Wednesday, June 3, 2009

The Sun Really Does Exist!

This post is from 29 May:

What a difference a day makes. The rain and cold finally broke, and we woke to clear blue skies. This was such a more welcome beginning than cold and rain. We had our brekkie, and walked down to the Eilean Donan castle. Unfortunately we were 30 minutes early for its 10am opening so we decided to skip it. Robin figured (and he's likely right) that the castle is prettier from the outside; it's probably full of mounted animal heads and portraits of old dead people. Fair enough.

Next to went to Glenelg to find the group of 3 brochs. The sun was pretty hot by now. There were lots of tufts of stray wool on the grass at the first broch and we started picking them up; some of it had poopies in though, so we skipped those. Somehow I fancy myself a wool spinner and am going to make myself some sort of garment out of the stuff (if it's not confiscated by Customs?).

One sheep had found her way inside the fence of the broch and was there when we arrived. She wasn't very happy having us show up! But she did get used to us or something after awhile; she even came close enough to me that I could pat her woolly head. That's a first!



After leaving the first broch, we walked down the road a bit and saw the 2nd one, but decided to head on to the 3rd. It turned out this was about a mile down the road and was a well-ruined ruin.

It was a good climb to get there, and it felt good to stretch the legs. After those exertions we walked back and explored the 2nd one.



Despite ourselves we keep photographing sheep.


The road to Glenelg is mostly single track and goes up some steep hills. Even though the 1st broch is 11 miles down the road, it takes at least 30 minutes to reach it.

We spent a good few hours in Glenelg. Once back on the main road, I started to get sleepy after not too long. The walk in the sun probably helped with that. I needed a nap! So we stopped off at one of the forest walk sites and had a rest under a pine tree near a stream. Robin decided to stay in the car where ticks were less likely to appear.

Refreshed, we got back on the road and soon stopped for lunch at the very nice Invergarry Hotel. We had a great lunch of leek and potato soup, grilled steak sandwich (NOT a cheesesteak), and a brie sandwich. Super yum!

From here I thought the rest of the trip to Tarbert would be quick because it was on green A roads. Not so. The going was still windy and slow. We got to Oban at about 6pm and got some gas. Then we stopped at Kilmartin at 7pm or so and saw a few ancient ruins. It was very nice to have an evening walk and to see some of these sites again. The last time I was here the area was crowded with tourists.

Now one the home stretch to Tarbert: only a half hour further. We're staying at a very nice B&B on the harbour; I've just had the best shower I've had all week.

Unfortunately we got here too late to have a cooked meal so we've had snacks in the room. Another cooked breakfast in the morning though and then -- hooray!! -- on to Islay!

2 comments:

  1. Enjoyed this, Sam! Laughed at the photographing sheep remark -- we are just back from Sicily and I couldn't stop taking pictures of charming alleys. Mike was very patient. Thank goodness for digital cameras!

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  2. I know! I can't imagine if I had to still carry film around!

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