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!

Rain, Rain, Go Away

From 28 May:

Well, it is Scotland after all. But it was rainy most of the day. This got to be drag after awhile.

Today was meant to be a scenery day since we didn't have any historical or other remarkable sites to see. We took the roads closest to the coast; these are also slow roads. Many of them are single track with passing places. This means if you see someone coming towards you, either you or they need to stop at the nearest passing place. (The road resembles a snake that's digesting several rodents.) Even though everyone is generally very polite and each party gives a wave after passing, this charm wears off after stopping a few dozen times.

As it has been, the scenery was exceptionally striking for its vast and often barren beauty (barren of human evidence; often barren of trees). We took special care as we were driving through the area of Loch Laxford to find the roadcuts that contain Lewisian gneiss. We learned about the roadcuts here from the TV show How the Earth Was Made; Lewisian gneiss is folded into and appears above some sedimentary layers that are younger than the gneiss. Unraveling this geological mystery was the subject of the HtEWM episode. And indeed there are some very interesting examples of this type of folding.



We did see one castle: Castle Ardvreck on Loch Assynt. This is a small and minor structure, though it does have some interesting stonework. As with Dun Dornaigil the previous day, the center of the structure is filled with earth. Again I had to scramble up the wall and investigate. Thankfully getting up and down was not too treacherous this time, in comparison with yesterday's scaling of Dun Dornaigil. Since it was raining when we got out of the car, and I didn't want to get soaked through as I did yesterday at Urquhart Castle, I decided to don my rain trousers. What a great feeling to be covered from head to toe in water-resistant nylon! Nothing could stop me! Let's go! Even though we spent much of the day in the car I kept the rain trousers on the whole time. Just in case. And the day was cold enough that I did not overheat.

Pictures of Ardvreck Castle. The ruin from a distance:



A closer look:



Me, in full rain gear, looking out one of the upstairs windows:



By the time we arrived in Ullapool it had warmed up quite a bit. The highlight of this city was its yarn shop (there are surprisingly few of these to be seen in Scotland, one would think there would be more with all of the sheep). The shopkeeper is a lovely and eccentric woman who commanded me: don't knit with metal needles!! (Think Joan Crawford as a knitter.) One must always use wood! I spent way too much money on some beautiful yarn from Wales made from wood pulp, and a pattern for a casual jacket. But hey, lemme alone, I'M ON VACATION.

The weather was frustrating and I was feeling some frustration that we were spending so much time in the car when there were such gorgeous hills and trails to be walked, but Robin and I were endlessly cheered by seeing the sheep, and particularly their lambs near the side of the road. The lambs are probably a couple months old and they are still very attached to their mothers, always keeping by their side. Yesterday we saw a lamb that was on the other side of the road from his mum. We slowed down to take a closer look at him and he panicked when he saw our shiny metal box separating him from mom. I stopped then and seeing the opportunity he bolted across the road to be with her:



This was an incredibly endearing sight. The lambs have a mischievous look about them that reminds me of kittens. And we all know I can't resist kittens.



We finally arrived at our B&B for the night (our room is in view of a loch) at around 6:45pm, not long after the proprietoress phoned us to find out what was the hold up. (Thankfully Robin got himself a UK T-Mobile SIM card, so we have a local number.) We are a short walk from the Eilean Donan castle. This site has become a Scottish icon; its photograph is the subject of countless postcards, adorns the cover of many Scottish guidebooks, and is even the backdrop for the balloon in one of the BBC America spots.



We rewarded ourselves with another hearty dinner at a local hotel restaurant tonight, again including a pint of McEwan's 80/- and even a dessert of sticky toffee pudding.

Hoping for better weather (there are rumours of a mini heat wave) for tomorrow...

It's Smoo-licious!

[Wow! Two posts in two days! We're at the community centre in Port Charlotte again. Another sunny day, but a cool front is making its way down from the north, so we have some high cloud and slightly lower temperatures than yesterday. And some mist on the ocean. Can't see Ireland as clearly from our outside table today. Just back from an interesting tour at Kilchoman (kil-HOME-an) Distillery; more on that later. Belly (and head) still a bit warm from the dram... The post is from 27 May.]

Road fatigue. Starting to get tired. Especially after a pint with dinner at the pub, I'm feeling particularly tired.

