My English Summer: Day 08

06th June 2010:  Left Skye today and drove to Inverness, crossing the Glenelg Scenic Way. Finally was getting to visit Nessie!! Loch Ness is just this huge, and I mean huge expanse of water. 25 miles long, 1 mile wide, over 700 feet deep. Interestingly it's a mix of salt and fresh water - salt water stays at the bottom and fresh water on top, with some kind of geothermal layer acting as a barrier. Not sure of the technicalities but interesting fact anyway.
Looked around for Nessie but maybe she was sleeping in, it was a Sunday morning after all! Took some pix, picked up some pebbles as I'd promised my sister, and then we left for Inverness.

I'd been lucky with weather so far, in all my time in Scotland there hadn't been a drop of rain and we had some glorious sunny days. Today that changed and the day was dark, gloomy, windy with bouts of rain every now and then. Apparently this is more what Scottish weather is supposed to be.

From Inverness we went on to visit the Culloden battle site. This was the flat patch of moor where the Jacobites led by Bonnie Prince Charles fought a final battle against a much larger, superior, well rested English army under the Duke of Cumberland in the mid 18th century. Danny told us the story and had us spellbound with the way he described the build-up and the battle. It was literally a massacre, over in less than an hour's time for the most part. No prisoners were to be taken, so all survivors including the children were killed, as were the women who had followed in the wake of their Jacobite men. And that isn't all. Once the battle was over, the English set two trained butchers on the field to ensure that none of the dead would be recognisable in any way. As a result, all that marks the dead of this battle is one big common cairn in the middle. There are also numerous small stones scattered around, each bearing the name of a clan that fought and died here. The story was so painfully sad that I suspect not one of us was left dry-eyed. It was a very sad place.

At Culloden I took a coffee break because somehow I found myself very affected by the whole story of the battle and the brave Highlanders. In time we all got back and soon a short drive brought us to Clava Cairns, a prehistoric burial site that is supposed to be three to five thousand years old and the best preserved Bronze Age burial site in Scotland. The cairns of stacked stones were constructed in such a way that on a solstice day the light of the sun would hit the inside wall of the cairn. Nobody knows exactly why the cairns were built but it is supposed that they came up gradually over many years.

From Clava Cairns we drove to this tiny little town called Aviemore, which is mostly a base or jump-off point for people going trekking/skiing/hiking in the mountains. Practically half the town was built around the one High Street. I will remember Aviemore for the awesome hot chocolate I had here :-)

Leaving Aviemore we went past Blair Atholl castle (I realised that this is the place after which the original Scottish owners had named what is now Wallwood Garden in Coonoor) to Pitlochry, a slightly bigger town. It was raining much too hard to look around though, and we continued in the driving rain towards Edinburgh. Crossed the Firth bridge and were at the Mile by 6pm, saying bye to everybody. I left for the bus station with two of the nicer American girls, as we found that all three of us were taking the night bus back to London.
So, midnight saw me bringing in my birthday in a National Express coach somewhere on the highway to London!!

My English Summer: Day 07

Got up early today at 7am, had a quick breakfast, washed up after ourselves. I found time to go take some pix of the lake in the morning.

Eventually we all managed to get into the bus and left for Skye. After crossing the Skye bridge, stopped at the other side (Kyleachin) to photograph the bridge and Saucy Mary's Tower. Spent the entire day on Skye. The beauty of this island cannot be described in words, and even the pictures don't do it justice. I fell in love with this part of the world on that day. Some of the places we stopped to see:

Cuilin Mountains: Said to be created when two giants fought each other

Portree: The main town of Skye, cute as anything. Buildings set around a square, parallel and intersecting streets, tiny and interesting shops. Bought some local crafts here for myself and friends. 

Glenshiel (Gaelic = Gleann sheile) or the Fairy Glen: This is supposed to be the point where our world and that of the fairies meet and the fairies come out to play. If you make a wish here and leave behind something shiny and appropriate, it just might get granted. Danny our guide had given us an hour's break here for lunch, so I climbed up to the top of the rock he had described as the fairies' fort. Spent the hour communing with nature, admiring the views, and making halting conversation with the elder of the Russian brothers. The place did in fact feel magical, and the rest of the world felt too far away to matter.

After passing Uig and some stunning seaviews we stopped at an unknown point that was all cliffs and cliffside paths and great views again. Most of us decided to join Danny on one of his "wee" walks. It began simply enough, but soon the trail got narrower and slippery due to the loose gravel, and I began to fear that I was going to do one of my "Neha fell down" routines..not an easy time at all! The view at the end did seem worth it though. Coming back down, the route seemed to have become longer, naturally. I was quite relieved to be back on flat ground again!!

