Dear all,
Day two began with quick toast and coffee..british marmite is nothing like marmite at home, and then we were onto our first stop at the Rogie Falls, just west of Inverness. The falls were beautiful and there was a huge bridge going over the falls. A skidding competition took place, an the aussies won!only be default though because the Scottish were cheating.
From the falls it was onto the Corrie Shalloch gorge, a MASSIVE gorge with waterfall running through it that from the road you would never know was there. The Scottish scenery has been amazing so far..anyway back to the gorge, another creepy sway bridge and lots of Kodak moments.
The highest we get on our tour is up to Ulla pool, a fishing port with not much else apart from the best fish and chips in the whole of the uk (see photos). The only downer was that the rain had started and didn’t stop till the end of the day..eeew.
Kept cruising around the higlands, towards the torrid on mountain range and the beinn Aigh national park for the arvo. The scenery is beautiful, with huge mountains, not many trees (partly because during WW1 they discovered the only native pine to Scotland was also the toughest pine for putting in the trenches..so they cut most of it down) Seeing it all from the bus has been great and hearing all the Scottish legends and history has made the trip amazing so far.
Made our way to Eilan Donnan castle through loch carron..drove around some dumb sheep on the road..and I thought new Zealanders liked sheep..Scottish people let them roam free and have whole shops dedicated to sheep. Eilan Donnan was once the home a Scottish highland clan..the macdonalds (I think), they let tourists in during summer and then live in it during winter. it’s a stunning castle, but the continual downpour (damn Scottish weather) made the afternoon a little miserable.
From eilan donnan its only a couple of minutes down the road and over a huge bridge to the isle of skye..known for its mystical legends, fairies and giants. Were staying at a hostel at Kyle akin, and had dinner at the pub and had a few drinks with everyone. The tour group has 29 people, 6 aussies, 1 new Zealand, a couple of Canadians and americans, Thailand, china and Taiwan and a couple from germany. Everyone is really nice..however some should tell the lovely lassies from china that blowdrying your hair in the hostel dorm at 7am is damn annoying..and to make it worse she had a bag full of plastic bags that she rustled about in…amy and mel weren’t impressed..somehow me and dan struck it lucky and got the private room..
DAY THREE!!
The isle of skye is beautiful, its remote and wild and perfect to drive around and see the amazing scenery..also perfect if you plan on being a hermit..apparently the man who use the hold the world record for most tattooed man lives on skye..he was the one covered in leopard print.he dosnt come out much now though.
Morning began with a face full of freezing water..have a look at the photos to make sense of it all. Apparently dipping our faces in the freezing creek will bring eternal youth..I think our tour guide was laughing secretly at us all as we all followed her word like sheep.
From there we stopped at portree the capital of skye and bought stock for the rest of the day as we headed out into the wilderness of skye..
First stop was a beautiful creek and waterfall over looking the cliffs and the “stor”..which looks like a big stone penis sticking out of the ground..as Scottish legend goes giants were only allowed at night, but one night the randy stor got too excited close to dawn and was then turned to stone for his wicked ways. At the creek me and a kiwi tried to jump over the creek. He made it easily with a solid two foot jump, I went for the leap a little over confident and nearly nearly made it, but didn’t and landed in the creek, damn it. For the rest of the day I had wet shoes and socks and dan showing me the video he took of me looking like an unco.
Along the coast of skye we stopped at the kilt rock (looks like a big kilt on the cliff face) and a pretty waterfall. Ruth told us about old Scottish torture traditions..which included forehead flicking, nose flicking and nipple twisting. Just learned about ruth last night that she met a new Zealander but they cant be together in the uk because his visa has expired..so they are going to new Zealand to get married so they can be together..aaaaww..ruths parents don’t know.
After that we went for a hike at the Quiraing, a huge cliff face in the middle of skye overlooking the whole island, it was a good 40 minute hike to the point, the view was amazing!and the photos are beautiful. We had lunch at the top-chicken curry rolls and caramel slice and donuts..and dan bought a pack of 14 cheese and onion chips..enough chips for all!
On the way back we stopped at faerie (fairy) glen, the little peoples place. it’s a tiny little glen where everything is little, little mountains, trees and a little loch, was realy pretty. The faerie glen was the original inspiration for Tolkien’s lord of the rings. We sat for a while and enjoyed the small amount of sunshine and quiet..until dan began a sheep poop fight..and I copped a poop to the head, mel and amy thought it was hilarious, me not so much.
Last night we went to a pub called saucy marys, named after the Viking princess that use to control the water ways going into skye. The reason for the sauciness was that she use to ask for a fee to cross her waters and if the sailors paid enough she would flash them her boobies on the way past..saucy saucy. Neway, there was no flashing last night, just a really good 3 man band with a banjo, violin and bagpipes (also played a flute). Spent the night enjoying pimms and lemonade and another awesome british spirit-morgans spiced!it’s a dark run but mixed with lemonade it tastes like creamy soda, amy and mel are hooked, im a bit of a pimms girl.
Day FOUR: today began early because we are leaving the isle of skye, were about to board the ferry from armadale to go over to mallaig on the Scottish mainland, will only take half an hour or so.
End of day four: was shattered that we saw no dolphins on the way home from skye..we looked, dans eyes were watering he was looking so hard. For the Harry potter fans today we visited the harry potter bridge (from the second movie with the car), got some photos with a wand and the bridge, and a little mouse we found on the hill..this trip has seen many people going a over t..today was dans turn, he almost rolled down the hill, I laughed so hard and then checked to mke sure he was ok. The harry potter bridge is in front of the glenn finnan monument, which is in the place prince Charlie rallied the jocobite clans before the battle of Culloden..but hey, harry potter is much more exciting.
We stopped at Fort William..dan spent some time male bonding with the other guys on the tour, buying fishsing rods and going into the gun shop and having hamburgers for lunch..while me, amy and mel had subway for lunch, then got kicked out of the takeaway place for eating subway inside (it was raining!!) and browsing inside the shops.
For the arvo we stopped at Glen Coe, a huge valley with three massive mountains towering over it called the three sisters. The mountains are also called the crying mountains because in the 1500’s the Campbell clan massacred the macdonald clan that were living in glen coe, every single man was murdered and the children and women that escaped to the mountains died from the elements..they hadn’t invented goretex or torches yet. it’s a beautiful valley..thinking about it, the whole Scottish highlands have been absolutely beautiful. Funniest thing at Glen coe (im now not that only one to fall in a river) dan and winnie (nz ) and a guy from korea all tried to cross the river without falling past their knees in it..dan fell forward and got soaked, winnie didn’t fall so we threw rocks at him and soaked him and the Korean guy fell over so bad he couldn’t get back up and may as well have gone swimming..bahahah..funniest thing after he got himself up he pulled his dripping camera out of his pocket…ooopps.
From Glen Coe, we are spending a night in oban..our last night on the tour and with amy (also now known as moss berg..it started with amos and has grown a life of its own). Spent the night with pizza and pool and cheap cider, mel isn’t feeling very well, but hopefully she will be ok soon.
Tomorrow were going chasing hairy coo’s, the oldest Scottish pub and the William Wallace monument and a few others.
The tour has been fantastic.
Love to all, love jess xoxo
