The climate of the West Highlands was unsuitable for human habitation before we started to change it

Wet day in Lochaber

It's on wet, windy days in Summer more than in the winter that I sit with a mug of tea in the kitchen and wonder if the climate of the West Highlands is unfit for human habitation.

We humans started out in sub-tropical Africa then as population increased we moved north and west into the Mediterranean basin, so far so good still a nice year round climate. More people then meant further northward and westward expansion into Britain and Norway..........a step too far.

These places are cold, wet and windy year round we migrated too quickly and just haven't adjusted to horrors of the Scottish climate. It's no accident that rates of alcoholism increase the closer you get to the N. Pole..

Climate change has only made things worse. According to the Meteorological Office, in the last 100 years Scotland's climate has become warmer with drier summers but heavier winter rainfall due to the increased concentration of greenhouse gases in the atmosphere.Scotland's changing climate

Here on the west coast not only is it wetter and windier but there is significantly less sunshine since I was a boy in the 1940's. Average hours of bright sunshine between 1941-1970 and 1964-1993 decreased by 16%.

Train de Provence

Predictions for the future are more of the same,...... wetter and....... windier but I have a solution for the near future... next month!

Eurostar from London to Nice, you leave after breakfast and arrive at tea time. A few nights Airbnb and daily excursions up into the Alpes Maritimes on the Train de Pignes.

You get off at a delightful Provencal village, have a walk in the sun, a nice lunch then back to Nice for dinner. Chemins de fer de Provence