Blogs from Glen Coe, Stirlingshire, Scotland, United Kingdom, Europe - page 2

We woke on Sunday morning after heavy rain throughout the night and thought we were heading for a very wet day, so packed our bags so that we could get to our waterproofs in a hurry. Our day was going to take us along the banks of Loch Lomond, so everyone was looking forward to it. We all arranged to meet at a certain place, but as this was planned the night before, in the pub, details were a little blurred and we didn't actually manage it. Dave, myself and Frank started walking and hoped the others would catch up with us. After leaving Rowandennan, the sun started to shine and things were looking up for us. We took the high road after advice and started climbing through forests that smelt wonderful. The bluebells were later ... read more

For a while now I have been in contact with Ian who is a mountain guide who lives on the Isle of Skye, so when a chance offer of a winter skills course came about I jumped at the chance. Joining me on this weekend was Paddy and Gill. After setting off from Hartlepool around 1:30 I arrived at Incree outdoor centre and we found Ian waiting for us in the bar, which is normally a good place to find me actually. We had a few drinks and headed off to the accommodation for some of Leanne's homemade soup and Gill's vegetarian Sheppard’s pie. We discussed the plan for the following day and decided to meet up at 9am to set off into the mountains. Day 1 Buachaille Etive Beag Waking up on Saturday with a ... read more

This morning I woke up at 7:30am. Pretty good considering I had everything packed and ready. I checked out and walked down the Royal Mile to the Wild in Scotland office. There was a bunch of people sitting outside with luggage. I joined them and grabbed a cup of fruit, crossant and coffee from the cafe next door. By the time I returned, everyone was paying their kitty and slitting up into our 2 tour groups. 12 of us boarded a bus for the 4 day tour. Wild in Scotland wrote that I owed 21 pounds when my confirmation said 81 pounds because I changed from the 3 day tour to the 4 day. Thank goodness for them I'm honest. Regardless, they would have figured it out when they started buying food and didn't have enough ... read more

This morning we had to get up early, we had a nice breakfast at the hostel, and ran off to catch our tour bus for a trip to Loch Ness and through the Highlands. The tour we went on was through a company called Haggis Tours (yummy haggis….haha) it was really cool cause it’s geared toward the younger back packers so it was more interesting than a typical tour. We stopped along the way and saw a ‘hairy coo’ named Hammish. Coo is really a cow in Scotland, and obviously a hairy coo is a cow with long hair on him. He was super cute, I just fell in love with him! After visiting Hammish we continued on our journey through the highlands, we saw several castles along the way but just saw them as we ... read more