My daughter left today for two weeks of hillwalking on the West coast of Scotland. One of the unique features of my children's school is this two week period in May every year when the whole year group in S3, or the 14-15 year olds - all 230 of them - are split into small groups of about a dozen and go off into Scotland's wild places, with 3 or so teachers per group. No bookwork, no science-project-homework-on-the-side. Just physical endeavour, some of it pretty challenging. The prosaic name for this experience is 'S3 Projects'. It's based on the philosophy of the Scottish-born American environmentalist John Muir, who wrote "I only went out for a walk and finally concluded to stay out till sundown, for going out, I found, was really going in."
Because I want to stay as close to the progress of the seasons as possible, I'm not going to post her photos when she gets back - I'll do that at the same time next year. Instead, I've got a guest photographer for the next two weeks - my son, who kept a photo record of his Project 3 years ago. This involved cycling a 450 mile circuit from Inverness up the North West coast of Scotland, along the top, and then back down to Inverness. They camped for the most part, with the occasional luxury stay in a Youth Hostel.
So here is a nameless station, on the first day of cycling. It's on the railway line from Inverness to Kyle of Lochalsh, the mainland terminus for the Isle of Skye. My son can't remember what the station was called, and I can't quite read the sign in the photo below. It could be Achanalt. Anyway, the group hit one of the many quiet times on the line.
(edited to add: Day 1 - Inverness to Contin, 18 miles)
Those passengers waiting on the up line (or is it the down?) get a more robust waiting room.
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