Scotland... The Highlands!

It's been on the 'TO GO TO' list for some time now. Our mission to at least see most of the UK while we're here is getting closer to completion now that we've made it up to the highlands of beautiful SCOTLAND!

It kind of seemed fitting that we venture to the highlands during the wet months of Autumn. We weren't at all bothered by the rain or the cool air because it's just so beautiful that you hardly notice.

The plan:

Fly into Inverness hire a car drive down through the various Lochs and then depart from Glasgow.

So with Abbey in tow we set off and on arriving into Inverness we made it to the car rental office picked up our wee Renaut Clio and were on our way. In next to no time, well after a couple of wrong turns and thinking we were in the right street when we weren't we arrived at our B&B accommodation for the night. The very well appointed Barnhill House was but a stones throw from the city centre. Our host Anne was just lovely and of course took an immediate liking to Abbey.

Friday night we went out for an early dinner and a bit of a wander around the town which was entirely pleasant. After retiring early and a night of Abbey sleeping through to the point where we actually had to wake her (!) we were treated to a lovely Scottish breakfast. Ryan indulged on the black pudding but after a few mouthfuls I just couldn't bring myself to eat it. We then headed into the city to have a nosey. Ryan is standing in front of Inverness Castle which is now used as court rooms. (Ryan takes over here from a great intro...) Inverness is a town of only about 80,000 people according to our taxi driver that got us from the airport to our rental car pickup spot, but it seemed not only to be a very beautiful town, stuck in a premium spot to take advantage of the wealth of natural resources that surround it (the Ness river to one side and a few minutes down that fresh water river the famed waters of Loch Ness, and the Sea waters of the Moray Firth on the other side of the town...) but it's also a very picturesque and thriving wee town - quite enjoyed the night out really. But it's not really in our nature to sit still and gaze for too long - so onwards went we, without any particular plan, except to see Loch Ness (and its famed monster if possible). We had only to make it to Fort William that day - a drive of only a bit over a hundred miles and expected duration about 1.5 hours. We took our time though, pausing along the way to take in some of the atmosphere of the place, the serenity, and the untouched beauty... as well as Nessie spotting of course. We visited a multimedia tourism thingy where you get presented with a whole pile of evidence for and against the existence of the famed beast, but unfortunately no answer is given... Great display though and

great for a rainey weekend away to relax. Loch Ness interestingly enough is 38km long and up to 230m deep! It holds more water in it, than all the other lakes in England and Wales combined and is apparrently useful as a measure of environmental damage due to its depth and stillness (cos whatever makes it to the bottom and the sediment down there must be very prevamlent in the atmosphere... therefore if there is pollution detected there it is a good measure of the surrounding environment). I think for perhaps the first weekend ever we finally managed to strike that balance of not trying to do, or fit in too much - probably because we went with absoutely no agenda at all and an expectation of poor rainey weather - which was pretty much what we got!

I have to say, that I would go back to the highlands in a flash - both the towns we stayed in over the course of the weekend (Inverness and Fort William) seemed cool places - with just loads of beautiful scenery right on the doorstep.

Fun with photo's is one of our favourite holiday past times - so we found a spot with some great Autumnal colours and had a bit of a play. Awesome place - totally as beautiful as the background you see... as Mez is attempting to animate/illustrate...

But Random photos wasn't all we did... we also stopped to watch the Caledonian Canal in action, which was pretty cool. Such ancient yet effective engineering! The Caledonian canal is 96km long and is actually a series of 4 canals which link 3 Lochs... it was finshed in 1822 after 18 years work, but by the time they finished it, the majority of boats were actually too big to use it! (great example of forward thinking eh?) But to see something that old, that is still in use today and doing a great job, is very cool - the Canals span the great Glen valley which links the East and West coast of Scotland and is an important trade route... First the bridge has to open up, along with the first gate (see left) then the boat cruises up into the first docking point (right), the gates are closed behind (below left and right), and the bridge put back into place for passing motorists, then the locked bit is filled with water, raising the boat... etc I had heard how these things functioned in theory, but to see one working was really cool - especially one as old as this... I assumed it would have to be watertight, but evidently it doesn't matter too much if it loses a bit of water, just as long as it doesn't lose it too fast. Very cool, would be great to see the Panama one in action too one day - same thing, but on a much bigger scale!!!

