Blogs from The Highlands, Scotland, United Kingdom, Europe - page 10

Welcome to my first attempt at blogging! :) On Thursday, August 9th, 2012, my girlfirends Alida, Christine and I are embarking on a 10 day adventure, hiking through the Highlands of Scotland. 7 of these days will be hiking from Ft. William to Inverness, about 79 miles!. We will be hiking along many lochs, including the infamous Loch Ness! I will be adding blog enteries daily (if Wi-fi or internet is available) and many pictures! Christine has a knack for weird pictures, so that should be interesting and Alida is the queen of words, so I should not come up short in that area. Watch for my first blog on Friday. My flight leaves late on Thursday with a layover in London. I'm hoping for a glimpse at the Olymic bridge from the airplane! The Great ... read more

Started off the day with lots of fog in Kyleakin. Apparently, the Isle of Skye is nicknamed the Misty Island. This was the first fog we had seen and man, you couldn't even see the boats 10 feet away. So, we headed off for our second run up the nearby hills (Nigel had two fewer heart-attacks, an improvement over the first hill climb!) and sadly, the view was nothing but fog. Too bad cuz we didn't have the camera the first time we were up there and discovered the fantastic views! Anyways.....after another lovely breakfast served up by Gillian, we signed her guest book, said our goodbyes and headed off. We were in no hurry to get back so we made lots of stops for photo ops, short hikes, and a quick stop for sandwiches for ... read more

After another fabulous breakfast, we headed off for a circle tour of the "small loop" around the Isle of Skye. This took us up past Portree and then west to Dunvegan and then back down to Broadford. The loop gave stunning views of the Cuillen Mountains. We stopped in Broadford for some lunch and then headed down to the bottom tip of the Isle of Skye, called Elgol, to get on the AquaXplorer boat tour. The drive down to Elgol was a one-lane windy road with lots of "passing places" where you are meant to pull in if you come up with a car heading toward you on the one-lane road in order to pass each other. This can be quite tricky! The other mentionable thing about the Isle of Skye is that we came across ... read more

Well, today was a day of FIRSTS.....we woke up in a castle (definitely a FIRST). Breakfast was incredible, a full Scottish breakfast - black pudding, kippers (for Russell), potato scones, toasties, Scottish oats, sausages, poached eggs, back bacon, and scrambled eggs and smoked salmon for Rachel. Then after we packed up, we headed over to the beach down the road. Another FIRST - we found hundreds of jellyfish!!! Some were washed up on shore and you could check them out close up - they were clear with purple centres. There were also hundreds in the water. Also we saw crabs in little tiny shells. After about an hour on the beach, we finally got back in the car. By the way, did I mention that for the FIRST time, it was sunny the whole day practically!!! ... read more

Plockton When we arrived at Plockton we had just had the scary experience of negotiating the Skye road bridge. This bridge is 25 metres high, but as we approached it really looked as if our 23 metre mast was just about to hit. Alan had been reassuring me that there was plenty of room, but when he looked up, it looked so close he stopped the boat, just in case. As it was we were soon underneath and safe. Plockton is one of the most picturesque villages in Scotland, and there is a big wide mooring area, with mooring balls to tie onto, and room to anchor as well. Forested hillsides line the shore one side and a small whitewashed village the other. There are walks all around the village, and the people were very friendly ... read more