Blogs from Inverness, Inverness-shire, Scotland, United Kingdom, Europe - page 14

At 1,309 metres above sea level Ben Macdui is the second highest mountain in the UK and situated in the centre of the Cairngorms it is remote. The Cairngorms National Park contains the largest mountain and arctic area in Britain, is twice as big as the Lake District and boasts 52 summits over 900 metres. My plan was to walk into the Cairngorms, camp overnight among the hills, and climb the mountain the next day. So I set off around 5pm, cycled three miles along a track before leaving my bike. After an hour of evening walking the rain started. It became so heavy that I knew I had to get the tent up straight away. But I was too slow...water had already leaked across the floor of the tent, my sleeping bag was wet and ... read more

Hello again, Hope everyone enjoyed finally getting the answers that they've been waiting for. We've been having a great time since we left Edinburgh. We spent two days in Aberdeen where we saw some drawings by Da Vinci (I subsequently bought Da Vinci Code to read on the trip) and we took a relax nap on the Aberdeen beaches (although the weather didn't exactly cooperate - completely overcast - very Scottish). We then headed out to Inverness. We're staying at a cool little hostel which is just full of fellow Canucks. The spot is amazing, right beside the river ness and next to a castle. We even caught an awesome fireworks show last night from our bedroom window. I love this country. Today we took the big tourist trip out to Loch Ness. We explored a ... read more

Hey everyone! We just arrived in Inverness about 20 minutes ago. We're glad to be here because Aberdeen was a little dissappointing - there just wasn't very much to do there! We feel like we've been neglecting all the questions you guys have asked so we're gonna try to answer them all.... Kraemer - Haggis tastes like peppery meatloaf, ALex was quite fond of it and I will try it soon enough; there were no visible wearwolves in London Mom - beer is better because we haven't been hungover yet; 12 am in 7 am here - Amanda - we have yet to see any Puffins (good job remembering that!) but we're going to the islands in two days so I'm sure we'll see them then; Alex hasn't bought a kilt yet, but he has been ... read more

Today is the Highland Games! Ali and I have never been so we're really looking forward to it. We really don't know what to expect but can't wait to go. Also, this is the first time since Edinburgh that we're not changing B&Bs after one night and it will be nice to not have to rush on to the next place tonight. We decided the walk didn't sound too bad and walked out to the Highland Games. It took us about an hour but I'm sure we would have gotten lost and missed it altogether if we'd driven. Today is cold so we bundled up. I've been pretty comfortable in my jeans, t-shirt, and Chucks with a hoodie for the weather changes up to this point. Today I have on a long-sleeved shirt, a cropped hoodie, ... read more

I've been quiet since I came back home from france - mostly because I've been working at home and didn't think a blog about working in Coleraine in an IT company would interest too many folk! ANyway, I've got a couple of updates to make now of a couple of very memorable trips. This one is about the LAMM which is a 2 day mountain marathon for 2 person teams run in scotland each year, and was run this year on the weekend of the 17th/18th AUgust. See link lamm. I wanted to make sure I had the photos here and a few words as it was a bit of an epic weekend for me... I've completed a few mountain marathons before, all of which I've really enjoyed, and I was feeling fit this year so ... read more

Day 2 of Macbackpackers! Pretty interesting.. Our first stop was at the Culloden Battle Grounds. This is where the scottish and British had a civil war. We then tried to go Dolphin and seal watching but to no avail, none to be seen! We then stopped for some of that whiskey filled hot chocolate and then off for a little nature walk. After that, we spent the rest of our time around Lochness where we stopped and learned about the Scottish kelt and life around 400 years ago. We came back to the hostel and then went for dinner with our tour guide at Backfriars. Everyone was trying sheep intestines, but i decided to back out haha. After dinner a band was playing scottish music and some people even learned a scottish jig. I honestly will ... read more

Hello all After my time in Edinburg I decided that with my flight to Italy rapidly approching that I needed a more efficient way to tour Scotland. To this effect I jumped onto the MacBackpackers jump on-jump off bus tour. It is pretty cool. You get on a bus, have accomadations guarenteed and make many stops along the way. We went to the Erador whisky distillery, old forts and even went for a wee dip in Loch Ness, which was very cold. Ended up in Inverness and am making my way to the Isle of Skye for a couple of days. The tour is cool because while you are on the bus you get a comentary about all of the different places you pass by and you get to stop at them as well. I would ... read more