Edinburgh to Inverness and Back

Bonnie: What were your experiences in Edinburgh?

Scott: It was approaching nightfall and I needed a camp site. Campsites were marked with a large "C," and it was too late to ride all the way to Edinburgh. I couldn't find any camping places, so as a last resort, I went up to a door and knocked.

An older woman answered. She looked like my third grade teacher, but I found out later she was a researcher at a lab. I asked if I could set up tent in the yard and stay overnight, but she wouldn't hear of it and insisted I come in and sleep in her house.

We sat up until 2 am talking and drinking tea. She told me of her research projects and in the morning insisted on fixing me breakfast and giving me points of interest to see in Edinburgh. She was delightful. I left with many thanks and again, put her name and address in my log book.

I spent a week in Edinburgh, a couple days of that spent with the captain of the French Olympic Ski Team. We rode together. His English was excellent and he was definitely fit!

My researcher friend told me to visit Holyrood Palace, so I did. When I saw the sewing table that Sir Walter Raleigh had given Marie Antoinette, I imagined him saying, "Marie would like that!" As strange as it sounds, I cried at the thought. For some reason, this whole adventure was putting me in touch with feelings I hadn't had for quite awhile, if ever.

Since there was some time before the Edinburgh Tattoo was to start, I made a side trip to Inverness to see the Highland Games. On my way, I came across Ferdinand, the Bull, right out of my childhood memories. This was the bull that would rather sit under trees and smell the flowers than fight. He was huge and yellow and there he was grazing in a pasture as I rode by.

While at the Highland Games, I watched marching bands, sword dancers, and caber tossers; all the men were in kilts. The bagpipes played. I ate a meal with the top scorer in the games.

Back in Edinburgh, the highlight of my visit there was the Royal Edinburgh Military Tattoo. It's an annual event performed by the British Armed Forces, Commonwealth and International military bands and display teams on the esplanade of Edinburgh Castle.

The stage was lit and there were probably 5000 people in attendance. I had center, second row seating from the performance. Mists rolled over the bulwark of the castle and out of them came 500 pipers and drummers. It seemed if as the audience all gasped in one breath at the powerfulness of the moment. A speaker began. I can't begin to describe it.

I left Edinburgh and headed south towards Hamlet's home at the head of Loch (Lake) Ness, but turned south to look for the monster. No one I met had seen the monster, but they were all excited to talk about it. The further south I rode, the more Anglicized it became. I was heading for London.

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Scott meets Highland Midge

Bonnie: What are some of your other memories of Prestwick, Scotland in 1983?

Scott: I remember walking into a pub that had a sign over the entryway, "Established in 983," a thousand years before I entered! The same family had owned the pub all that time.

I visited the Bridge over the River Doon (Brigadoon). It was very significant to me since I'd played the role of Harry Beaton in the musical, Brigadoon, at the Tacoma Little Theater in 1963. I died in that play, by the way. It was remarkable to walk on that bridge and I was very much alive.
(Smiles).

I met a young fellow about 19 or 20 years old at an outdoor concert. I'd met the whole family who invited me to dine with them and spend the night. He and I made plans to ride up the River Doon the next day to Loch (Lake) Doon. He'd told me about his "hull-walking" experiences. I looked at him quizzically and asked what that was. He spoke louder as if I was deaf and I finally figured out he was saying, "hill!" Strange how people think you'll understand if they yell at you.

On our ride, we stopped to shoot hoops with some kids playing basketball. They were excited to see my bike. It seemed everywhere I rode, kids would swarm me from villages to see my bike and ask questions.

That evening, I met my first Highland midge. It's a small flying, biting insect that leaves a welt the size of 1/2 a dime. They're small enough to go through any sweater and can drive sheep crazy. They can't fly if there's any wind and this particular night, there was no wind.

We were visiting with another chap in a very small cabin, too small for three to stay overnight. My friend and I had to head for our tents, but could see the midges were piling up on the cabin window, much the same as snow piles against a window pane. But about 2 am, we ran for our tent. Once they smelled the midge spray I'd bought in the States, they said, "Hey fellas, let's get him!" I must have been bitten 2.92 million times. (Laughs). We fought those creatures off all night long. I thought I was going insane.

The next day, as we were pushing our bikes along to give us a rest from peddling, we saw a big pile of stones that had once been a castle. We went inside; most of the roof was gone. There was a cove for statuary up the side of a wall about 15 feet, perhaps a second floor at one time. All of a sudden, the cove was lit by the sun through the roof. The light totally engulfed the alcove. It was lit for only an instant. I thought it was another good sign. It reminded me of a scene from Raiders of the Lost Ark.

Back at the village, I said goodbye to the young man and his family, adding their names to a log book I was carrying and promising to let them know how my trip progressed. Unfortunately, I lost that log and didn't keep my promise.

I spent the next two weeks camped high on a bluff and used that camp as a hub. I'd ride everyday into the countryside to see the sights and visit with the people. I remember meeting an older man with a musical Scottish brogue who recited poetry to me. It was wonderful talking to him.  I was also waiting for funds to be sent from home. Sunny, my former wife, had agreed to manage my finances and send money as I needed it. I was still paying child support, of course.

As soon as funds arrived, I left Prestwick and rode cross country to Edinburgh, Scotland, about 85 miles away.

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Preswick, Scotland

Bonnie: Once you returned from Canada, what was your plan?

Scott: I didn't really have a plan other than to get to Europe and make decisions about where I would go from there. It took me about three or four days flying space available on a military hop to get from Washington State to Dover, Delaware. I met people along the way and shared my goal: I wanted to immerse myself in another culture, to get out of my own shit and do it alone. I was learning how to be sober. By then, I'd been a non-drinker for about a year.

From Dover, I flew to Berlin which was in East Germany at the time. I was only there overnight and the next day caught a hop to Prestwick on the west coast of Scotland, the home of poet Robert Burns, who wrote Auld Lang Syne. It was also location of a castle that Dwight D. Eisenhower had commandeered while getting ready for the D-Day invasion. I later visited both Robert Burns home and the castle.

Bonnie: What were your first impressions of Scotland?

Scott: The Scottish invented macadam (asphalt). As I started away from the airport, riding on the left side of the road instead of the right - easier to think about than to do, I was amazed by the smoothness of the road. It was like glass. With 60 pounds per square inch in my tires, I would have felt a hair, if I'd run over it. (Laughs). It was evening; the ocean was on my right as I headed south; it was hot (the hottest summer in 300 years) and the sun was going down. The homes I passed were all similar with thatched roofs and painted stucco walls. It was against regulations to build any structure unless it looked to be 500 years old. The Scottish mists were rolling in. I was really starting my trip in a different time, place and culture.

The Last Apocalypse  is available at  Createspace https://www.createspace.com/4569527
and
Amazon Books http://www.amazon.com/The-Last-Apocalypse-Scott-Haverly/dp/1494465531/