The Highlands and Islands of Scotland are Europe's last great wilderness: one of the few places in this increasingly cluttered continent where you can really get away from it all. Forget nightclubs or multi-screen cinemas. People come here for peace and quiet and an unequalled variety and quality of landscape: white beaches, turquoise seas, heather- clad mountains, magical glens, towering waterfalls and deep, mysterious lochs. When the rain stops falling and the mist clears there is no more beautiful place on Earth. Around every bend in the roads that wind their way through this vast region is a sight that leaves you (and me) testing the limits of your vocabulary in search of yet another appropriate adjective.