Scotland | The Beginning

Travelling to Scotland last Sunday marked the beginning of a much larger adventure for me. Firstly (and obviously the most important), this trip is the first of mine and Harry’s together. It is (I think) the most time we have spent together in the same space and what better way to define a relationship than wandering, and running, aimlessly around Scottish beaches and little country villages sharing an interest in photography and beautiful things. I think it’s safe to say we’ve both had a pretty great time so far, depsite Harry’s insistence that it is too cold and a house full of very fussy eaters in completely incompatible ways.

Secondly, it is the first step after handing over the keys to my house, moving my things out and packing all my remaining possessions into a brand new, very pretty, travel backpack ready to leave for bigger things. We arrived on Sunday morning and spent the majority of the day navigating our way into and around Aberdeen, through Turiff and into a taxi to Aberchirder, where my Nan met us with open arms and a very welcome hot coffee.

Since then we have gone for walks up Cleanhill Woodlands, taken far too many photos of toadstools and creepy crawlies, and very briefly saw a couple of wild deer scampering through the trees. There is something very humbling about seeing animals in the wild, and something I didn’t expect from a routine visit to see my Nan. Much of the countryside up here is farmland but there is still a lot of beauty to be seen and explored in the strictly organised colour coded fields, plodding through thick grass and trying to avoid being run over by passing tractors. The spiders out here are pretty scary and there have been a few times I’ve almost walked right into huge cobwebs housing creepy crawlies of all shapes, sizes, patterns and colours; I honestly don’t know how I’m going to cope with the much more intimidating wildlife in Australia if I can’t even handle a couple of Scottish spiders.

Another trip we’ve taken was to the village of Fraserburgh. Just a short day after arriving we were bundled into a small shoppers bus for the locals, and taken on a long-ish bus ride up to the fishing village of Fraserburgh, where the plan was to just pop into Tesco for supplies and have a quick coffee before being shuttled right back home. But while my Nan and her shopper friends bustled into the most scenic Home Bargains I have ever seen, me and Harry scouted out a place to wander and soon found ourselves racing up a sand dune to look down over the nearby beach and lighthouse. Before daring eachother to run down to the bottom.