Flashback to July. We got back from Barra on Day 2 of our trip and went directly to Loch Lomond. We stayed on the West side of the Loch in a picturesque little town called Luss. After our gorgeous weather on Barra, we stumbled into some more typically Scottish weather in Luss. That certainly did not stop us from venturing on a soggy hike up the nearest hill. The place we stayed was a working farm with several thousand sheep, some of whom we visited on our way up the hill. Sheep are so funny. They have quite a lot to say, and they always sound irritated. They look laid back, but then “BAAAAAAAAAAck off, woman – MY grass patch.” OK OK. You have horns. Enough said.

Our “Gortex” jackets that Andy acquired for £10 in China turned out to be pretty darn waterproof, which proved useful throughout the trip. The next day, after an absolutely massive breakfast (I had porridge, thinking it would be a bit lighter than the bacon. Umm, no. Scottish porridge is apparently made with heavy cream or something. It was nuts. I had about four bites and decided against porridge for the rest of the trip.), we went over to the village of Luss and hiked around Loch Lomond. We hiked around an old slate quarry which was absolutely rushing with water and beautiful, pristine slate. We later found ourselves in the Coach House Coffee Shop, which is, according to our guidebook, “easily the best place to eat on Loch Lomond.” I had Grandma’s caramel apple pie, and Andy had a toffee shortbread with hot chocolate. I’ll tell you what – it ran CIRCLES around the reheated pub meal from the night before, which was our only other Loch Lomond meal out.

We made our way very slowly to Fort William, our next stop. The drive to Fort William passes through some of the most amazing countryside I have ever seen. The mountains in Scotland seem to shoot up from nowhere and are just bursting with mountain lakes and waterfalls. Everything was so green that it far transcended the grey skies. We stopped in Glen Coe and hiked around Three Sisters for a while. Glen Coe is famous for a terrible massacre that happened back in 1692, and Three Sisters is – as far as I can tell – three mountains near each other in Glen Coe. It was a lovely hike and by then the weather had brightened a bit.

We eventually made it to Fort William, went out for a yummy meal – I had salmon, Andy had chicken, and we shared a yummy raspberry dessert. I don’t know why I think you care what we ordered, but oh well – you don’t have a choice. We watched a little bit of the World Cup Final in a pub; then we started to get tired and went back to watch the rest in the lounge at the lodge.

The next day, we were hoping to hike Ben Nevis – the tallest mountain in Scotland, but the weather did not cooperate. We went to the visitors’ center, and the lady told us that if we could go on ANY OTHER DAY that we should postpone our trip. Something about huge wind gusts and rain. We decided to postpone it for the following day and instead embarked on a hike in Glen Nevis. It was still a sizeable ascent, but it was a beautiful hike which included a wire bridge and ended at an amazing waterfall (I’m a sucker for a waterfall). Andy took the picture for our masthead (what I like to call the top of our blog site) there. We were eaten alive by midges. Midges look like gnats but the BITE like nobody’s business, and it HURTS and makes red dots all over your hands. If you ever go hiking near trees in Scotland, bring bug spray. Midges = torture.

On the way back we decided to stop in at Ben Nevis Distillery for a tour and perhaps a tasting. We drove past where we thought it might be. Eventually, we turned around and drove past where it might be again. Eventually, we turned around and stopped in a hotel that was called the “Ben Nevis Distillery Hotel� to ask where it was. He said, “Keep driving in that direction; you can’t miss it. If you get to the intersection, you’ve gone too far.� Well I am here to tell you that you most certainly CAN miss it. We missed it three, count ‘em, THREE times. On the third pass, we saw the writing on the side of the building, turned around again, and found our way there, all the while thinking, “Yes you CAN miss it. What do you MEAN you can’t miss it?�

The tour was great. Very informative, when we could hear and understand the little Scotsman who gave it. The whisky was – well – whisky. On the way out to the massive “people moverâ€? we rented (which was – incidentally – supposed to be a Ford Focus or similar. Um, not so similar.), we looked out again at the entrance to the distillery, only to see a proper community gathering at the entrance, where they were . . . wait for it . . . erecting the new sign. It is a HUGE sign and probably replaces the former HUGE sign, and my guess is that NOW – you can’t miss it.

Feeling vindicated with our new knowledge that the distillery was actually very EASY to miss during those few hours that it was without a HUGE sign, we found our way back and had a delicious Mexican meal at a pub in Fort William, all the while crossing our fingers that the weather would be acceptable for our Ben Nevis hike the next day . . .

Something from more recent events: The worst smell in the world is spinach that used to be a bag of frozen spinach but is now a pile of soggy moldy spinach because your freezer, unbeknownst to you, doesn’t work anymore.



Pictures of our hikes in Glen Coe and Glen Nevis


Whisky Pictures