Scotland

One of the places in the UK I’ve always wanted to visit is the west coast of Scotland. It’s got mountains, lochs, people with cool accents, highland cows .. and whisky!

We went up armed with two books about walking around Fort William and on Skye as well as our tent and walking boots. The weather was a little wet but it actually added to the atmosphere. On the first day we did a really nice walk that took us past some proper woodland and along the shore of a loch.

On the way back we ran into a herd of highland cattle. They are such amazing beasts.

Next day we drove straight over to the isle of Skye for some fossiling. On the way the weather started to clear in patches and we got a really nice view of the hills.

Next morning we got our arteries properly clogged up with grease at the B & B before heading out for a full day walking on a mostly coastal circuit. The beaches were a bit depressingly covered in rubbish, most of which was debris from fishing boats. Fishing is a big industry for the region, but it sure did seem like alot of crap fell overboard.

On our last day the rain cleared up completely and we decided to climb up Ben Nevis. It’s pretty much a road most of the way to the top, but apparently many people are injured and some die every year climbing this peak. When we finally made it to the summit we got an inkling of why. The summit plateau is a funny shape and on one side it drops off about 700m in a sheer cliff. There had been a-lot of snow build up and there was quite a dramatic cornice on this cliff. If you’d naively walked up close to the edge you would find yourself standing on nothing but snow and air!!

Luckily though it was such a fine day that everybody could see the danger, but in bad weather it could be pretty hairy.

On the way down I somehow discovered a bit of shortcut that involved sliding down a snow slope. Unfortunately though .. my “shortcut” happened to be above a stream and Jan hit a weak patch of snow and fell through into the creek … oops. Here she is pointing at her river (the snowy bits at the top are where she fell in).