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07
Aug 10

Mellon Udrigle – Ullapool

Wild Deer!

The weather didn’t look too good for An Teallach route; low clouds wouldn’t permit the stunning views the route is known for. We went for a huge big breakfast, but clouds hadn’t moved anywhere in the meantime, and Iestyn just couldn’t be asked to go do it. So we decided to do the Ben Eighe route instead.

The route starts with a bit if a loser trail through the valley, so there was a lot of people with kids, short-legged dogs, umbrellas etc. Even though the views were already really nice, we were still quite happy to reach the natural amphitheatre around the lake, where the loser trail ended, and to go up some real hills. We started with the highest one, Ben Eighe itself, and continued the ridge over Spidean Coire nan Clach, Sgurr Ban, and Sgurr nan Fhir Duibhe. Towards the end the clouds were finally lifting, offering some pretty dramatic views over the valleys. Altogether a little bit under 7 hours.

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We camped in Ullapool, with a shower, and a tv show style drama before sleeping.

Wild life sightings:
Plenty of deer! Got really close to some on Ben Eige

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06
Aug 10

Glen Shiel – Mellon Udrigle

We started the Glen Shiel trail, but Iestyn didn’t feel too well, so we gave up, and went to Eilean Donan castle instead. There we decided to do our beach day today, and started by going to our favorite Isle of Skye.

Well, it’s mostly Iestyn’s favorite place, I am yet to see it in good weather to really start liking it. This time we made it to Elgol, but due to low clouds did not enjoy its views of Cuillin ridge. The place was still really magical, with bulls as big as houses and beautiful coast.

Passing by Big Sand beach that turned out to be too touristy and camp-y, we made it all the way to Mellon Udrigle, one of the prettiest Scottish beaches. It was warm and pleasant, and turned into an amazing romantic sunset. We camped there for the night, while unwisely throwing away the rest of our evening pasta too close to our tent, so we got seagulls crying right by our heads real loud.

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Wildlife sightings:
seagulls

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05
Aug 10

Ardnamurchan peninsula – Glen Shiel

Iest's Birthday morning :)

Iestyn’s birthday! I totally let Iestyn sleep as long as he pleased (no ‘unintentional’ nudging, twisting and turning or anything), and after he woke up (from completely natural causes) he got all his cards and presents. He got a whole big box of hazelnut Tatranky (I think that was a winner) but also a very cool and sleek Apple remote, so we can finally watch stuff from our bed without getting up!

After that we got up, packed everything in the car, only to find out that we can’t get out of the campsite back to the road because the ground got wet and soggy overnight. So we had to take everything out of the car again to make it lighter, and it didn’t help either. That didn’t look good at all, and Iest was getting pretty un-birthday-y pissed. We gave up our combined efforts and decided to get help. Luckily, the first car to drive by was a 4×4, with a guy in a nice shirt and a tie going to work, still offering to help. So, after a little confusion with where the hell does our car have a hook for a rope (turns out it has it in the boot :)), we were rescued and back on the road.

That gave us a little bit of a delay for the day, but soon we were in Mallaig having breakfast including a proper birthday cake for Iest. After that there was no holding us back from sea kayaking for the rest of the day! (Except may be that we couldn’t find the guy with the kayaks for a while, until he actually put a red kayak by the road next to his house so we wouldn’t pass it again.)

Kayaking was fun though, the water was surprisingly warm (not that either of us would care to turn the kayak over), and after a couple of showers we even got sun for the rest of the afternoon. The coolest thing were seals playing in the water right around us, lots of them. We also got to see some big sea birds and a nice part of the coast.

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For dinner I took Iestyn to our favorite Indian restaurant in Fort William, which once again served us some awesome grub in abundance. Camped in Glen Shiel.

Thanks to Mike at http://www.seakayakhighlands.co.uk/ for renting us the Kayaks, and being super patient with us! :)

Wildlife sightings:
Seals
Little bunny rabbits in the campsite

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04
Aug 10

Fort William – Ardnamurchan peninsula

Iestyn is actually proud of this picture

Oh no, Iestyn’s knee hurt in the morning, and got swollen and red from yesterday’s slip on the rocks, so we couldn’t go do Ring of Steall trail. We decided to do a nice scenic drive up North instead, tuning into the smooth sounds of radio Nevis (really :)).

We dropped in the award-winning information centre near Fort William, which hosted a beautiful exhibition of wildlife photographs. Other than that, the award-not-winning information centre was equally as nice, and we got our postcards there.

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03
Aug 10

Ellenabeich – Fort William

Putting on Gina's Gaiters

Late-ish start, but who could blame us in such a lovely place. Drove up by the Stalker castle, which I finally got to see in the sun, we even had our morning coffee outside with a view. But then we wasted no time no more, and got to Glen Coe to do our first epic route over one of the Glen Coe ridges.

The clouds were low, which meant the views were mostly obscured, which was quite a pity as this route was named #3 most beautiful route by the Trail magazine (and that certainly does mean something :)!), but we still got a really nice walk out of it. Also the fogginess and occasional rain brought some good stuff with it, namely 1) the opportunity for me to put on my new fancy waterproof e-vent gaiters, and 2) there were no other people on the trail, which I assume otherwise in good weather turns into somewhat of a bloody tourist highway (I don’t count the unfortunate couple we met at the beginning, who decided to do the route with a rope, and who both looked so uncomfortable on the rock that it was quite scary to watch, and we can only hope they finished it ok).

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02
Aug 10

Coniston Water – Ellenabeich

Ridge at Ellenabeich

Surprisingly early start followed by a beautiful foggy scenic drive through the Lake District. After that we hit the highway again, and soon we saw the Scottish welcome sign. By that time the morning mist cleared up, and we had some nice views along another scenic drive along Loch Lomond, Inveraray, and over to Oban.

