I have this mad notion to visit Shetland for the first time in October when the kids and their dad are doing some sort of walking holiday thing along the north coast.
My half-baked plan is to fly from Edinburgh to Shetland on a Saturday, stay in Shetland until maybe the end of Monday, get the ferry to Orkney, arrive in Orkney at 11pm, stay there Monday night, Tuesday night, get the ferry to Scrabster on Wednesday when I'll meet up with my family for the journey home.
It's only me, I don't mind spending ages on a bus or ferry, no-one will be moaning at me about needing a pee or feeling travel sick.
But how will I actually get on in Shetland with no car? Will I actually see anything? Is everything pretty much shut on a Sunday still?
And has anyone actually arrived in Kirkwall at 11pm on a Monday evening? Can I walk to a hotel? I guess I could fly from Lerwick to Kirkwall but that's more expensive and not very green.
Is this a totally stupid plan? I've just got a notion to go somewhere really different and when the rest of my family are at the top of the country anyway it seems like a good time. We've been around Caithness and Sutherland a fair bit, we know Orkney quite well too. But maybe I should just stick to Orkney.
Or maybe we'll not be able to travel anywhere come October, who the hell knows.