The Scottish Road Trip

*NOTE I have no photoshop on this laptop so these photos are RAW edits* not the final ones

Now, I do love Mersea Island but after I came back from such places as Tibet, China and Mongolia this small island of mud seems rather dull. Don’t get me wrong, it was great seeing my family and friends (Though most of them don’t live here anymore) It was also good to get my head back in check after the nightmare of South Africa. The only problem with being there was that I was doing to much thinking and running things over and over again in my head about what happened which was making me feel very miserable indeed. I had 2 weeks left before I started the next part of my trip and I didn’t want to stay on this island for much longer. I had to get away and with a little help from my good school buddy James aka The Grub we decided to head off for a week somewhere. That somewhere would be Scotland! The destination would be The Isle of Skye

I have now been pretty much all over the world but I had never been to Scotland… Well, only once to Glasgow to see my good mate Elaine who was on of the reasons I ended up doing the 1 year travel. It was that weekend in Glasgow I decided to see the world in 2007 (thanks Elaine). My time in Glasgow was great but I didn’t really get passed the tower blocks, Rangers supports and the great night at the Sub Club dancing to Optimo DJs. I had never seen the country side of Scotland and many people had been banging on about how beautiful it is. Going over the world I couldn’t see how a small part of our country could be as beautiful as some of the things I had seen… oh how wrong I was. Forget South Africa, forget China come to Scotland and see some of the worlds most beautiful country side. It really is quite a place. So everyone who is reading this from the UK, don’t go on your holiday next year to Grand Canary or The Costa Del Sol instead head for wild rainy Scotland.

We set off from Colchester at 3am in the ‘Gay White Snail’. The famous Fiat Punto that has been all over the place with me and has not let me down yet. Thundering up the country listening to Grubby’s classic mix 80s Rock and Cheese playing off his ipod put us in a great but slightly camp mood as we made beelines to our first Scottish destination of Fort William. Fort William is home to the UK tallest mountain Ben Nevis which we hope to climb the next day. But being Scotland the weather was very unpredictable so there was no climbing Nevis which was a great shame as I’ve heard the views over the bay are quite spectacular (I don’t have much luck when it comes to climbing mountains do it?). We took a drive down the Genn Nevis road which cuts though the valley of Nevis and the other mountains surrounding Fort William, it is a rather thrilling drive even for the Gay White Snail as the road seems to drop lower in to the valley and then shoot up over the side of mountains before you hit a rather large array of waterfalls.

Fort William is a pretty little Harbour town which on closer inspection seems to have many Indian restaurants more than most towns which had me all excited, the only thing is we where to shattered to go out and eat, instead we opted for crackers and cheese before hitting the sack.

The next day checking the weather there was no way we were getting up Nevis as the clouds seem to loom over the mountain and not shift all day so instead we thought we would crack on to the Isle of Skye.

Again the drive was thrilling taking you though the 5 sister mountain range passed old clan castles which I have always wanted to photographer though it was proving difficult to take many photos as the light was poor most of the week and my filters are still back in South Africa meaning I was having big trouble keeping the sky from burning out.

Still I got a few photos that I was happy with. The other thing i was suffering from was the weather. Just as I would set up the camera the sun would go in and the heavens would open.

Its amazing how many tourist from other countries want to visit Scotland. I never really never thought passed Edinburgh you would get coach loads of America and Japanese tourists coming to this part of the world. Even in rainy September they were all out in force reminding me of my days spent in Lhasa with everyone disembarking and pulling out there cameras shooting just about everything in sight. Instead of Tibetans dressed up in traditional dress we had some full on knob head playing the bagpipes in a car park in the middle of nowhere to the delights of the crowds. Still it was very easy to leave everyone behind and get your own space.

Driving on to Skye to find a hostel we came across the the seaside village of Portree which is the main town on the island, not much there except for fish n chip shops, banks and a petrol station which must be the worlds most expensive petrol, £1.03 per litre. We carried on north up the island till we reached the stunning mountain called Old Man of Storr.