We started the day at Urquhart Castle; first thing. We got there before all the coaches started arriving with their loads of foreign tourists. Rainy! We watched the clouds roll through the loch (Urquhart Castle is on Loch Ness and gets a lot of its tourism from the fact that some sort of monster was allegedly once seen in the vicinity). The setting is very peaceful and soothing, but we got well-soaked and a bit of a chill from all the rain. I didn't put on my rain trousers for the visit which I should've done. I didn't get as wet as I did during the hail storm yesterday, but we were out in it for a longer time. The castle, though, was lovely as ever (this was my third visit):



There was a guy wandering around the castle grounds in period attire (I'm not sure what period; Robert the Bruce period? Mel Gibson and Braveheart?). I gave him a perplexed "Hello" hoping he would tell me what he was up to, but no dice. Too early in the day for me to be amusing and take it any further, so I walked on. Robin couldn't think of an opener either. Another missed opportunity to show off our clever wits.

Hardly anyone was speaking English in the visitor's centre (lots of German, also Japanese). For some reason I really wanted some tacky Nessie souvenirs, particularly the ceramic thing I'd seen years ago -- Nessie in the water (how to describe this?) -- it's four ceramic pieces that when laid out on a flat surface look like a serpent half in/half out of the water (maybe a picture would do better here --- ha! got one:)



Everything at the Urquhart Castle shop is so posh now, so no fun for us (at least not in the mood I was in today). I did get Olivia a plastic knight's mask and sword. Every girl should have these things. I figured since she's worked that walking around with a blanket over your head is a giggle, she should enjoy tormenting her doggies with a plastic sword (sorry Jess!)

Thankfully we found some cheesy souvenirs in a shop in a nearby village. Now I'm all set for tacky Nessie stuff.

Next stop was Corrimony Chambered Cairn. Lots of cows with their calves in the field next door. Lots of mooing. This made Robin (aka 'City Boy') nervous even though there was a fence. Cows can't jump fences Robin. He settled in soon enough and enjoyed playing with his camera. I took pictures of cows, but after a little while decided that photographing livestock isn't very satisfying.

Here are a couple of my pictures of the cairn:





Livestock photography:




Lots of slow roads today. Single tracks with passing places. After the cairn we started to make our way north, on our way to Durness by way of Dun Dornaigil Broch. This is a remote site that I never made it to before: a long sought-after Historic Scotland site for me.

On the way a sign for a falls caught my eye, so I cajoled my navigator into taking a detour. It was not a long detour, and it was over narrow roads with hardly any traffic. I figured this would be a quaint stop-off with few or no other people around. Imagine our surprise when we arrived to find a sprawling complex that included mini golf, bbq pits, a cafe and an extensive shop that included a surfeit of Harrod's merchandise (Harrod's???). The falls were surprisingly small, nowhere near large enough to warrant their adjacent activity farm. Take a look for yourself:



Who are we to judge? We used their well-appointed toilets for a wee break, and I bought a sock for my phone in the shop (yeah, you have to see this. I think it's a Japanese thing. And it has my name on it! Hey! I'm on vacation!)

The road to Dun Dornaigil was slow, but it had some of the most spectacular scenery I have ever seen in my life. Hills and vistas and clouds and light and NO OTHER PEOPLE to crowd us or spoil the view. This is why I come here. My only regret is
that we haven't been out more exploring on foot. As usual I have bitten off more than I can chew in terms of distances to travel (yes Mahinda, you were right, I've tried to pack in too many miles into too short a time). My hope is that we will have more time for walking next week on Islay. I'm already planning our next trip here: walking the Western Higland Way, and climbing Ben Hope are two items on the list.



At Dun Dornaigil the entrance was blocked up, but my inner imp emerged and I managed to scale the wall to find that the interior was filled with earth and grass was growing on top (so we weren't shut out for safety reasons or other nonsense). Brochs are interesting to visit because they have a double wall structure. I was hoping to find this, and show it to Robin. While it was fun to climb the wall and imagine myself queen of all I surveyed, I didn't think through how I was going to get down. Thankfully my gallant companion again rose to the occasion and guided my feet a few steps until it was safer to jump down. He helped to break my fall and prevented me from falling into the ditch alongside the broch.

The broch from the outside:




Me, in repose, after satisfying my curiosity:



Robin took this picture of Loch Eriboll while we were in transit:



We finally arrived at our B&B a little after 6pm. Tired and hungry we went to the Smoo Cave Hotel for dinner. I had a sustaining meal of steak pie and chips (yummm) and a nice hearty pint of McEwan's 80/-, our new favourite ale. Feeling much better, but a little tipsy, we went to Smoo Cave. Making every bit of word-play on the name that we could think of (it works like "Smurf" did), the cave stunned us. It was unexpectedly vast and beautiful, with a falls hidden inside. Here are some views from in and around the cave:






Wondering where the hell that water was coming from, had to scale back up to find the source. A stream flowing down from the hills feeds the falls:



Thankfully the large hole in the cave that the falls, um, fall into is safely fenced off, though we are advised to not throw rocks down the hole, to avoid clocking visitors below on the head:



At 11:15 pm it was still twilight and didn't seem like it was going to get much darker. Ever.