What else did we do?? Saw some really pretty rivers and falls - with amazing Autumnal colours, stopped to gaze at a couple of decrepid old castles on Loch Ness (including one pictured above - Eileen Donan Castle) which i'm sure was great in its day... said hello to some Highland Cattle, and eventually arrived into Fort William about 4pm. In Fort William, our accomodation was in a family room which was exceedingly spacious and wonderful just to relax and have a rest on the bed for the afternoon while Abbey slept, then watch the News, before heading off for dinner at a seafood restaurant in town, that overlooked the Loch. Unfortunately the seafood restaurant wasn't our best ever experience of seafood (it will take a lot of convincing for anyone to pursuade me to buy monkfish ever again), but the idea was nice! Good Sleep. More good breakfast, and we were on our way again!

Sunday we had intended to get ourselves to church, stopping and checking out times on our way home from the restaurant the night earlier. But first port of call was a jaunt up the Gondola (Cable car to any Brits reading) up Aonach Mor, the neighboring mountain to Ben Nevis (the highest in the UK) where we thought we might get a view of Ben Nevis from, as well as a bit of a gander at the lochs below. Idea was right, and the weather seemed it might even hold out for us, but when we got to the top we knew there was NO CHANCE that Ben Nevis was going to clear. We also feared the Gondola's might have to stop running the wind was so fierce. Abbey was safely tucked inside my jacket, which was great for both of us, but the picture you see left just doesn't do any justice to the difficulty of actually standing upright on that mountain summit. AMAZING wind. But great views too. And though Abbey was not terribly taken with the strong wind, she soon calmed down after a drink and a cuddle in the tea rooms! Family photo's in the Gondola on the way down did little to ease my feelings of apprehension as the little glass bubble bumped and swayed its way down the mountain, but halfway to the bottom a most excellent sign appeared in the clouds - that given to Noah, when promised that God would never again flood the earth. Mind you, He never promised not to blow Gondola bubbles off their lines... We made it down anyway, though too late for church - instead we settled on a cruise on Loch Lomond.

The cruise was a pleasant waste of money - we thought we might be able to sneak it in prior to the weather totally closing in... we were wrong - about half way down the Loch we sailed straight into the weather, only thing was... we never sailed back out of it again! Such is life - some good views of the rugged sea scape on the way down - though no photo's - they didn't turn out... looking left you can probably see why (note saturated deck). Evidently there were some deer that could be seen from the boat - not with my eyesight though, and nor my wife's... but Mez did see some Salmon jumping when we went past the farm... I was buying some hot chocolate at the time, and by the time I had carried them to our table, we were well away from the Salmon farm - nevermind - i've seen Salmon jumping before. Then we headed on our way to Glasgow... We only had just over a hundred miles to drive again - though the expected drive time sunday was nearer to three hours... the roads that wind around some of the Lochs are a bit windy-er than others it seems. Utterly beautiful drive though and couldn't resist stopping to take a few snaps here and there of the gorgeous mountains. Some great chats in the car too about what on earth we should do next... with My visa running a little low it has become something of a fad in conversations recently. Can't think why? Anyway - great fun. Great fun also were two other things: For me, trying on random hats in an outdoor shop (that I could easily have spent a LOT of money in - loads of COOL gear). and for Abbey we discovered she very much appreciates being somewhere near our height in her snazzy new front pack - bought very graciously by my workmates for her... Abbey says: 'thanks' (or squeals to that effect), dad says: 'does it come with free shoulder massage afterwards??' amazing how heavy the wee tike gets after a while!

That was pretty much it really - a long wait at Glasgow airport when we got there - a little oversight on my part - I wanted to give us as much time as possible up there so booked the later flight at 9.40pm, forgetting that the rental car would have to be back by closing at 6pm. We live and learn I guess. All in all, this would have to go down as one of our better weekends away - why don't we do these more often I wonder out loud?? Hope all is well with you and yours. R.

Home time!!

