Lewis and Harris is about a 3-hour ferry ride from Ullapool, which is already probably further up into Scotland than the vast majority of people will ever go. The view as you leave the Ullapool harbor is 😗 
Once you get to Lewis and Harris (pop. 22,000), you've got a pretty wide open landscape in front of you.
You'll see more animals than people as you roam the island. I highly suggest coming in late April, as not only do you have sheep sunning themselves on the beach...
...but you'll also have the baby sheep (yes, I know that the term is technically "lambs", don't @ me) taking a moment away from suckling to wonder just what kind of ridiculous being you are, walking on two legs and holding a strange object up in front of their faces.
Throw in some cows...
...and some horses...
...and you can spend your days hiking through rolling fields tracing rocky coastlines.
(Note: We had pretty much the best week of weather possible. These photos in no way represent a typical Scottish holiday; no refunds will be given for grey skies, wind, and beating rain.)
So, I promised some tech stuff. One day we were at a tiny shack selling scallops, oysters and mussels, not far from the beach at Kneep. Usually, there's no one staffing it, so you come in, get what you want from the fridge, and leave your money in the honesty box.
But there was something else in the shack - Amazon boxes, namely those used to mail out books. There is a bookstore on the island - in the one real town, over an hour's drive from where we were. And let's just say that the selection there was more for tourists than locals.
There are issues related to Amazon, yes - but they're issues that we can solve as a society. For me, the key is that we're now living in an ever more connected world, where fewer and fewer people are cut off from culture and knowledge because of where they live. Even here.
The next day, we met a man on a beach who had moved to the island a few years ago from a mid-sized city in England. We talked about life here, and asked if it wasn't hard in the winter. He said no, not really - and plus, they have broadband so, "We even have Netflix now!"
"No mortgage, we work at small jobs, walk all the time with the dogs..." He was happy, having found a little piece of paradise. And that's the other thing - connecting the world will open up more and more places where people *can* want to live at different points in their lives.
Connections are possibilities. Yes, that's an optimistic view, and the man we met on the beach understood as well the drawbacks of tech, noting that the local shops are having a hard time. That's part of the transition that we're making to a new age.
By the way, if you want a look at the new horizons of the future, sign up for @Nicolas_Colin's newsletter (bit.ly/NicolasNL) and keep an eye out for his upcoming book, "Hedge" on how we can create a new, better safety net for everyone.
So here's to having options for those grey days, and to connecting the world in new networks that truly bring quality to everyone's lives. It's not easy, but that's kind of why we really need to keep pushing to get there.
And don't forget to grab yourself a bottle of gin, some tonic and a grapefruit from the @harrisdistiller. It's maybe the one place in Scotland where you won't feel as if you're missing out by not drinking whiskey 😉 [fin]
