a NOLA girl in a Big world

So yesterday was fun! I bought some UK trash magazines for or long drive – The UK trash mags are the same, just with people I have never heard of!

We left Portree & the isle of Skye by way of FERRY! I felt back at home in Chalmette, but on a much grandeur scale. The ferry was MASSIVE, a small cruise vessel actually! 30 minute ride over & we were in Malaig, then headed to our hiking destination!

Our goal was to reach the village of Peanmeanach, a coastal ruin village & beach! We started along a beautiful path, where we saw where the Jacobites landed prior to their uprising & the local railway! We scaled the side of a mountain, along a waterfall (the hikes are def getting “easier” since we are “pros” now) then started along the rolling hills! The hills that never ended! Rocks & water & mud & more rocks & water & mud! We eventually caught up with other 2 other hikers & began a “follower, follow-ie” tango with them until they felt that they had “hiked for an hour & felt positive they had passed the ruined village” & turned around! Since we are pros, we knew to stay on course because no 7 mile walk (round trip) would be as short as they thought … And we were RIGHT! About an hour after our counterparts departure, the village was in our sights! miles away, but in our sights! Scaled down the mountain, over the river & through the woods to Grandmothers house we go … Until BAM!! The “clear field” we were to cross to reach our village had turned into a “clear lake!” The past few days were so rainy, that our path became impassable. We tried! We REALLY tried! But it became clear that Mother Nature yet again won the battle & we weren’t going to be able to finish our hike! It was a little bit of a let down, but the beauty around us & the gorgeous day, quickly reminded us that we have had one of the better days of this trip! The views were spectacular & company was great – no room to be upset!

We headed to our 2nd to last destination, Fort Williams, outdoor capital of Scotland! It’s magnificent! Ben Nevis , the highest mountain in the UK is the center of its beauty! There is also, Glenn Nevis . It’s hard not to fall in love with every place we have been to, but there is something about this town that feels very active & fast pace but very aware of its charm & quaintness! Might be my favorite! Ended the night at a local pub Bowen found, Grog & Gruel. It was AMAZING! Perfect way to end the day after my birthday! 😉

Yesterday we packed are bags early and tackled a number of different places we planned on hitting the day before but were too busy licking our wounds from our defeat against the Falls to get to. This would pay off later.

Our first order of business was the Eilean Donan castle. This castle, which is the most recognized in Scotland due to its use in several movies, was recreated from the ground up following its destruction in 1719 by the Brits. Get this, the family that rebuilt it, the McCrae clan, blocked off a section of the castle specifically for the family to vacation in – that’d be a pretty awesome way to spend spring break.

After this we made our trek over to the Isle of Skye. The isle is known for its fresh seafood, beautiful landscape, Talisker scotch whisky, and more sheep than you’ve ever seen in your life. People on the island say without a doubt the sheep population outnumbers the inhabitants.

Our itinerary led us to the west of the island by Broadford, to a roofless church called Cill Chriosd. Our destinations were the ruins of Boreraig and Suisnish. The proof of the sheep overpopulation lies in the story of how the ruins came about – they were both cleared out by Lord Macdonald to make way for MORE sheep!

Not to bore you with all the history involved but the trek gave us an opportunity to see the full scope of the landscape while giving us a taste of what made the Scottish people who they are today. The trek took us through sheep poop filled grassy fields spotted by ruins and an old marble quarry, a forest preserve with 240,000 trees, the coast of the island and ending with the Broadford red hills and the loch Cill Chriosd. In 11 miles we crossed 4 different backdrops, each unique in its own way and as a whole I think we saw 10 people and what had to be hundreds of sheep.

We arrived back at the car around 6:30 and checked into our B&B in the little harbor town of Portree. As if by design, we pulled into town for dinner just in time to hear the local bagpipe band put on a show for everyone in the city center. I wish all of you could be here to see the magnificence of the landscape here and the great people we’ve encountered on the way. We took today to celebrate Linds’ birthday and opted out of our hike due to unexpected changes in the weather. More to come later on!
~ Bowen

It’s my birthday! We decided to take a break from hiking & do some local adventures! I – like any typical woman would do – went & got my hair done! Being without a dryer for 4 days was really weighing on me! So we took to town, had a great breakfast at the local bakery then stopped in a local jeweler where Bowen bought me the most gorgeous bracelet, made here in Scotland! 🙂 then to the hair salon! It was magical! Just to get my hair washed & dried made my birthday all the more special! We then kept shopping buying many things for you people back home! Now we are changing (it constantly RAINS here) & are heading to Dunvegan castle & the talisker distillery! A little whiskey tasting for the birthday girl! It’s only Noon & this is a birthday for the books! We will blog tonight about how AMAZING yesterday was! I’ll just say, it ended with Bowen getting fish & chips the size of his head! CHEERS!