Oban had lots to offer but mostly we were after its big Tesco to stock up on food for the trip. We were a bit hesitant then which fish & chips place to visit for regaining some energy, we narrowed the options down to two, which the information board in the town centre labelled as ‘the best’ and ‘preferred by locals’. This posed a bit of a conundrum – is there a reason why the locals wouldn’t prefer the best? Which one should we choose? We decided for the best one at the end, and it really was quite good indeed.

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01
Aug 10

London – Coniston Water (via Wales)

Llandudno beach

We got up real early and bravely, and made it to Euston in time, despite a little scare at the Northern line being opened late. It was a first train ride for both of us together, and Iestyn turned out to be an awesome train co-traveller – he doesn’t annoy me at all and lets me read the Guardian from yesterday and everything :) Good times.

Anyway, I survived the train (I even managed to sleep some), and at noon we got off at Llandudno Junction, where Iest’s parents picked us up and brought his car for us too. Iestyn had to go to get measured for some gay clothes he’s gonna be wearing for his brother’s wedding next year. I couldn’t go with him for reasons unknown, so I went to the beach, which was pretty even if a bit rainy.

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25
Nov 09

Ullapool – Inverness – Loch Eil, Fort William

We woke up, to an awesome stink. The stink of our walking gear drying out in our room. Oh my, that was some stink. The wind and the rain was still terribly bad. Water had managed to force itself in through double glazing windows! We were right on the sea front. Proper crazy it was.

We checked out, and headed South. On the way, we stopped off at a really awesome gorge –  Corrieshalloh gorge.

Corrieshalloh gorge

Gina at Corrieshalloh

Mighty impressive. Now, my only two fears that I’ve got, is man made hights – such as tall buildings, and spiral staircases. This was a man made height. Oh gosh. Regi decided it would be fun, once I was on the bridge to start jumping on it. The whole thing started to swing. Oh I felt so ill. The view was stunning though .

We continued South towards Inverness. We stopped off again at some nice rapids called Rogie Falls just by Contin, there was a lovely woodland area where you were free to go walk through and see the falls. It was quite nice.

Inverness was a nice place. Never been there before. We headed up to the Castle, which is now the courts, to the History of Scotland Museum, where I got to dress up;

Yes!

I felt a bit weird going into a city (yes, it was a city Regi) after being in the wilderness of Scotland for a while. I much prefer the wild. We stocked up on food for the night, Indian from M&S, as we were going camping. I don’t know about you lot – but there’s something odd about having such glorious food when you’re out camping huh?

We drove passt Loch Ness, no Nessie unfortunately, she must be doing her toe nails or something, so we went on a hunt for a camping site.

We found a lovely one by Loch Eil – but it was closed. Being so cool as we are – we decided to stay here anyhow. We got us a lovely spot, right on the loch, with our own beach. It was great!!

Loch Eil Campsite

We pitched the tent, got in it, and decided to take a little powernap before commencing the cooking! We set a goal for ourselves of cooking dinner at around 9pm. We woke up at 12am. Oh dear. We decided to skip the lovely Indian food, and kept on sleeping.

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24
Nov 09

Tokavaig (Isle of Skye) – Ullapool

It’s great sleeping in a tent. It rocks. Hearing the rain hitting it always makes me smile when I’m all warm and nice inside. We munched on Chocolate Porridge, and Regi decided it would be nice to go for a swim in the sea. Bear in mind this is the end of November. We ‘both’ went swimming. Regi went fully in – me on the other hand, up to my ankles. I’m telling you, that sea was cold!!

It didn’t stop raining. We toured the Isle, and went right up North, we saw some lovely waterfalls including Kilt Rock, and some nice scenery, Quiraing rocks.

Quiraing rocks

From here, we decided to leave the Island, and head up North to the lovely little fishing village of Ullapool. Our little hearts was set on camping again, so after arriving there, we scouted for a suitable camping spot off the beaten track. This little mission was unsuccessful, as everywhere was waterlogged, and the wind was pretty heavy.

Reginit fell asleep on my lap whilst I was driving, looking for a camp site. Bless. I saw loads of wild deer on the roads. It was a really nice experience. I fell in love with a song by Iva Frühlingová called It Ain’t Easy. This little stretch of driving was just lovely.

We managed to check into a cool B&B, with a similar smell to my fave pub here in Wales – Pen y Gwryd, so it felt homely. We hit the bat, and had some Czech beer. It was nice.

Our plan from Ullapool was to attempt to conquer the lovely walk that is An Teallach, but the weather up here was so bad – and we were still suffering from our mishap on the Ben, that we decided not to.

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23
Nov 09

Fort William – Tokavaig (Isle of Skye)

Loch Garry Panorama

Today was totally going to be a chill out day. We drove up from Fort William to Tokavaig on the Isle of Skye. Tiss a beautiful drive, with lovely scenery and Lochs. We stopped off at the lovely famous Scottish Caslte, Eilean Donan, and took some pics etc.

Loch

Gins a Loch Garry

Us by Loch Loyne

Eilean Donan Castle

Eilean Donan Castle

We grabbed some food at the little village just before the Skye bride, and decided we were going to camp that night. So armed with supplies, we headed over the bridge, to the most beautiful place I’ve ever been to (thus far) – the Isle of Sky.

I knew of a lovely spot to camp, so we headed directly towards it, Ord. Our view was the Cuillin ridge, and the sea was our view.

Camping at Tokavaig

It was really nice. After I complained a lot that ‘I was starving’ I was let go to cook us some food. Pasta ‘n sauce with mushrooms ‘n peppers. It was lovely – followed by chocolate dessert.

It’s a great spot this. I’ve always liked it.

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