Thousands head for Scotland each summer for their holidays, many of them with caravans or tents.
Just how crowded is it, and is it necessary to book up months in advance? On tour with Thomson's Clan 1600 and a Rover 3500, ah uncomplicated, low-cost van and a first class tow car.
HOW QUICKLY one gets out of touch with the touring scene in a part of the country not visited for a while in holiday time! After a succession of holidays abroad or in the West Coun­ try, we decided last year to give Scotland a whirl and enjoy the de­ serted roads and open spaces. In contrast to what had been expected we found that almost everyone who had any sort of home on wheels, it seemed, had decided to do the same. There were so many motor and trailer caravans on the roads that we cer­ tainly had no reason to feel anxiety about adding our Thomson Clan 1 600 to their numbers.
Scotland has developed its cam­ ping areas very well, tucking them away into wooded parts of the coun­tryside so that they are not an eye­ sore; but they are desperately short of accommodation. We were told we would have to book, but having chosen the Forestry site by Loch Morlich near Aviemore, we then learned that bookings would not be accepted anyway.
The answer, we found, was to schedule arrival for Sunday or Mon­ day, when many people were moving put; and to arrive early in the morn­ ing. This either meant an uncom­ fortably early start for the last leg of the trip to the area, or an overnight halt at some lay-by or quiet place off the road in the vicinity. Others, we noted, were doing exactly the same, and we never saw signs of anyone being moved on. If there's nowhere for one to go, due to underestimation of the growth of caravanning and camping and failure to cater for it, the authorities don't gain much by moving people on.

In spite of the extra tourist traffic on the roads in August, we certainly did not consider Scotland spoilt in any way. Most of the traffic conges­ tion is on the main roads, and we were never aware of being held up by caravans any more than by slow- moving commercial traffic. Even with the big 17ft Clan 1600 on tow, our Rover 3500 had ample power for easy overtaking, and the outfit proved stable for towing at 60 mph. We always tried to be conscious of the fact that a trailed caravan, with its, big slab back and restricted through vision, is the bane of other car drivers, who want to get past it as soon as possible. With a little thought, keeping in, maintaining a good gap from the next vehicle ahead, and using the left indicator to show when it's clear, we found it easy to avoid ever being followed for long.
More often the problem was that another outfit had caught up a slow lorry, sat right behind it with no gap, and formed a moving block. Then came the need for the acceleration to take one safely past the whole block­ ade in one bound — and at least Scottish roads soon straighten out to provide one with the opportunity to overtake.
The advantage of the trailer caravan, of course, is that it can be dumped in a suitable site leaving one then free to tour around in the car and explore the minor roads. Without any difficulty one can find the quiet loch at the end of a dead-end road where one can enjoy the scenery at leisure, sharing it perhaps with only two or three other cars.
Naturally it all depends so much on the weather, and there's no get­ting away from the fact that moun­tains attract rain. But we were lucky, and in three weeks there were at least 20 perfect days and only one really wet one — when we were on the way home — and that's the second time in succession that Scotland has been fine in August.