Woohoo! I’ve finished migrating our website over to a new server that my good friend Mike has kindly made available. This means we can start loading up new pics again. Yay!! First new album is up now showing our adventures in Scotland.
On Saturday morning we hopped on a Bus and went for a tour around Edinburgh. It was a great way to see what Edinburgh was all about. The architecture is fabulous and words can’t really describe how beautiful the city really is. After the bus tour we went and found Avis to pick up our rental car. We piled on in and began our journey up to the Isle of Skye.
They seem to be very fond of monuments in Scotland as you can find one in almost every city. We stopped in Stirling to have a look at one of the more amusing monuments - that of Mel Gibson (err i mean William Wallace).
After Loch Lomond we started to enter the Highlands. Vegetation got quite sparse and the hills got huge. Going through the Highlands was probably one of the most impressive parts of the drive. Vast steep mountains with waterfalls and rivers running everywhere. This kept up pretty much all the way to Fort William which is probably the Scottish equivalent of Taupo. Fort William sits by a Lake and is also at the base of Ben Nevis. Unfortunately the weather was such that viewing Ben Nevis was impossible.
The day was getting old so we pressed on. Just as it got dark we pulled into a diner called Jack-o-bites. We picked up some wine from a little store they had there and were told that there was castle called Eilean Donan just up ahead, and that it would be lit up at night. So sure enough we pulled in when we found it and took some photos. Unfortunately Jasmins photos didn’t turn out very good at all. But we did stop on the way back and got some shots in the daylight (but those still need to be developed).
The rest of the drive was all at night and thus we weren’t able to see much but we weren’t very far from Kyleakin (our destination) anyway. So we finally arrived at the Isle of Skye Backpackers around 8:30 ish after a long day of driving. I was pretty exhausted but managed to have a glass of wine and a short visit to the local pub (where there was some traditional live music playing) before crashing out.
Sunday was our only day for exploring the Isle of Skye so we wanted to get in as much as possible. With the help of one of the Hostels workers Radka (spelling?), Wendy and Chantal were able to put together a pretty good itinerary. We hopped in the car and took off up the coast to see what Isle of Skye had to offer.
First stop was the fountain of youth. Actually it was just a river that we were told would bring us long lasting life if we dunked our heads in it. We all took turns at lying down and quickly dipping our heads in the icy cold water. Im not sure if this brought about miraculous changes in our physiology but it certianly let you know your alive.
We continued our drive around Isle of Skye through some of the most beautiful landscape you could ever hope to see (outside of New Zealand of course). We stopped in the seaside town of Portree where we had lunch at a very cool little deli. As well as lots of really yummy vegetarian food they had a lovely view of the harbour.
Next stop was the Fairy Glen which we finally managed to get to after a bit of a wrong turn. It was a really charming little place tucked away in a valley. We got out of the car and went exploring all around the little conical hills littered with all sort of colourful mushrooms (quite possibly the origin of the fairys). It was a really relaxing peaceful place and was probably the highlight of the entire journey.
As we continued our trip up around the northen tip of the Isle there were plenty of photo stops to grab pictures of the local inhabitants (sheep and cows). There were a large number of animals roaming free around the Isle and I had to be quite careful of not hitting any sheep that didn’t realise that roads are for cars.
The next destination proved to be very difficult to find. We had been given directions to find some ruins lay along “the most beautiful drive on the Isle”. After a number of a detours and backtracking we finally manged to find the road we were supposed to be on, and it was indeed a very pretty drive. We aren’t entirely sure if we found the correct ruins or not but did get to see some parts of Skye that not everyone does. By the time we were finishing that drive it was getting dark and so we double timed it back to the Backpackers.
Wendy had a friend she was supposed to be meeting for dinner but she kindly invited all along. And what was best was that she came and picked us up which meant i got a break from driving (hallelujah). So we all got to go to a really lovely restaurant that night and had a great time. When we got back I again had reached my limit for the day so I crashed out pretty much straight away.
There isn’t really alot to report from Monday. We basically just drove back to Edinburgh. We stopped in Fort William for some lunch and shopping. After traveling through the Highland region again we diverted and took a slightly different route. This took us through some country side we hadn’t seen before, and the sun even came out to make for quite a lovely drive. We took Wendy and Chantal back into central Edinburgh and then headed to the airport to catch our flight.
All in all it was a great trip. Pretty exhausting for me having driven pretty much non-stop for 3 days, but the car was nice to drive and there was some stunning scenery. The time spent in Scotland was revitalising in a way. It was like taking a trip home to New Zealand without the time and cost of doing so. Edinburgh is easily one of the most beautiful cities I have seen, and I can definitely see us heading back there sometime (but with less driving next time).
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