Scotland

Barra island is the pearl of the Outer Hebrides. Barra is bleak and rugged, but it can also look quite Caribbean when the sun shines. That's when the locals call their island Barrabados. Twice daily the strand here becomes the stage for an event which no one would like at twice anywhere else: an aeroplane lands. In the middle of the sea. Well more precisely on the strand, because the tide is so low. A high tide here means knocking-off time. The whisky barrels on the remote island of Islay have a long sleep before them. Whisky is aged here for ten years in a storehouse directly on the sea. When the barrels are left here to mature for this long, the oak wood respires, breathing out some of the alcohol, and breathing in the sea air, producing an unmistakeable taste. Although naturally taciturn, the Scots can describe the weather more precisely than any other people. Here not all rain is equal. The weather is simply so Scottish that the vocabulary of the unpopular English does not suffice. We reach Loch Fyne under a sunny sky. This is not only the longest but also the most beautiful fjord in Scotland. It cuts a mighty swathe through the mountains of Argyll and it is here that one of Loch Fyne's greatest treasures can be found: a million oysters.

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