Scotland, but first you’ll need to impress me with a modicum of feedback, hahaha!!?