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Published: June 23rd 2009
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Scottish Thistle
in the original you can see the pollen on the bee. Sorry, not so here. Apart from changing continents, I’m trying my best to avoid taking flights from city to city. Following the advice I got from the seat61.com website, I got myself from Belfast in Ireland to Edinburgh in Scotland using the train and ferry, instead of spending 50 minutes in the air and not seeing anything apart from yet another airport and some clouds below. The cost was compartable (31 pounds, or 23 if I’d managed to book beforehand), and far more scenic. The Stena line ferry was enourmous, and was powered by two gas turbine (ie, jet) engines. I thought the ferries were big in Greece. This thing had enough room for 40 or 50 semi trailer trucks below, and had all sorts of bars and amusements upstairs for the short two hour ride across to Stranraer. From there, the train station is there on the wharf, and it took me through some beautiful countryside up to Glasgow. A shuttle bus took me across to the other station in Glasgow (nice city, btw, must go back and visit…), where I took a 50 minute ride across to Edinburgh. All up, about 6 hours. I’m guessing that with airport transfers and waiting times, it
would have taken 4 hours by plane.
(Hey this is a travel website… I’m allowed to talk about the transport I used! As I write I’m on a train doing 150+ km/h across the English countryside, heading for London. Free wifi too. How cool!)
I spent Sunday night in Edinburgh having a wander and getting my bearings, and then on the Monday morning, got up and found my tour departure point. There were a few trips leaving, from my tour company and a few others, and we were to cross paths a few times on the trip. The driver for our Macbackpackers bus tour was named Ewan, and was as Scottish as they get; long hair, kilt, warped accent and all. Throughout the tour, his passion and knowledge of the area and it’s history was evident, along with his great selection of music.
Well, Scotland completely blew me away. The scenery is stunning here. Everything is just as green as Ireland, which is no surprise given the amount of rain… The geography is spectacular, given the millennia of continents crashing into each other, and subsequent ice age glaciers grinding out valleys and gorges into
the landscape. There are numerous lakes (lochs), all beautiful, and most with a line of mountains coming down to meet the loch extending into the distance. If I had to nominate my favourite place of the trip, it’d be the Isle of Skye. If you’re reading this and thinking about visiting, go there and spend at least two days driving around it. Spectacular.
As hard as I tried, I didn’t get to see the legendary monster when we visited Loch Ness, but I did manage to photograph a duck. (Sounds like that should have been a line from Monty Python.) As the group of 29 descended on the shore, a local cat also decided it was the right time and place to dig a hole and do his business, right there and then. I have photos if you want to see them…
Speaking of Monty Python, in our five day trip I managed to very briefly visit Doune Castle, which was used as Camelot in The Holy Grail, one of my favourite movies. There were audio guides for hire that not only had the historical info about the room you were standing in, but also the
audio clip of the scene from the movie for that location. Cue song: “We’re the Knights of the Round Table…” We also made a stop at what I think was used as the Castle Aaaargh, as well as the where Sir Gallahad the Pure was tempted by the virgins who’d left their grail-shaped light on…
Ewan offered to take us to the Gorge with the rope bridge (“
WHAT is yer favourite colour?”), but we didn’t end up making it there. However he did take us to a place called Corrieshalloch Gorge near Ullapool, which was quite spectacular and a complete surprise to find, given the comparatively “normal” surroundings. There is a suspension bridge there over a narrow but 60m deep gorge and waterfall, which was a complete waste of time trying to make into a two dimensional photograph in under 15 minutes, but was really pretty to experience.
One morning Ewan the driver told us he had to make a stop to pick up his washing. About 20 minutes into the trip, he pulled into a parking spot and asked us all to give us a hand. Here we found a natural spring, and in all
of the surrounding trees, thousands of items of clothing hanging from the branches in various states of repair. This is known as a clootie well. The idea is that you wash yourself with water from the spring using the cloth, and then hang the cloth in the tree. As the cloth breaks down over time, so does any ailment you may have washed from yourself. I guess healing takes time!
We were also taken down the tiniest of country roads at breakneck speed (Ewan must have done driver training on the Amalfi Coast of Italy) to an area that can only be described as TellyTubby Land. Lots of random hills, bright green grass, rocks and sheep all doing their thing. Ancient stone walls and flowers. Very pretty. No LaLa or Po, however. I would have thrown them off one of the hills if I could have. On the last day, an equally hair raising road trip took us across some farmers paddocks in search of some Highland Cooos. That’s Scottish for cow. These guys have big horns, and a fringe of hair that helps keep those bloody pesky midges from their eyes (just the fringe, not the horns…).
Each night we stopped at pre arranged hostel accommodation, and went out and enjoyed the local pubs with their music. Various attempts at Scottish dancing were made, including by yours truly. Just don’t ask for a repeat performance, unless I’ve been warmed up with a few Guinnesses beforehand. The last night in Oban got the best results from us all. On the first night in Skye we all chipped in and it was up to the Aussies and Kiwis to cook up a barbeque. As a safety measure, I nominated myself to do the dishes, so that I wouldn’t get blamed for the cooking….
After the tour, I spent two days in Edinburgh. I took a walking tour on the first day, which was really interesting, going for about three hours. The architecture here is quite beautiful, and is considered to be one of the first high-rise cities. The Old City was built inside defensive walls between the two castles at each end of the Royal Mile. The city became crowded, and there are many buildings that are ten storeys high, with Royal Mile itself running along a ridge that may have taken the road past
the fifth storey of the same building. Makes for some steep walks, and some strange maps…
The photos I’ve posted here are a small sample of the 1000+ I took in Scotland. Another place I’m very glad to have visited on this trip.
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Clare
non-member comment
Wow!
Where is 'wow'?! Lubely panorama, etc (as always!) ;-)