The final frontier

Tomorrow morning, about 6am, I boldly go to the furthest reaches of my (driving) universe - Gairloch.
One of my pupils from Ullapool, Chris, is taking his test there. With only 7 tests a month in Ullapool (and the same in Gairloch), Chris was unable to get a test date in Ullapool until late May, but we found that Gairloch (which is the next nearest test centre) had availability in March. A bit of a gamble, because Chris has never driven there, but he should be fine.

"See Gairloch and you've seen the Highlands. Well, it's obviously not as simple as that, but there is more than an element of truth in it. Because Gairloch can offer a little of everything that visitors come to the Highlands to see. A typically strung out highland village linked historically to the sea; a superb and complex coastline that is both rocky and sandy by turn; islands; lochs; and views that include some the the best mountains anywhere." is what the Undiscovered Scotland website says about Gairloch (http://www.undiscoveredscotland.co.uk/gairloch/gairloch/index.html). Not only that, but the drive over, on the A832, past Achnasheen and Kinlochewe, is perhaps even better than the road to Ullapool.
As far as Chris's test is concerned, Gairloch does have a reputation as being slightly easier than, say, Ullapool. In fact, it has one of the the highest pass rates in the whole of Britain, so no pressure Chris. In fact, there is a rumour that this statistic has led to certain driving instructors encouraging some of their pupils to take their test in Gairloch, rather than at other, more local test centres. Apparently, there is one instructor (based close to Inverness) who has taken many of his pupils to Gairloch, a 90 minute drive away, for their test, because it is less challenging than Inverness. 'Well, that's fine' you may say. No, it is not. Not only does it deprive valuable test slots from people living in the Gairloch area, but 3 of his pupils have written off their cars within weeks of passing their test in Gairloch. Of course, it may have just been an unfortunate coincidence, but any person who is even the slightest bit cynical may be thinking that these pupils were only good enough to pass at a relatively easy test centre, but were out of their depth once back in Inverness. Even if you are wholly generous in your views about this instructor, you do have to ask why he encouraged them to go to such (geographical) lengths to take their test when there are at least 6 test centres that are closer.
'Hang on a minute', you may be exclaiming, 'are you not being slightly hypocritical?' Well, that is a fair question. Inverness, although slightly further from Ullapool than Gairloch is, can be reached in approximately the same time. In my defence, all I can say is that it was Chris's choice. We reached a point where we agreed that he was good enough to book his test, thinking that this would be in Ullapool. But, as I said earlier, when he could not get an acceptable date, he booked it in Gairloch. I think he is good enough to be out on the road, whether it is Gairloch, Ullapool, Inverness or London, so I have no moral dilemma.
I think maybe I have 'bigged up' his chances of passing a bit too much, so be nice to me if I come back here with bad news about his test. Meanwhile, I shall leave you with another pretty picture of Gairloch harbour.