Day 2

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Me and Donna, Felicity and the two Idoa's (two Spanish girls with the same name, it's very common in there small town) are waiting for Ewan to park the bus before we get some famously good fish in chips in the small sea side town of Oban. It was a wildly successful, interesting, beautiful and full day of busing to sights through the highlands. The day started with stories of the brutality of English empiricism as well as some fauna info about the heather plant that turns the highlands a lovely purple color and a visit to the ruins of an old fort and barracks. We also saw some more ancient Celtic history with some stone burial mounds encircled by standing stones (Stonehenge rocks but smaller). The burial mounds both opened up in a specific direction, and Ewan said that on the shortest day of the year the sun rises and shines directly into the opening of the mounds, possibly to spark the revival of the souls buried within. It was very mystical and serene, until some of my favorite people on our tour jumped up and started climbing on the ancient burial grounds. I tried to ignore it and found a quiet spot to reflect, snapped some pictures and absorbed the mystical cosmic forces that swirled around the site. After that we headed toward Inverness, the capital of the highlands and stopped at a whisky distillery (the largest distributor in Scotland, Tomatin, after I had had my sample of the smallest distillery yesterday). It was the weekend so it wasn't as bustling as Ewan said it would normally be on the weekday, but we still got some samples, and Donna even got the girl working there to sneak a sample of the 25 year old single malt (12 year is the one you are allowed to sample), my my was it smooth, score one for Donna. Ewan bought a bottle of blend and tried to get everyone on the bus to finish it before the end of the day (some people were noticeably not very intrigued by his stories so being sottish he thought whisky might liven the crowd up, which it did). More stories of highland battles with the British and we saw the famous battle grounds of Culoudon. We finally got to Loch Ness and I had my chilly swim with Nessy. Me and one other guy got fully submerged but he didn't last too long. I had a nice paddle and floated a bit (after my breath returned from having it knocked out by the cold, there was a guy not with us going for a swim and he took the temperature and called out to me it was 16 degrees Celsius, approximately 61 degrees Fahrenheit) and took a nice ride on Nessy's back, but soon it was time to get back on the bus. Me and Nessy said our goodbyes and we drove down the length of the lock, stopping at a spectacular waterfall, Foyers, and having some wee walks here and there. Ewan was great because he had been a park ranger for a while and knew great nooks and trails. Continuing west we past several Lochs, Loch Lochy and Lock Lihney, before getting to Glencoe, an amazingly beautiful mountainous highland valley. The stunning view came with proper Scottish highland weather of fierce swirling wind and rain, and an enthralling story of deceit and betrayal between the Campbell and MacDonald clans (the Campbell's slaughtered the Macdonald's after weeks of MacDonald highland hospitality, aka feeding and clothing whomever needs it, at the orders of the British). It was also the sight of the scene from Monty Python and the Holy Grail where the horned wizard guy makes them answer questions and shoots like cracking fireballs into the hills (those were the hills I was in!). Finally we pulled into Oban to solid rain and as I finish this post my belly is ful of the thickest best fish and chips I have had by far, might have been because it was haddock and not the standard cod. Tomorrow it's back to Edinburgh and another day full of sights and stories.

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Photos

Into the highlands
You can see the purple patches of heather on the hills

Again pretty self explanatory
Its pronounced Riven

Some of the standing stones
Not quite Stonehenge but still cool

Burial Grounds
Another peaceful place with a great energy around it

Distillary
Left my camera on the bus for the 25 year old single malt, but we got a picture of me enjoying the blend on the bus.

Loch Ness
There's the loch in the backround

Scanning the water
Would I be able to find the great beast?

Searchin for Nessy
Me taking my swim in Loch Ness!

Mission Accomplished
There's my buddy!

A Wild Strawberry
One of my favorite pictures I have taken in a while

Comments

[dad]

go for it!!!
what an incredable adventure. keep seeing and doing grandma ruth had lots of relatives on the isle of man.