UK 2.0: Timberbush 2 - The Highlands

As our bus drove past the first mountain on our left, the a changes in the terrain is eminent. Tame pastureland gave way to more defiant landscapes. The straight roads we had traveled on from heart of civilization started to grow sinuous.

The ancient elements mingled almost freely here. One Mountain leads on to the next or at times to a clear lochs and back to more rugged forms. The road on which we rode, some fences, occasional houses and a railway track were the wee reminder of human activities. Regardless, the work of our hands dwarf in the surrounding grandeur of the handiwork by forces far older and more persistent than ours.

We went deeper in and the clouds got lower. White shroud cap the mountain tops. Before long, the lumbering white giants released their burdens.

Despite how close the clouds looked. The drizzle was on and off, as I would expect from mountainous place. We were heading northwest and in that direction rests the North Atlantic.

I was rather fond of the bronze frock carpeting the landscape. We were told if we were to come a few weeks prior, all would be green (or violet where wild heathers dressed the hills); a few weeks later, all would be white under the winter chill.

Sometimes the road would bend near a walking trail. We did spied some brave souls dragging kayaks into a mirror still loch.

We went deeper and higher. Mountains got prouder. Narrow waterfalls cascaded down their unyielding backs into silver streams that slithered though their feet.

As a helicopter soared by the road and disappeared into the clouds, we were told that each year an average of twelve people lost their lives in these mountains.

Nothing here ever presented themselves as safe or easy. These are harsh places and many indeed are the forces we have yet to tame. Humanity alone are not the true masters of the universe, but we have been invited to share and to partake of the majesty.

Traffic began to pick up once more as we get closer to one of Scotland's most famous glens.

I was amazed. But more so, it was a humbling experience. Maybe more than being a tourist, one should be a pilgrim in these sacred cathedrals not made by our hands.

"All of earth is crammed with heaven,
and every bush aflame with God,
but only those who see take off their shoes."
~ Elizabeth Barrett Browning