Page 210 - Udaan 2019-2021 Final

The Scottish Highlands – The Unexplored Beauty

Ankit Sengupta , IX/X

The United Kingdom includes England, Scotland, Wales and Ireland. The North West

part of Scotland is called the Scottish Highlands. A combination of blue sky, green
mountains and the blue lakes make this place picture perfect.

This place remains unexplored till now due to the poor public transportation
system.

Like all Indians, we started our United Kingdom trip from London. After spending a
few days in London and the surrounding areas, we moved further North to Glasgow

and Edinburgh. After seeing the magnificent castle of Edinburgh, we moved further
North to enter the Scottish Highlands.
Before we started our journey from India, we knew about the poor Public Transport

in Scottish Highland. Driving a hired car was the best option and most European
tourists use hired self-driven cars. Although my father’s Indian Driving License was

acceptable in the U.K.,my father had never earlier driven a car outside India. After
a lot of debate, we decided to make a meticulous plan using Public Transport.

Fortunately, all bus and train timings were available on the internet.
We planned to make Inverness as our centre for travel in Scottish Highlands. We

had planned to take a train from Glasgow to Inverness with a changeover in Perth.
We had BritRail pass, so we could take any train with that pass in England and
Scotland. However,the train from Glasgow to Perth was late and we missed the

train to Inverness. The next train was after two hours. We spent two hours on the
platform and we realized how lonely that place was. There was not a single person

except a ticket checker. Just before ten minutes of the scheduled time of the train,
a few old couples came, parked their cars at the end of the platform and gathered

there.