so yea. another one of those exciting weekends in the uk. road trippp! the only way to see the scottish highands, besides hill walking! cant imagine taking a bus up and being unable to stop wherever i want. it was a fulfilling weekend indeed!
kinda sucks having winter dawning upon us. it gets dark around 1630 and it totally screws with your body clock! so picked up the car about 5 plus and it was already dark! got the car with only 8 miles of fuel left. thought it was fine till i headed to the normal petrol station only to find it was closed. keyed in the next nearest petrol station, got there only to find that it doesnt exist! this time round, the dashboard read --- for the mileage left and i was dam scared the car would die on me! luckily i found a bp nearby at the west end. okay so shitty story cut short, picked up the rest of the guys and headed onwards towards inverness. it was quite a long drive up, abt 3hrs plus. it was a pleasant drive up, much better than the one towards fort william, partly due to the presence of the moon. at least i could see the snow capped peaks of glen coe. and oh! there was a deer along the way!
The title, 'capital of the highlands' really suited Inverness the best. It was filled with clubs, food places open after 8 and a quick 3G network! But honestly, Inverness is quite boring. Nothing much to do around the place. Could have stayed over at loch ness to save some fuel. But you never know till you're there right? so this's a heads up to whoever is reading.
So this is where the adventure really starts and why not start it with that infamous loch ness. I must say its a really huge loch. slightly under an hour to drive alongside it to reach Fort Augustus. Btw if you dont want to pay a 7pound entry to see the loch from Urquhart castle, just give it a miss. they're such jewbags. they block every possible angle of the castle against the lake with trees. Just head towards Fort Augustus's information center to get directions for great views down the loch!
the infamous Loch ness
The scottish highlands never fail to amaze me. the scenery is always changing! it felt as if i was driving along one of those top gear roads with the winding roads, plains against the snow capped backgrounds.
viewpoint of the avernish woods
some random stop at a loch against snowcap peaks
the beautiful and free Eilean Donan Castle
aye! sunday, the day in skye! somehow i couldnt get information about the places to visit from the hostel itself and it was irritating to load websites with the super slow gprs data connection. But it seemed that we manage to cover the popular spots! Drove up from Kyleakin through the beautiful Cuilin Hills to Portree in hope to find an information center.
view from our hostel
the cuilin hills
The drive was amazing! there were like snow at some places! Although at some parts the frozen roads were abit dangerous to drive on.
thought that this would be the only chance of snow that i'll see, but further down the road it became like this.
Finally arrived in Portree, the biggest town in Skye and it was so dead! Even the tourist information center was closed! luckily, i found a hotel with nice staff who gave us a map and some info. First stop, the faerie glen! A single lane road off the main route towards Uig (turn just before Uig Hotel), led us to a whole new world! As i drove through the glen, i couldnt help feeling as if i was driving through tinkerbell's home. The moss filled hills really made it look like it was the home of the disney faries, not the ugly scottish ones.
Faerie Glen
Quiraing, Trotternish Ridge on the Isle of Skye was definitely the highlight of skye. It was all covered in snow and had views down the ridge of the surrounding! Stunning indeed! and you can make snowballs there, though i was the only one who tried. Would love to get some hiking done there but some of the people in the group weren't equiped with proper shoes and were slipping on the ice. But what the heck! snowwww!!
frozen pond
hairpin bend against the surrounding.
oh and did i mention that the movie 'brave' was inspired by the scottish highlands? the scenery all looked so familiar after watching the movie. just look at Kilt Rock!
Didnt manage to climb up to see the old man of storr as the track was muddy and everyone was hungry! =/ The only downside of travelling to the highlands at this time is that most of the shops, especially the ones that sell seafood are closed for the season till bout march. Kinda sucks when you're searching for good and cheap seafood.
After lunch, with 2+ hours of daylight left (funny how we plan by the amount of daylight we have left), we chionged to Neist point, a point that doesnt appear in in the GPS. Had to navigate through those small little single lane road and got lost around Dunvegan! Like those postcards, we experienced scottish peak hour traffic. Imagine stupid sheep who wouldnt get off the road when your car comes, obstructing your way, but will run away only when you attempt to go near them in person.
view of the Dunvegan Castle (closed on weekends) from the place we horlaned
sheep running away
roads so empty that we can pose in the middle of it
Alright, so we reached Neist Point in time for sunset but the scumbag sun decided to hide behind the clouds.
As the sun goes down, and dinner right where it should be in our stomach, it was time to play 'find the shooting star'
So monday comes and its time to headback. Had lunch at Fort Williams and stopped over at Glencoe. The other car aka the sick mobil wasn't feeling too well and headed back first. Quite disappointed with myself because i forgot to charge my camera and had to use my iphone. worst of all, i forgot that i had a backup film camera in my other bag. grr. Upon reaching back, ran peak hour traffic entering glasgow. so frustrating!
frozen forest
Signal Rock at Glencoe
skyfall?
bad ass pilot flying through the glen
beautiful scene with great light somehwere in the lower lands
the crowd after the fireworks
No comments:
Post a Comment