It's always appreciated, getting home after a great holiday - there's something about the break of routine that makes holidays just fab, but then there's something about returning to that routine that is equally as fab... I guess it's that regular ebb and flow of life, that variation that keeps things interesting, but having something to give yourself to (like work) other than continuous travel can also be nice. Don't get me wrong. If I could afford to travel my entire life, i probably would do so - but i think i'd have to do a bit of volunteer work here and there just to make life interesting!

It was great to have the mums here to stay, and a little odd to be dropping them off at Heathrow just a couple of days after getting back to England... but it was amazing how quickly those first few weeks flew by after a stunning and restful holiday! True to form though, that wasn't the end of our guests - just a couple of weeks later we had Cam and Helen come to stay to say farewell before they headed off for warmer pastures in Australia. Great to see them as usual and to hear their plans for the next leg of their international romance! Abbey also enjoyed the opportunity to embrace still more family!

Our old landlords came to visit (though only for a meal... not to stay the night) and it was great to be able to entertain Kate and Richard in our new pad... having not seen them for quite a few months since moving out of our last place.

Next visitor was Ani, a friend from NZ who was on a global jaunt for a few months, taking in bits of America, Europe, and India particularly - was great to be able to spend a weekend with Ani and his visit happened to coincide with the world famous goose fair... ok so it's not exactly world famous - maybe England famous... so we went for a ride in the slightly dodgy ferris wheel, before deciding fairs are average anyway and home for dinner was a much better option. Next day we went for a bit of a gander at the Major Oak in sherwood forest and for the first time since we've been going there (we've been five or six times) we were actually allowed around the base of the tree... instead of just to the fence that surrounds it... evidently there was some tree loving thing going on where you could dig up and take home a little sapling growing from beneath the great tree. Would probably have been interested if i had a home in England. But I don't. So we watched instead. And took the obligatory family photo beside the hole that Robin is alleged to have hidden from the Sheriff in...

The weekend after farewelling Ani, we had a weekend to ourselves, so got a little restless and decided to go exploring in the peak district again. We managed to stumble across a big water reservoir - or a number of them actually... and what was meant to be a nice gentle walking track... when buying a buggy for young Abbey we had decided to go large and rugged with the Mountain buggy, however we kinda overestimated its abilities i think, or perhaps that was, that we underestimated the ruggedness of the average wander that Mez and I do. To cut a long story short, we started out with Abbey in the buggy - she stayed in it a mere few minutes, before complaining about the ride, from whence I carried, and Mez struggled to get the (empty) Buggy around the few miles of track. Some great views of the derwent dam though, and a thoroughly enjoyable day out. Some wise words we found on a couple of the benches that we paused beside... perhaps life would be a little more relaxing if we heeded the advice... but then we'd only get to see and experience half of what we do... So left is the face of Abbey in pram... right is in the open air... i think a love of the outdoors is in the genes... Though I also think a love of technical gear will have to be developed, cos this was the weekend we finally decided that we HAD to get a front pack for Abbey to sit in - both of us had achey arms after the walk - great for toning, less so for enjoyment factor! Anyway great wander, and great to learn a little about the water system that supplies the three cities of Nottingham, Derby and Leicester...

Next on the agenda for us was hosting (uncle) Dennis who was on his way back from a wee jaunt up to Scotland. Sporting a gigantic pink fluffy elephant which had flown all the way from New Zealand, tripped through Italy, and all over England and Scotland

(thanks for the elephant to David, Robyn, Catherine & Michael). Abster of course was most impressed.

After Dennis and the Stunning pink elephant we had Paul come and stay with us... Paul is a fellow kiwi, and a fellow UK overstayer with us... he works up in Newcastle with a big Youth Ministry so was cool to hear some of his adventures and find out how the new job was going... We went on a little mission ourselves to a place called Dovedale which is again in the Peak District National Park and which was recommended to us by a patient of mine... Great spot, though freezing... not that we noticed the cold much more after climbing the exceedingly steep wee mound that overlooks the peaceful wee stream. Abster decided the top was a suitable place for lunch... we had to wait to get down the other side and off to a little market town that was on the way home. As is always the case when we get to spend time with Family or friends, a great time was had by all!

Anyway, great to have some time at home - great to have so many visitors to share a bit of hospitality with, and great just to have some time to check out the great outdoors in the UK. Must be time for another weekend away eh?