Chasing Rainbows

[Hello Evereebodeee! Even though we've not been able to get internet connections very frequently of late, I have been writing every night ('cept Saturday May 30) so that my entries aren't coloured by hindsight. This entry is from 26 May. When I have some more time I will add the other days and add photos for what's already been posted.]

All day the weather has been so changeable. We'll have clouds and rain and then beaming sun. We started the day in Fort William, running a few errands first: getting phone cards and arranging accommodation for the night, as well as a trip to Boots where they always have so many nice things to buy that I can't seem to find at home.

On then to Inverlochy Castle. I'd been here before, in 2001. To me, it's not one of the more impressive castles because it's pretty well crumbled away, but since we were in the area I wanted Robin to see it. I couldn't get him out of there! He took dozens of photos. (I took the one below.)



And here's one of me: happy to be in Scotland, happy to be at a castle:



After awhile I decided to wait at the entrance and watch the clouds pass around the bens, notably Ben Nevis. There is something, I thought, about viewing this scenery that is good for the soul. So awesome, and so peaceful.

A fun thing about the changeable weather is that we're able to see the scenery (and take photos) in a variety of lighting conditions.

Once I was finally able to extricate Robin from Inverlochy we went to the Ben Nevis Distillery (this is a whisky trip too; wait 'til we get to Islay). Outside of the distillery, for whatever reason, were three Highland Cattle (phonetically: "heilan' coos"); the first we'd seen on this trip:



After a few obligatory photographs we went inside to find that the next (and last) tour was to be in more than an hour, at 2:15. They weren't very welcoming, and didn't even have toilet paper in their loo, so we decided to give this one a miss and move on to the town of Caol, rumoured to have a nice yarn shop.

Another bust. It was more of a second-hand shop with some yarn scattered here and there. Nothing you could really do anything with. Very disappointing.

On to lunch. Finally things started looking up. We had a nice pub lunch of salmon and chips and a nice slice of lemon meringue pie to finish. Then on to Neptune's Staircase and the Caledonian Canal for a long walk. Here's part of the path along the canal:




Unfortunately, my pint at lunch made me a little less than energetic for a walk. Then we took a detour -- very strange, there was water running under the water: An aqueduct. We took the path down and walked under the canal.



Once we'd crossed the canal from underneath we decided to walk back to the car along the canal path on the other side. We had a much better view of the bens on the way back and took more pictures. Then only minutes from the car, the skies opened up and we were pelted with hail!

Soaked through, we got back on the road, driving up along Loch Ness. We stopped at the Bridge of Oich (another Historic Scotland site). On approach Robin said it was crap, but he changed his mind once he had a closer look. (Here he is on the bridge.)



During much of the drive the weather was literally a mix of rain and sun (Scotland is the only place I've been where you can need your sunglasses on and your windshield wipers going at the same time) so a few times we got lovely views of full-arced rainbows. Robin took some pictures out of the car window:



Then we were able to get some better pictures at a parking place (there aren't that many of these) along the road.





After our long day of traveling we finally arrived at our B&B. For dinner we walked down to the local shop and got cheddar cheese and biscuits and wine, after which (since it was still light out at 8:30pm) we took the nearby Woodland Walk which goes close to Loch Ness, but not close enough to get good views.

We even got some wireless access at the B&B [where I posted the previous days' adventures]. Now time for sleep to ready ourselves for tomorrow!

Day One

I was worried about not getting enough sleep on the plane, since I wanted to be fresh for our first day. The flight wasn't so bad after all. I ate some (not very satisfying) food in the airport so I could forgo the meal on the plane and maximize my sack time whilst we were in the air. This and a couple of Klonopin did the job pretty nicely. Ever the gallant one, Robin slept on the floor (!!!) so I had the 3-seat all to myself on which to stretch out.

