Great travel story. Funny and informative ( )

Thorpe has hit upon an interesting take on the travel book. "Adrift in Caledonia" recounts his exploits hitching lifts on different types of boats all around Scotland, through both her inland waterways and her coastal routes. Thorpe's enthusiasm shines through, even when he is exhausted, helping to row a curragh (modelled on that used by Saint Columba on his historic voyage from Ireland to Iona) or beset by plagues of midges near Fort William.
My slight misgivings (and I concede that they are slight) revolve around his writing style which veers too often towards the over-simplistic, and the lack of description of the landscapes or seascapes through which he passes. Even his trip to the outer reaches of Corryvreckan, Britain's only naturally occurring whirlpool, seems curiously tame given the wondrous nature of his subject matter.
Still, I am now eager to investigate many of the waterways that he has described, and I am glad that I read this charming book. ( )

Nick Thorpe wants to travel around Scotland by boat. His portrayal is more of the characters than the landscape. He does this well, though the book does feel at times as though it is lurching from one unconnected story to another. But that is ultimately the issue with character based travelogues. He does interweave history and his personal philosophies in well to the overall cloth of the story. ( )

"One clear morning in May, Nick Thorpe left his Edinburgh flat, ducked off the commuter route and hitched a ride aboard a little white canal boat, heading west towards the sea. It was the first mutinous step in a delightful boat odyssey that would take him 2500 miles through Scotland's canals, lochs and coastal waters, from the industrial Clyde to the scattered islands of Viking Shetland. Part travelogue, part memoir, Adrift in Caledonia is an affectionate portrait of a sea-fringed nation - and of the drifter's quest to belong."