Title: The Creaky Traveler (in the North West Highlands of Scotland)
Author: Rovetch, Warren
Published by: Sentient Publications, Boulder, CO
Year: 2002
Date reviewed: 12.02
ISBN: 0-9710786-7-X

This is really two books in one, part separate and part interwoven. The main book – about three quarters of the whole – recounts the author’s travels up the north-west coast of Scotland. The other book is a handbook of travel advice for Creaky Travelers (“the mobile but not agile”).

Rovetch and his wife travel modestly, covering perhaps 40 miles between each stopover of two or three days. This gives them plenty of time to stop and linger, admire views, talk to people, and soak up atmosphere. Being creaky, they do not go in for long walks, and certainly not uphill. While they lose out by being restricted to easy distances from their car, their meticulous preparation and research mean they make the most of the places they can access. They make sure, too, that they are open to any “serendipitous” encounters which come their way and for which their leisurely pace gives them time.

It is 14 years since this reviewer travelled through the same area. Some things have clearly not changed: the wild and remote scenery, the shifting colours and textures of the landscape, the way the mountains of Assynt rise individually from the surrounding mosaic of moorland and lochans, the self-assured self-reliance of the people who carve a living out of this marginal land. Rovetch appreciates all these, and describes them with warmth and sympathy.

Other things, though, have changed. European Union money has made Lochinver a much more active fishing port. More comfortable and enjoyable places to stay and to eat have opened. Traditional music has grown over a very short time from being an eccentric activity of a small minority into a significant movement. And the people of Assynt were the first to achieve a buy out of “their” land from the landlords whose vast estates cover most of the Scottish Highlands.

These aspects of Highland society are covered at some length. In fact the book deals far more with the people and the culture of the region than the scenery – there are relatively few passages just describing the landscape.

The handbook-within-a-book offers sound advice to less mobile travellers, although even non-Creakies will find plenty of useful tips. Rovetch’s pre-departure research and preparation is particularly impressive. At times, though, the handbook and appendices intrude into the main account, sending the cover-to-cover reader flicking back to see where he or she had read some passage before – a thought, perhaps, for future books in the series.

But overall, Rovetch has shown how much there is to appreciate and enjoy in this corner of Scotland. Travelling with open eyes and ears, mind and heart, he knows that although he is only 600 miles from London he is in a completely different country. North American readers will particularly appreciate his handy “rules of the road” for driving in the Highlands, and discerning travellers everywhere will thank him for daring to speak out against the British catering industry’s shameful abuse of so-called “toast”!