First job on arriving in Glasgow was to find our hire car. Last time I was here I had pre-paid the car and the company subsequently went out of business leaving me on the phone on hold with Travelocity for over an hour. I didn't share with Robin my fears of a similar scenario this time. Our company, Practical, does not have offices in the terminal, so we phoned their office and was told they'd "be there in about 5 minutes." Only I misunderstood the meeting instructions and it ended up taking about 30 minutes to finally find each other. Once that was done, our rental agent, William, who was incredibly funny, complete with a thick Glaswegian accent full of glottal stops and other fun Scots-isms, got us ready to go. We've been issued a Fiat Panda in electric blue:



More than once on returning to the car today I thought the back end had been chopped off. It handles well, especially now that I'm getting the hang of driving on the left again. There were a couple times on making turns that I almost went into the right lane; thankfully I kept my senses well enough to avoid disaster. So far. On occasion I check with Robin to make sure I am indeed on the correct side of the road. Eight years is a long time. The last time I was here was in 2001; then it had only been 2 years since I had been driving on the left. It's harder to get back into the swing of it now. I'm sure I'll be zipping around like a native again in a day or so.

First stop of the trip was Glasgow Cathedral. The cathedral is in a part of the city that is old and quite charming. I had forgotten how sprawling and built up the city is.

Here's a picture of the cathedral:



Here's a picture of the cathedral with me in it:



Across from the cathedral is Glasgow's "Oldest House," a charming building of three floors with a lovely garden in the back:




I think I was taken with this a bit more than the cathedral, especially since it had some whimsical carved stone faces at the back of the garden. Here are two of them:




Whilst sitting in the garden at the Oldest House the sun came out in force and I enjoyed some welcome radiation.

After a very refreshing cup of tea and scone in a nearby museum café we decided to make our way out of the city and towards Ballachulish, our stop for the night. Soon after leaving the city limits the scenery began to change dramatically to the steep, stark hills of the Highlands. The road was heavy with traffic and although I had slept better than usual on the flight, I still had not had my full night's rest; I started to get very sleepy. We stopped in a layby and I slept in the car for 45 minutes of the most hearty sleep of recent memory. Robin, the guy who spent the night on the floor of the plane cabin, wasn't at all in need of a nap and went for a walk in the wilderness, coming back to the car with no fewer than six ticks on his person. Once awake, we continued our route on the A82 alongside Loch Lomand. Even though we had clouds and rain the scenery was astounding.



We took a short detour to see some falls that are part of the route of the West Highland Way and were there in time to see some daring lads dive in to the chilly shallows:



By evening we arrived in Ballachulish for a welcome pub meal of fish and chips (and a couple pints of McEwan's 70/- for me).

Getting Ready!

Leaving in TWO DAYS! So, today I phoned the estate office in Islay to find out how to go about getting into the cottage next Saturday. The woman who answered said, "Oh, just go to the cottage, the keys will be in the door!" I didn't bother to tell her that's not how we do things here in Philadelphia.

It's a Blog!

Okay, I made the first post just the map because my Compose window got hung up with all that HTML in there to read. Or something. Not sure...

If you click on "Larger Map" you can see the planned route in better detail. The insert got a little squiggled at the end where we make the trip from Kintyre to Islay.

My idea for the itinerary is:

25 May: Arrive in Glasgow. Pick up luggage and car. For some reason I picture that it will be sunny and hot and I will be feeling unwell because I spent my night on a cramped, smelly plane. It's much more likely to be cloudy and cold (and I'll still be feeling unwell). In any case, we'll make our way out of the airport to the first stop: Glasgow Cathedral. This is a Historic Scotland site that I never managed to get to in my years living in Edinburgh. From there we head north in the direction of our B&B near Glencoe (which is near Fort William) for the first night. What the day brings will depend upon how tired we (well, me, really) are.

26 May: We may try to hike near, around, if not up Ben Nevis, the highest peak in the UK. This seems a bit ambitious for a 2nd day activity. Watch this space.

From here I only have a rough idea in mind:

• From Fort William head towards Inverness, stopping at Urquart Castle along Loch Ness.
• Continue north to Tongue, turning west there to the Dun Dornaigil Broch (another missed HS site).
• Travel along the coast west and then south to Ullapool where I hear there's a great yarn shop!
• Continue south to Glenelg near Skye to see the group of brochs there. I have been there before but only briefly. It was striking and beautiful; I promised myself I would get back there someday.
• From Glenelg we'll make our way to Oban, the relatively large port on the western coast. There's a distillary there; it may be a good place for overnight if we can find lodging.
• On Friday the 29th we'll be staying in the port village of Tarbert. I've already booked this and it looks like the B&B is right on the harbor (when I'm actually over there I may start adding "u"s to words like this).
• On the 30th we make our way to Islay from Kennacraig. Then it's an entire week on Islay visiting distillaries, walking, and hopefully visiting the neighboring islands of Jura and Colonsay.
  

So it's all quite exciting really!