The Scottish Highlands

My trip to the Scottish Highlands started off on a somewhat gray, drizzly, but pretty morning from Edinburgh up into the fog-shrouded, more drizzly northern regions of Scotland. It began uneventfully with plenty of opportunities for beautiful scenery, and it ended up as a wild adventure!

The first major stop was at Glen Coe, a spectacular, legendary place. It is supposed to be beautiful in more clement conditions but as it was it had a sense of mystery to it with the low-hanging clouds and slight fogginess. This is where (or near where) the Campbell clan executed (literally) their famous massacre of the other clans as power shifted at the upper echelons of kings and lords in England and Scotland and their allegiances shifted, too. The history is haunting, and the place reflects it. Though the name of the Coe river predates the massacre and even the language, it is often said to be called the "Glen of Weeping" because of all the rivers that run sinuously down it, sometimes cascading in waterfalls. If not linguistically accurate, it is still appropriately named. This is another place it would be great to photograph in all seasons and all conditions (snow?!)

It was after this, however, that catastrophe struck! As we were going through a roundabout an old Scottish man, who was not paying attention, entered the roundabout and rammed right into us. He shattered and bent the door to the bus and gave us all quite a start, though it was not a terrible collision (I was sitting in the seat directly behind the steps though, right at the point of impact. Still, we all had time to say, "No! Stop!" before the inevitable struck. Equally surprising, he had no license, no registration, and no other papers of any kind. It took us quite some time to get things sorted out, but eventually we were able to move on. The only problem was that another, much more serious accident had happened a bit up the road, resulting in a fatality. After our tiny little accident we saw somewhere around ten emergency vehicles race by (we were confused - weren't we the accident?!). This meant the road would be shut down for most of the rest of the day. Fortunately, our driver, James, was determined to press on if at all possible. We managed to force the door closed and we set off into the back roads, sometimes having to wait for a long period of time because people were all backed up and didn't know how to handle getting by a big bus like ours, which has right of way on those roads in Scotland simply because it is the larger vehicle. It also meant we missed the boat trip of Loch Ness, which disappointed many. I personally felt it was a great adventure and a better trip than it would have originally been!

After getting a brief meal in the small town on the shores of Loch Ness (a different one than planned), it was time to visit the Loch. I spent about thirty minutes taking a whole variety of photos and experiencing the Loch's atmosphere.
Now I can't say I saw the monster for sure, but here are some candidates:

 Oh no that's a stick.

 I guess that's probably a duck...

Yeah... that guy really did go swimming. He told us, "You'll tell your grandchildren you saw Loch Ness; I'll be able to say I swam in it." I told him, "You'll tell your grandchildren you swam in Loch Ness; I'll tell my grandchildren that I was dry and warm on the shore while some other idiot swam in the Loch." Still, he took off his underwear and everyone was making jokes about him being the monster, which he took, jokingly, to be complimentary to his equipment.

See I'm (relatively) dry!

We made one more stop after this, up on an overlook that showed us Loch Ness on a broader scale and also got a photo in the shot. An incredible glimmer of the dying sunlight also broke out. I've seen the sun do lots of magical things on clear days, interacting with clouds, fog, snow, etc., and at various times of day. I had never seen something like this. A photo won't do it justice but I've included one, nonetheless, at the very end.

After this we had a very, very long trip back to Edinburgh. Though I was happy for the adventure, the conditions did worsen as we went along. In sweater, jacket, gloves, scarf, and hat, I was fully bundled up right behind the shattered window. Water would come in off the road and out of the sky, it was cold (40s or 50s), wind chill from the speed of the vehicle, etc. Also, my Australian compatriot, who was probably in his early 30s and had left his wife and kids to do other activities since she had done a similar tour before, had started out convivial as he made his way through an entire bottle of whiskey and several beers over the course of the day, but became a bit obnoxious toward the end of the evening. It was a slog back of several hours, with a brief stop about an hour from the end to get some warm drinks and food (much needed). Still, an incredible tour. I wish I could've gotten out to the Isle of Skye because it is supposed to be incredible and that is where the MacKinnon/McKinnon family supposedly used to live (marked by the remnants, I'm told, of a very ruined castle, now). Still, it was great to get to do Edinburgh in full, the Borders, and the Highlands. I even had opportunities to catch up on my blogging and enjoy the atmosphere of Edinburgh at night.