We are enjoying a week and a few days here in Scotland doing some camping and really getting a good look at the country. We are amazed at how similar the country side is here to Canada in terms of the evergreen trees, lakes, and mountains. At times, it is very much like northern Ontario and then Alberta with the foothills and straight into B.C. with majestic misty countered mountains. The air is fresh, the people are super friendly, although we find it hard to follow what they are saying with their thick Scottish accents. Rick keeps saying, "Hey, say Haggis or Sporran" everytime we drive pass an elderly Scottish man. I smack him, of course, and remind him how inappropriate that is. But I laugh out loud afterwards. Tonight we are settled in a lovely caravan park just south of Dumfries in the south western part of the country. Compared to most of the campgrounds we have encountered, this one is immaculate. The grounds are nicely kept and it has modern showers and laundry facilities. I feel more at home in a place like this.
Tomorrow we head out of Scotland after being here since a week from Saturday and off to the lake district. What we have found incredibly odd about the trip so far is the number of B & B's that have no vacancy signs. Even the places in the remote parts of the Isle of Skye had no vacancy signs and we just couldn't imagine how all of these places could be full. We imagined that perhaps the owners were away on vacation or they didn't really want guests or they wanted to appear full for tax write off purposes and so on. But as we travelled and encountered so many of these signs we couldn't help but laugh at how odd this seemed.
Secondly, it didn't matter where we were, there would either be a bus stop or a phone booth. Even at the tip of the Isle of Skye, residents could catch a bus or make a call, if they had to. And there were times as we were travelling around the island and it felt like we were the only people on the face of God's earth, that a bus shelter or the famous red phone booth would appear to remind me that no, in fact, civilization did still exist.
Travelling through Scotland has made me realize how small I am and how big God is. I felt like a mere dot as we navigated through the windy roads flanky by massive mountains, the misty clouds surrounding their peeks and the river twisting at their feet. I wanted to say thank you to the Almighty for giving me the eyes to see such amazing things. Sometimes we have to witness his greatness to understand how tiny we are in this world and appreciate that being here, my friends, is not a mere accident but a blessing to be acknowledge every day.
