By james art 
The Postie Notes by Mark Gilbert
Is it safe to come out from behind the couch now? Have all the campers and campers left yet? Are we back on track? Not quite, but the last week has been significantly quieter on the roads.
I’m writing this after turning back the clocks and getting up at a silly hour, hours before it was light enough to take the dogs into the woods.
Driving on holiday in the beautiful, scenic expanse of the Highlands is completely different to driving in this place if you are a local or especially if you work. I previously mentioned the problems of driving a white van while my red Postie van was off the road, but now I’ve got the old faithful van back and I feel part of the community again.
One thing I have noticed on the roads this year is the volume of vehicles with foreign license plates, and included in this increase is how many foreign motorhomes and RVs there are.
This is confirmed by a local hotel who reports that there has been an increase of over 50% in bookings from foreign visitors, who I expected to be mainlanders, but then added that they have quite a few Americans and Australians.
Tax and licensing implications for vacation and second homes have reduced the number of rental properties available as a significant number have either stopped accepting visitors or raised prices significantly to meet the requirements of the new laws.
This has had an impact on my ‘sourcing’ vacation spots for friends etc. and caused some people who had been visiting for years to stop visiting altogether.
The roads are much busier than ever and understanding the use of passing places simply passes many drivers, causing unnecessary queues of traffic with a slow vehicle in front.
The most impressive and you can’t make it up this summer was on Sandy Braes, going east from Bettyhill. Sandy Braes is quite steep, has several sections of single track and tends to be very kinky in snow and ice conditions.
I was the third vehicle in a convoy of about eight vehicles, with a massive Man dump truck (which was servicing the spaceport project on the A’Mhoine Peninsula near Melness) a few vehicles behind me.
These massive trucks have a gross weight of 32,000 kg, or about 32 tons in old money. We were in a line due to roadworks at Bettihill and the line formed at traffic control.
As we approached the cattle grid by the turn off for Swordley West and Farr, the two cars in front of me were passed by a camper in front of several vehicles, but then he got out and started to enter the single track which was full of my convoy – there was no where to go!
I was in my own truck so I was at his window level when he pulled up, I politely told him it was polite and legal to allow uphill vehicles to pass freely whenever possible and asked why didn’t you just wait for us to pass.
He took umbrage at his line, saying – “I’ve missed two cars already”! I was shocked and said “well good luck with the tipper sir” as I drove off to Thurso.
Mark Gilbert is a postman in Bettyhill.