Surprise!

Two of the many things that I love about the Minx are her enthusiasm and her inability to keep secrets. In combination, these two aspects of her character have led her to a point of near combustion over the last few weeks as she has struggled to keep our trip this weekend a surprise for me.

She arrived this morning even more excited than I’d anticipated because, it transpired, she’d bought a coffee from the Coffee Cow before setting off and the double shot of caffeine was still racing around her bloodstream, causing her to periodically shout “ARE YOU EXCITED?” for most of our journey north.

I’d already surmised that we were heading into Scotland as the Minx had leaked a couple of clues onto Twitter, presumably to try and ease some of the mountain pressure arising from bottling up the surprise. So, we proceeded up the M6 until it became the M74, all the way up to Glasgow and eventually onto the A9. “HAVE YOU GUESSED WHERE WE’RE GOING YET?” (The decaf at the services appeared to be having a placebo effect.)

The scenery was becoming progressively more beautiful as we ventured further into Scotland than I've ever been before. We passed Perth and drove up through the Cairngorms, and I tried to remember what is to be found this far north, apart from John O’Groats (a planned destination of ours but slightly outside the five and a half hours that the Minx had tweeted that our journey would take). Eventually it became clear that were either going to Aviemore or somewhere very nearby and, indeed, we turn off onto increasingly smaller roads until, eventually, we descent from a tarmac’d single carriage road onto an unmade track, cautiously progressing around ruts and holes until we come out in a sizeable farmyard, mostly occupied by old vehicles of interesting models.

Without giving anything away, a chap called Walter, equipped with a ready smile and an eccentric air, helps us to load our kit into a beaten (although not very old) Landrover and then we set off through the fields until we entered one containing nothing but an old-fashioned fire engine. It is at this point that the Minx virtually explodes with excitement: this is where we’d come to stay.

It was absolutely amazing: this gorgeous vehicle, brilliantly converted inside to provide accommodation for two happy people. We unpacked, lit the wood stove and opened the wine and, a little later, stoked the stove up to the point where we could cook chilli on it. It was a blissful evening and the most amazing surprise I can remember.