Blogs from Oban, Argyll, Scotland, United Kingdom, Europe - page 2

Geo: 56.4104, -5.46972... read more

Today was a driving day for a taste of the Highlands. Out through Dunblane and past Ochtertyre to see the 'gatehouse' where I spent the first part of winter '96/97 with my mate Bill. Not quite as grand as the big house 'Ochtertyre' - wasn't cheeky enough to drive past the guard to see the 14th century estate home, maybe next time though. Scotland was putting on a grand show today, Dunblane - rain, Callandar - sleet, Crianlarich well into the Trossachs now - snow. Keep telling myself it is spring!! The scenery through the Glens and past the Bens More and Lui is spectacular at the best of times but covered in snow with a few glimpses of sun on them and it is sensational. The light off the heather always has a red tinge ... read more

Geo: 56.4104, -5.46972Glasgow to ObanPicked up a rental car in Glasgow. Aaacckk! Driving on the left side of the road! It seems strange sitting in the passenger side of the car on the left. Charlie's still getting used to driving on that side, and Mary is white-knuckled.We're on our way to Oban, where we'll attend some "Highland Games.” Oban is on the west coast of Scotland – in the Highlands. It was a lovely drive there with many stops (Loch Lomond) and a long detour when a road was closed. Actually, the detour turned out to be beautiful – through moors, past Ben Nevis – the highest mountain in Great Britain. Highland Games are like a fair, but with lots of competitions. If you've seen Braveheart, you might remember when Wallace came back to his home ... read more

Following on from Killin we carried on heading West this time, through the top of the National Park on the way to the West Coast to a seaside town called Oban. Once again the scenery was amazing and the roads followed different Lochs around, through amazing bush, complete with waterfalls again, very similar to the West Coast in NZ......but the West Coast doesn't have Castles through the mist as you look across the Loch! We were following the road and came across a Loch called Loch Awe - aptly named I think as, as I mentioned, it had an actual ruin of a castle, that had been struck my lightning a few hundred years ago, sitting what looked like on a island in the middle of the Loch. I had to use all of my strength ... read more

Thursday morning, an hour after we left the hostel, we made our first stop at a particularly scenic point in the mountains of the western Scottish Highlands, overlooking a range called "the seven sisters" or something like that. And I realized I had left my camera in the hostel. No one who knows me will be surprised by this; its the kind of thing I do all the time. The short version of this story is that my camera and I were eventually reunited in Edinburgh on Sunday around 8pm. In the meantime, the rest of my pictures had to be taken via Apple product. Which is why they look a bit like watercolor paintings. And I looked like a massive tool. I told the other people on the tour that they were free to pretend ... read more