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.
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