Scotland

So here I am, sitting in some budget as fuck internet cafe that has what appears to be 28.8kb internet. Everything is working fucking slow. The screen infront of me is a CRT from what appears to be invented in prehistoric times.
I keep waiting for a sabre tooth tiger to jump out from the toilet next to me and bite me.... AH!... na it's cool, it's just some old lady with false teeth.

Updating this journals going to start getting a bit harder as my internet access is quite limited. I'll try and remember what happened, but it's tricky when you're in the middle of nowhere and constantly doing things.

The place we're staying isn't actually available on the site I'm using's map, so I've tried to point it to the closest place.

The Road to Scotland

So we arrived here last Sunday after about a 7 and a half hour drive from Newcastle, England. I came up with my cousins Dominic and Christoph. Uncle Mark is meeting us at the site later as we were doing a stop at the Highlands Animal Park. The destination of our trip is a place called Kinlockewe, located in the north west of Scotland past Inverness, about 1.5 hours from the coast.

Highland Animal Park

This place was pretty badass. There were lots of animals unique to Scotland and a few that were imported as they had been previously whiped out.
We started out with a drive around the 'car' part of the park observing the few animals that actually decided to show there faces. The animals roam freely around here in large blocks of land. I saw Bisons, Elks, Raindeer and shit loads of birds that apparently are quite rare.

You're allowed to have your window down which was cool, because it made taking photos that much easier. There was one Elk (I think) that was wondering along the road and then started charging at our car. I was terrified that bastard was going to eat me so I put my window up. He litterally ran straight past. I could've put my hand out and petted him if it wasn't for the fact that he smelt and had probably spent the entire day rolling around in his own shit.

After that we got out of our car and went for a wonder around in the area you have to walk. There were a lot of caged animals here which I've never really felt right with, but apparently the Scotland Zoo society buys up blocks of land for them, fences then and then tries to re-introduce the animals which is really cool.

There's not really much more to tell except I saw a bunch of animals I've never ever seen before. Took a bunch of pictures, which unfortunately (because my camera is shit) I couldn't actually take photos as close to some of the animals as I would've liked to.

Next stop, Kinlochewe

Kinlochewe was about another 2 - 3 hour drive from the animal park. The road down the Highlands was real beautiful. Mountains surrounding you, stone walls, ruined architecture, just a really ancient place. A strange feeling overcame me about this place. The history of this place is beyond anything you'd ever see in NZ. England was somewhat similiar, but right out in the middle of the highlands it just has a really different tranquil feeling. Sadly my camera can't actually capture how awesome this place actually is. Heh, now I sound like a hippie.

The next day we spent exploring. Went for a small walk up a massive hill, took a bunch of generic tourist photos and checked out Gairloch which is about 1.5 hours from Kinlochewe. On the drive there my mind kept wondering about the battles that would've taken place on the plains, the counsel meetings that would've taken place, the number of people killed, buildings torched, etc. Just kept imaging what it would be like to be in those times.

Stopped in at Gairloch and had a coffee and a Tea Cake.. or something along those lines. It pretty much looked like an English muffin, but Mark swore black and blue that it was different. It even tasted like one! Did a bit of shopping went home and drank some beer.

Gairloch and Inverewe Gardens

Being tourists and all, we decided to go on a boat cruise around the harbour to observe the wildlife. This was quite cool. The boat we went on was slow in comparison to the others, making it really enviromentally friendly.
We didn't actually get to see much, except a couple of unique birds and some seals. That's just how it goes sometimes.

After the boat ride, we went to Inverewe Gardens which is about another 30mins-1 hour north of Gariloch. It's kinda hard to describe this as basically, it was a badass looking garden created in 1886 that incorporates plants for all around the world. Wow, that was pretty much spot on. I enjoyed it, but I think had I have enjoyed plants etc some more I might of appreciated the different lay out designs, etc that the gardens offered. Just look at the photos when I post them.

Talisker Distillery

This piece of shit computers dyingout so I'm going to make this quick.

We drove to Talisker which is on the Isle of Skye, about 2 hours away from Kinlochewe (where we're staying). Talisker Single Malt 12 year (i think) won the 2008 Best Single Malt in the World Award.
The distillery also won another award for 2007, so the place is pretty hot shit.

Did a tour of the distillery and learnt a thing or two about Whiskey which I'll probably forget rather quickly as Mark gives us whiskey every night. Unfortunately you can't take any photos inside.
The tour was quite good, but again I really don't know enough about whiskey etc to appreciate it as much as I should. Enjoyed it though.

On the way back, we stopped off at Reptile World where there was numerous reptiles in cages. All the reptiles were sized from English customs due to people trying to sneak the animals in. The centre takes teh animals in
There were some big fucking snakes, including a Boa Constricter, some funny looking lizards and yeah. You get the jist.

On the way back we drove through Duirinish, which had some Highland Cattle grazing in the middle of town. It was funny as.

Well, today's our washing day and laid back day so I'm trying to get the generic house hold shit done. We're off to Inverness and to see lake Lochness so I probably won't be able to update this until I go to Blackpool next wednesday.

Chur.

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