The Scottish Highlands

The Scottish Highlands was everything i imagined it to be, rugged barren and cool.

I left work at lunch and caught an afternoon flight to edinburgh. i booked my hostel for the wrong night and they were booked out that night, so callan got a lunchtime phone call to find me something and luckily he did.

the next morning the tour began, there was about 30 of us, many australian but plenty of other foreigners as well. we made our way up to the highlands stopping at various places on the way.

this is an old barracks which featured heavily in the jacobian 'civil' war in the 1750's


this is at a church beside a river


at the end of the day we arrived at a snall town beside loch ness. the loch is actually quite long (over 100ks) and narrow (usually 1km) and deep (200m). we went on a cruise of the loch at night, these pics are of loch ness, im going to print these out





afterwards we drank at the local bar listening to a local singer (quite good) playing traditional songs as well as the usual pub ones, turned into a pretty huge night in the end.

the next day we went to the isle of skye. its an island that is linked by bridge. this is where the landscape was very barren with the kind of landscape you see on photos.

while touring the island, we pulled over, got out of the bus and our guide pointed to this column of rock on top of the mountain, told us an old folk story about the rock and said 'right, now we're gonna climb up to it'. for me, this was the highlight of the trip.

only a few of us made it all the way to the top and i was one of the first. just in time too as a cloud front rolled in and the magnificent views disappeared. we walked back down the track in a light drizzly rain but it wasn't cold and only added to the rugged atmosphere. a very cool little trek.

this is halfway up thetrek, nice view hey



we stayed the night on the island, went to a few pubs in the tittle town and walked up toa hill overlooking the town at 1am.

the next day we made our way back to edinburgh, we visited this famous castle that you see a lot in photos and was in a few movies (james bond, highlander).



after arriving back in edinburgh a few of us on the tour met up for a few drinks and as there was a big comedy/theatre festival on, we went to see an aussie comedian. he was pretty funny but very political

the next day i met up with a friend from contiki who lives there and we wandered around the city. i didnt go to the castle as i'll be there for new years so i'll see it then. Edinburgh is a pretty little city, quite hilly and lots of old buildings and cobbled streets.






it'll be interesting to see it in jan when it is snowing.

so thats about it, not too much detail but it takes me too long to write a full essay.

i have a lot of travel coming up in the next few weeks. next weekend i'll hopefully be in wales, the one after that, i'll be in liverpool to watch an FA cup game (Everton), weekend after that is croatia for 10 days. then paris overnight, then mum arrives and we go to switzerland for a week. tough life hey!

cya