True love scene Berlin travel guru adored Glencoe so much she stayed – then chose it as a wedding venue
By Tony Banks, chairman of Balhousie Care Group which operates 26 care homes in Scotland
SHE was a travel blogger who had been all over the world and visited fascinating places, but when she set foot in Scotland eight years ago she fell in love with the country and never left.
Kathi Kamleitner had been drawn to write about the beauty of Scotland through her blog Watch Me See – and she will never forget the moment she knew this was the country which had stolen her heart.
“It was my first trip to Glencoe,” she said. “It simply took me away and I knew then this was a special place. Its rugged scenery and isolation all left an impression on me. I began to concentrate solely on Scotland and I have never looked back.
“I had been living in Berlin and had been planning to spend a year in Scotland. But I am still here and have no plans to leave. I hadn’t even been here before when I just had this inexplicable urge to move here.”
With travel restrictions in place it doesn’t make it easy to earn a living as a travel blogger or itinerary planner, but Ms Kamleitner wanted to keep people connected to Scotland while they couldn’t travel here or within Scotland.
She is now about to launch her debut podcast Wild for Scotland, focusing on Scotland’s islands with the first episode featuring Iona, Staffa and Lunga.
“The show is very much inspired by the conversations I have had with my readers and followers via my Scotland blog Watch Me See since the pandemic started and travel restrictions came into place, “explained Ms Kamleitner. “Many people long for Scotland and dream of visiting, but of course there is no way to do so.
“My podcast presents them with a solution. Each episode, I tell an immersive travel story about a different place in Scotland to give listeners the opportunity to travel there from the comfort of their home, and offer some distraction and escapism.”
The 32-year-old Austrian came to Glasgow to complete a Phd and had been writing for an online travel magazine when she started writing more and more about Scotland.
“I had been travelling around Scotland and was writing about places I had been to when I had the idea for my own blog – and now I only write about Scotland,” she added
“The more I see the country the more places I want to visit and tell readers and listeners about. My list of places to see in Scotland just seems to be getting longer rather than shorter.
“The contrast between the mountains and coast and how close they are appeal to me. With long coastlines and rugged scenery every place is different.”
One of her personal travel highlights was a solo trek on the Hebridean Way, and her journey from Vatersay to the Isle Lewis will feature on one of the episodes. She takes her listeners on a journey and in her one of her island-hoping adventures you can join her from the moment she steps off the ferry on the Isle of Barra.
Describing her arrival, Ms Kamleitner recalls in one episode: “Suddenly and out of nowhere a dark coastline appears. For the past five hours the ferry I am on has been gliding through a sea of fog, hovering closely above the water’s surface. I make my way outside, impatiently awaiting our arrival and the start of my adventure. I am exactly where I supposed to be. And then out of nowhere the island appears through the fog like the menacing arms of a monster.”
While writing about some of Scotland’s more challenging places names, it was a different experience trying to master some of the Gaelic names.
“Writing them down is one thing, but there were a few times when I really had to work on my pronunciation, but I think I got there,” she added. “I hope people will find the time to listen and might even find a quiet moment to sit with a dram while they listen to my travels. It will be one way they can experience travel through Scotland until such times they can return for themselves.”
Travel restrictions saw Ms Kamleitner forced to postpone her wedding in Vienna in August. However, she and husband-to-be Thomas Sutherland decided to go ahead with their nuptials last year and ended up getting married in October – in her favourite place, Glencoe. “It was disappointing when we realised we would have to change our plans for our wedding in Vienna where we would have been able to have my family friends,” she added. “However, we had the next best thing and had a wonderful day with the most stunning pictures at the foot of Glencoe. What more could you ask for?”
My list of places to see in Scotland just seems to be getting longer rather than shorter
Listen to the podcast from March 2 at www. wildforscotland.com
I FOUNDED Balhousie three decades ago and, I’ll be honest, I thought I didn’t have much more to learn about this business. I’ve done everything from cook and clean for my first resident to steering a company of 26 homes and 1,500 staff.
The last 12 months have not only presented the most challenging and emotional moments of mine and my colleagues’ careers, they have also shone a light on systems, policies and procedures that are in dire need of change.
The stories of the toll Covid-19 has taken on families, residents and care home staff are now well documented; the death and heartbreak, separation and anxiety, long hours, and long Covid.
Less talked about is the toll taken on my care home staff by a litany of mistakes: delays in proper testing procedures, delays in test results being returned, erroneous results and “lost” tests, changing protocols and procedures, and a depressing lack of support.
The NHS was, quite rightly, protected.
They were lauded as the heroes. Care homes, which suffered a highly disproportionate Covid-related death rate, felt unsupported.
When National Clinical Director Professor Jason Leitch referred to care homes as “institutions” and said older people were “corralled” into them, he summed up the culture of blame that has surrounded us.
While the NHS enjoyed a mass marketing campaign of thanks, support and goodwill, care operators got a stark warning: pull your socks up or we’ll do it for you. Covidpositive patients were being transferred to care homes without being tested, yet it was the care homes who bore the blame and the judgment when there were outbreaks.
We have felt, frankly, thrown under the bus. Our frontline suffered the most, and still do. Very quickly they had to widen their skill set to become experts in much more than caring. They had to get to grips with public policy and ever-changing protocols. They had to master infection prevention and control daily. They became statisticians and administrative whizzes, organising and recording cases, tests and test results daily too.
They became mental health counsellors, supporting each other and relatives.
They became virologists, tracking the impact of this bizarre virus and wondering why, as has happened among the general public, it killed some and spared others.
And they had to cope with the sort of stress usually reserved for soldiers in the trenches.
We have had media invitations to open our doors and show reporters what really goes on when a care home is fighting a pandemic.
But our consciences got the better of us.
Why, when relatives could not come in to visit, would journalists be able to roam? It didn’t seem fair.
Nearly one year on, what would we have done differently? Heavier, and earlier, lobbying for staff testing.
Mandatory mask-wearing from the get-go. A change in how deaths to Covid are recorded. If someone dies Covid-positive, the virus is automatically listed as the cause of death when their death may be due to something else.
We would have invested earlier in intercoms in each of our homes. These enable easy communication through glass or at a distance.
At £40 each on Amazon, they’re some of the best investments we’ve made.
Another lesson learned is something we were warning of all along: that the Covid-19 vaccine is not the panacea.
Right now we have an outbreak in one of our Perth homes, which was among the first of our facilities to get vaccines – proof that the vaccine will not eliminate the virus from care homes, or society.
So what now? We have seen a turnaround in attitude from Scottish Government officials. Care home operators have their ear now, maybe even their understanding. But we need more.
Let’s see Government support for the care sector, a marketing campaign that’s as powerful as the pro-NHS one.
We need a boost in public confidence, and a boost for our staff – something that demonstrates the powerful and relentlessly hard work of care home teams everywhere this last year.
Our frontline suffered most and still do. Very quickly they had to widen their skill sets to become experts in much more than caring