Rather beautiful and a bit eerie as the mountain was surround by mist and with the signs telling you its not advisable to go up there how could we resist by getting up close to the mountain. Some great comedy cock moments as well, even Old Man of Storr had a certain comedy cock element to it.
Carrying up north we stop off at the UK largest single drop waterfall Kilt Rock. The weather was pretty bad by this time so it was a quick photo before heading further north to our hostel which I must say had views to rival the South African coast line.

The next day after a breakfast of Chocolate and Polo’s we were off travelling to the very north tip of Skye before heading down to the Cuillin Mountain range.

There are two Cuillin mountains rangers on Skye, one called the black Cuillin’s which is a jet black colour and the other called the red Cuillin’s…. yep you guess it they are red. I have no idea how they were formed or why they have such distinctive colours but when the light from the sun hits them the colours come alive, maybe I should go on Wikipedia and find out for you, even grubby didn’t know this fact!!!! The first ones we hiked to were the Black Cuillin’s, We couldn’t get to the top as the clouds were all over the summits so we opted to go half way up on mountain to a set of waterfall which turned out to be rather a cool idea and some great views of the bay below.

The Following day we thought it would be a grand idea to hike to the top of part of the Red Cuillin’s, It was the only day to be bright and sunny the whole week so it was our only chance to climb a few mountains. The hike which we got out of the Lonely Planet’s Hiking Scotland book told us that it was a 6 to 8 hour hike (Which they where right) Climbing 4 mountains (Right again) but there was no mention of climbing down a near vertical slop on the side of a 700 meter mountain. It must have been in some places about 70 degrees! Unreal. But we did the hike and I only fell over twice which is pretty good for me….. and I will say I did it all with a hurt leg….. I bet I what you are thinking, ” Sam, you must be like superman or something”… Well guys, you are all fucking pretty close I must say.

After the wicked hike we drove back on to the mainland to St Austin, on the way back we had our first and last problem with the Gay White Snail. Yep, if you have seen the video you will know/heard that the exhaust fell off.

We got to our rather lovely hostel a few hours later than we thought so we headed out to get a bite to eat. No sheep penis tonight (What a shame)…. It was my first taste of Haggis. I must say it was rather nice, a little dull if you don’t have Grubby’s tip of mashing it around in the sauce first. It also came with black pudding. Again it wasn’t bad but there is something very wrong with eating blood.

The next day with a car sounding like a boy racer car we drove to one place on the list of placesyouneedtoseebeforeyoudie Yep, Loch Ness. The drive along the Loch was fun but the Loch its self was a tad disappointing. Too many tour buses swamping the villages around the Loch and the castle which I thought was going to be this grand ruin turned out to be a bit rubbish. We didn’t even see the monster, If we were going to see it Grubby was the one to spot it. Armed with his birding binoculars looking out at the Loch hoping….. Praying but nothing……… Then, all of a sudden out of nowhere he spotted a White headed Tit Eagle or whatever the fuck its called soaring above the sky.
On the way we popped in to see my old chum/northern lass Becky Miller and her wonderful cake baking mum. Over a cuppa tea crafted by Becky herself (7 out of 10) and a good old chat with Mrs Miller it was time to be on our way again.

It was so good to see them both again and I really will make sure its not another 6 years till i get to see them again.
We were off again, Ginsters in hand we thunder back to good old flat/boring Essex only to be stuck at the strood (Causeway) for 1 hour as the tide was up coming back on to Mersea Island.

In all a great break away and just what I needed to get my head in check after the crap time in South Africa, Thanks Grub with putting up with a depressed git for the week, it was a great laugh. “Look a dead frog, he’s crocked it” Bloody Brilliant!!!

Next stop New York.

3 Responses to “The Scottish Road Trip”

1. Stuart William says:

   October 10, 2007 at 11:17 am

   What is that abinmal in front of the ‘Passing place” sign? It looks liek a wolf or something!
   mmmmmmm Black Pudding is so nice
2. Stuart William says:

   October 10, 2007 at 11:18 am

   *that was meant to say “animal” not abinamal or whatever i put
3. Becky says:

   October 11, 2007 at 11:34 am

   Ahhh haha…..great pic Sam…although I seem to look a little stretched. Or maybe I just look like that : D

   B x