Also saw the "Old Man of Storr" and stopped to hear the story about it, and visited the Kilt Rock with its waterfall. From here, one can get a view clear across the sea to the island of Raasay and Rona and even the Scottish mainland. Apparently we were very lucky as there are very few days when this place has such good visibility.

I was really tired by the time we drove back to Strome. But this was probably the most beautiful of my days in Scotland. Just thinking about it now makes me want to go back!

My English Summer: Day 06

My great Highland adventure started on the 04th of June. After saying bye to my friends from the hostel, walked down to the Mile to the Wild on Scotland office and paid the remainder of the tour cost. There was a motley group of travellers on this tour - a mother and daughter from France, a couple from Argentina, giggly female students from the US, a handful of Germans, two Russian guys - brothers, one of them a Daniel Craig lookalike, a student from Taiwan, and me bringing in the Indian angle!

We left Edinburgh and drove through a part of the town I handn't seen earlier, coming out into the countryside pretty soon. A drive of about an hour and half brought us to Bannockburn, the site of the famous 14th century battle where Robert the Bruce had defeated the British. It was here that I realised that what had been shown in "Braveheart" was not really the whole truth and nothing but the truth....Leaving Bannockburn we drove further west passing Stirling and making a brief halt to see Doune castle, famous on account of a Monty Python movie being shot here.

Stopped in a small town called Callender and a lunch break was announced. Callender is a cute, small town complete with picturebook houses and pretty lanes line with tiny cafes and sweet shops. A single Main Street runs through the town and most of the town businesses seem to be located on this street. I had an awesome minty ice cream from one of the small shops here.

Just a little ahead of Callender we visited a personage called Hamish. Hamish is a Highland Cow (Hairy Coo!!) and something of a local celebrity. Tourists flock to see this long haired cow, feed him and take pictures of him. Everywhere we went in the Highlands, you couldn't miss all the souvenirs related to this animal - key rings to magnets to biscuit brands to caps to just about anything. The highland cow is a local VIP and an industry in itself!!

Had my first glimpse of a Scottish Loch today, when we stopped at Loch Lubnaig to stretch our legs and take some pix. The Argentinian couple noticing I was alone offered to take my pix for me, and they continued to do this for the rest of the tour. Very nice people. Wish I could say the same for some of the others in the group.

We drove further up into the highlands and stopped to see Glencoe, the valley (glen) where British troops had massacred the entire Macdonald clan after having enjoyed their hospitality for days. It seemed hard to associate this beautiful, peaceful place with so much bloodshed. Glencoe by the way is also where the set for Hagrid's house was set up for the movie Harry Potter and the Prisoner of Azkaban.

After Glencoe we drove on past long lake-shores (Loch Leven, freshwater, and Loch Lhinne, saltwater) to reach the midsized town of Fort William. It is the second largest town in the Highlands and after a long time we saw large supermarkets. I also saw a Thomas cook outlet! This area is also the beginning of the 100km long Caledonian Canal which links Scotland's two seacoasts along with the lochs Lhinne, Lochy, Oich and Ness. The town is the starting base for treks and hikes up to the Ben Nevis, highest peak in the British isles. We kind of passed the Ben and then went up to see the Commando Memorial. This is where a British Commando unit was set up and trained during the Second World War.

Our last stop for the day as the Eileen Donan castle. I recognised this as the castle from the movie Made of Honour. Too bad the light was failing and so I couldn't get my picture taken here. The current castle is actually just about 80 years old. It is an exact replica of the original castle which was used to store gunpowder during the Jacobite rebellions and was blown up by British cannon-fire!

We finally reached Stromeferry (population 17) at around 7.30 pm after a long day. We were staying at a place called the Stationmaster's House, located just opposite the train stop on the Inverness - Kyle of Lochalsh line, beside the lake. We are allocated bunks in the different rooms and it was all quite comfortable.

After dinner was done and we had all helped to clear and wash up, everybody scattered to do their own thing - showers, naps,walks...I went out for a walk, took some pictures, saw what I realised were lobster pots....Back inside the American girls had started a board game called Cranium which we played till bedtime. Quite a good ice breaker, and we all ended up talking about where we come from. Overall it was a good day.

A Wednesday in Mohali

The World Cup semi-final match at Mohali between India and Pakistan on the 30th of March. The first time I ever watched a live cricket match in a stadium. What a way to start :-)
I love you Dhruv mama for working out the tickets...what a match, what a win. I'll probably be talking about it for like forever....especially now that we have the Cup!!