When you travel you stop stagnating. Each day I realise I have grown bolder, more spontaneous, grasping at any opportunity for experience that comes along, will it fade once the routine of everyday returns? I’ve always identified myself as a shy person, but maybe I’m not that either anymore.

I guess it all started with the Canadian Texan in hawaii and his faith in serendipity. Then the flyfishing surgeon in oregon, and that is how we found ourselves whisked away to the north of scotland, after only a glimpse of edinburgh in the rear view mirror.

The sky is so thick with clouds, they form inverted dollops in a sea of grey. We’re sitting at the crask inn, an inn literally in the middle of nowhere, there is not a house, nor a tree in sight. It is the second last resting point on that great bike trail from the very most northern tip of scotland to the south of england. So this lonely little inn, is actually bursting with cyclotourists, and us, but we couldn’t fit in the dining room so we’re just sat in the bar without another sole. Occasionally the barman would bustle in, all flustered and apologetic about the delay, linger a moment then shuffle out again all a-stutter. Dylan tried haggis, there was an elderly border collie by the fire. It was rather charmingly scottish.

We were there because Dylan’s friend Andrew was on his way to see his house under construction in the rather ominously coined badcall bay, as he did every Wednesday like clockwork. With less than a few minutes of thought we took the opportunity to see the wilderness of scotland, we were going to be set free on the west coast to ride for a week until Wednesday came again.

Andrew had already shown us his favourite bakery where the flour is still milled on site by an ancient machinery powered by a water wheel. Then there was a visit to the architect, rather a fascinating experience. It was in a warehouse near Inverness and inside they not only designed, but built the shells of their buildings to be trucked on site and erected in only a few short weeks.

It was all rather inspiring to see the buildings coming together in the shed, how architecture should be, a glorious collaboration between builder and designer. The direcor Matt was genuinely focused on sustainability and didn’t seem burdened by the ego that so many architects possess. Andrew, a business man had an ulterior motive in mind when he invited us to join him, he wanted us to critique the new project they had designed for him. Matt and rob were wonderfully receptive to what could have been an affront, and we actually brainstormed together easily, building ideas back and forth. It was strange after so long out of the office to find ourselves back in one, but kind of nice and familiar, old braincells lighting up again after long disuse. In the end we could imagine these guys as friends, they were our kind of people.

So another day of taking chances, ended in interesting connections and we are again blown away by the human capacity for generosity.