Location, location, location

Monday was the day I was supposed to start working in my van.

After Sunday's ride into Fisherfield I woke up in a cliff-top layby just outside Poolewe, in north-west Scotland. I might have had a beautiful sea view, but I had no water, nothing to eat for breakfast, and I was a good 40 miles from decent mobile/cell phone reception.

This wasn't a great start to the working week.

I'd set out on this experiment full of optimism, highly motivated to get on with some work. Waking up tired, thirsty and hungry, nothing could be further from my mind.

It took me a while to work out where I'd gone wrong.

For most of us, whenever we set off on a journey we have a specific destination in mind. Getting to the destination is the point of the journey.

When I decided work from my van, I knew I wanted to do it in Scotland, but I hadn't chosen a place to start. Cell phone reception is patchy up here, and unless you know an area well it's not obvious where to go.

I'd avoided the problem.

When I noticed the Highland Trail race was starting in Tyndrum on the day I was arriving in Scotland, that gave me an easy way out. A destination that I could put in the satnav.

After the race started, I made the same mistake again.

Having no specific plans on Sunday, I decided (on the spur of the moment) to try and photograph the riders when they reached some remote mountains in the north of Scotland. This is where I parked up after the 160 mile drive.

Had photographing the race worked out the photos might have been rather good, but it wasn't what I was here for.

I've realised I need to be comfortable spending time in places that don't have amazing views, but that have showers, shops and a way to get online. Not to focus on the destination, but on whether I can be productive when I get there.

Luckily Monday wasn't a total write off. I broke up the driving by spending a few hours in Bad Girl Bakery, a cracking little café just outside Inverness. While there I wrote the previous post. If you're ever passing through Muir of Ord on the A832, the coffee is rather good, the staff are lovely, and the food is excellent. There are also plenty of power sockets.

Places with great facilities and views to match are obviously the dream, but I'm going to have to be patient and sniff these places out slowly. I stumbled across a rather good spot on Tuesday, and have no plans to move on for a while. More on that in the next post…