When my great-nephew asked me why I travel to the Scottish Isles every year, I found myself saying, ‘Because there’s a surprise around every corner.’

As an answer it’s as good as any. I’ve been exploring the islands, mostly by myself, almost every year for about twenty years since very early retirement.

I take my car, but I stay, wherever I can, in hostels and bunkhouses and self-cater, no hotels, no b and b’s. This cuts down costs of long trips, and meets my needs for living simply. Hostels are in my genes. My father was one of the pioneers who, in the 1930s, helped set up the Youth Hostels movement in England and Wales.

Friends ask me if I get lonely as a solo traveller. The answer is no. Spending the daytime reflecting, looking at birds and otters through my binoculars, flower-spotting, beachcombing, walking, meeting people by chance and chatting – these are pastimes happily spent alone. But coming into a hostel or bunkhouse each evening meets my basic need for social interaction. If I were to wild-camp solo every night instead of going to hostels I probably would get lonely, and devoured by midges.

I’m not insistent on being alone in the islands. Occasionally I’ve been with family or friends when we’ve rented a cottage for a week or so. I can then see the advantages of sharing these treasured isles with others.

But the obvious advantage of solo travelling is that you can please yourself. You can do what you like, choose where to go, and eat your stewed lentils with a tin of sardines without anyone complaining. As for the question, ‘An older woman walking on your own – are you safe?’ the answer is possibly not always. I have few inhibitions when meeting other walkers, and greet everyone I come across if they don’t greet me first. This has led to some interesting chats in out of the way places, and a fair bit of serendipity too.

There’s also a pragmatic and possibly morbid motive to greet everyone, especially in lonely places. I want people to remember what I look like and where they saw me – just in case I have a fall or accident. But this must be true of all solo travellers.

Do I have an underlying motive, like escape or enlightenment? Mariella Frostrup wrote in the Times: ‘Why did the man climb Everest?’ ‘Because it was there.’ ‘Why did the woman climb Everest?’ ‘Because she was divorced or having a mid-life crisis.’

I have not been on the islands in the middle of a divorce or in crisis,(as far as I know!) So I go travelling because it’s immensely enjoyable.