I am writing a series of articles taking you with me on my dream trip to Scotland. I wanted to give people an insight of what it’s like to go on a trip as an autistic person.

I explain how I felt through each part of the journey and what it was like to travel without my parents for the first time. In my last article, my friend and I had landed safely, in Glasgow and were just beginning our adventure.

Getting to our destination

After leaving Glasgow, we headed north towards our destination.

Once we left the cityscape behind the views became breathtakingly beautiful. It felt like I was in paradise, surrounded by trees and mountains overlooking vast expenses of water known as lochs. The roads were windy, so each corner we went round a new scene opened, revealing a new beauty.

As our flight was early in the morning, we hadn’t had breakfast, so we were getting hungry. We stopped in a village called Luss and went to the village shop and café. We got our food and drink from the little café inside, before taking it to the tables and chairs outside.

The perfect stop

We had not been travelling for long when we stopped and I was already amazed at how peaceful it was, even on a Saturday. The sun was shining, the birds were singing, and we were making friends with a couple of gorgeous huskies (my dream dog).

Before leaving Luss, we decided to do a little exploring and ended up at a small beach next to a loch near the village shop we had stopped at. It was nice to be able to just stand and enjoy the scenery, listening to the sounds of nature.

It was then time to get back in the car and continue north. The scenery varied along the journey, changing from trees and lochs to mountains and streams. With the heavy rainfall the area had seen, a lot of the mountains had water cascading down the side of them, creating spectacular waterfalls. The best place to see them was as we passed through the mountains of Glencoe.

After a 2-hour 20-minute journey, we reached our destination of Fort William. As we were staying in self-catering accommodation, we had to stop off to get some groceries. We didn’t fancy facing the hustle and bustle of a supermarket on a Saturday.

Getting some supplies

We found a small convenience store to get enough food and supplies for the weekend. For me it was not easy to find things to eat, as I have food intolerances and there were limited gluten free and dairy free things, if any. I got what I needed for the weekend, even though it wasn’t gluten or dairy free. It is for this reason I always make sure to pack my allergy medication and painkillers, just in case my food intolerances flare up.

Reaching our destination

With our supplies we headed to Glen Nevis holiday park. The accommodation wasn’t ready for us when we arrived, so we sat in the pub, where my friend had a coffee or a tea, and waited for our accommodation to be ready. With it being so wet and grey outside it was not the weather to go exploring. We didn’t have to wait long until we received the message saying we could get into the cottage.

It was a short drive along the road to where the holiday cottages were. We were staying in cottage number 10, which was on the end of the row. The cottages were surrounded by so much greenery and to the back was a forest densely filled with trees. We even had some friendly ducks who visited us.

By this time, I had been up over 12 hours, so I was reaching the point where I just wanted to get into the place quickly, unpack and collapse into a chair. On the first night I was pleased to have an early night to get well rested before starting adventures the next day.

My Key Tips

• Enjoy each moment, before you know it the moment has passed.
• Try new things, it may go well, it might go badly, but at least you tried.
• Your needs are as important as anyone’s, so don’t be afraid to voice any adjustments you may need.

Find out what we got up to on day 1 in part 3 of My Dream Trip, coming soon.

Nicola Martin