If you read the earlier post then you may recognize my play on words. Bad I know but disappointingly we did not make it to the Falls of Glomach. Mother Nature had other plans for us, to give an idea of the task – it was an 11 mile trek through multiple terrains. We covered ~5 miles in a little less than 2 hours but then the skies opened up and the rains started coming. In 30 minutes, the winds had picked up to close to what felt like 40+ mph and we had less than 100 feet of visibility… All while being close to 790m (2,600ft) up and not having seen a single person since the base of the mountain.

Lindsey will tell you we were both pretty nervous about the situation we had found ourselves in. My concern was that we had come so far that the waterways we had passed before would only make our trek down more dangerous with the increase in water and we were the only people on the mountain so we turned around after a brief discussion and have absolutely no regrets. The below picture will show how bad the weather was getting about 15 minutes before it got bad enough we turned around.

On the way down however we came across an amazing site, a ‘school’ of red deer grazing on top of the mountain. We continued down to the end of the trail resembling wet dogs that needed to lick their wounds. And yes, i do mean like the dogs in Homeward Bound. Blistered feet, soaking wet, and little to show for our efforts we regrouped at the bed and breakfast so as to mitigate any risk of something like this happening again. In reflection, I know we made the right decision here and if we looked at it again 10 other times we’d do it again.

Having now been on two hikes with Lindsey, I cannot express enough how proud I am of her. 13 miles in total and still going strong! Now lets just see if we can break those shoes in some more to keep from any more slipping! More to come tomorrow with travel to the Isle of Skye to visit the ruins of Suisnish and Boreraig after finally making it to the castle that has alluded us so far.

This is late because you cant blog in the highlands!!

This post won’t do yesterday justice. Every few minutes I kept telling Bowen, “this is unreal”, “we are in a different world” or “God seriously exists – look at all this!”
The day started off, off the beaten path! We would see a hill, park & climb it. We would see water – investigate – only to find out it was Loch Lomond, the largest Loch in Scotland. We wanted to be done with our PLANNED hike by noon, only to end up getting caught up with everything around us & didn’t start until 1! WELL WORTH THE WAIT!

Three sisters in a mountain range in Glen Coe & it’s breathtaking. We started our journey by crossing a bridge & scaling a mountain. Then UP! & Up! & Up! Walking along edges & waterfalls & rushing rivers! It was spectacular! Bowen was so patient & helpful with this first time hiker, even dealing with my FEW, “you want me to climb THAT!?” & “you want me to do WHAT!?” moments! After 2 hours of hiking we eventually reached our reward – the Lost Valley! Words can’t describe the view, the picture above doesn’t even do it justice! An overwhelming feeling of accomplishment & astonishment took over & we were so grateful to have experienced such an amazing adventure! It will be a moment I will never forget!

Checking into our AMAZING B&B we couldn’t help but reminisce about the day & begin planning for our next hike! If the rest of the time is half as good as our first hiking day was, ill be more than happy with this “Holiday” (UK lingo for vacation).

Just a quick post since we on our way back out into the wild early this morning following a great breakfast on the water at our b&b. ill discuss more this evening about everything we’ve experienced so far mostly because its hard to put such beauty into words. Yesterday we hiked into the lost valley between 2 of the 3 sisters peaks outside Glen Coe. Then we went on quite the drive going through more of the highlands and making our way to the small village of Kyle of Lochalsh. This morning we make our trek to the Falls of Glomach and then check out Eileen Donan Castle which has been made famous because of its multiple appearances on movies over the years. We’ll try and find a way for everyone to have access to our pictures soon but I’ve attached our view from the room below.

After touring the city for hours (SPECTACULAR! I tell ya!) jet lag hit us like a ton of bricks! Lindsey & bowen preformed at Snoozefest 2013 in Glasgow, UK! & it was worth it!

Once awake, heeding the advice of the local bar keep, we head to the “swanky” part of town (later to be corrected by the cabi to “snobby”) & she was right! It was very young, hip & lots of high heels, short skirts & spiky hair. Great people watching! It’s funny how we are a world away, but even Glasgow has “those people.”

We had our eye set on a certain restaurant but felt a tad out of place. Thankfully, down the street we found a wonderful restaurant with a great atmosphere & wonderful food but HORRIBLE service. It was very strange how they went about taking care of us. We had 4 different servers throughout the night & would only be attended to if one of the four noticed we were sitting there – no drink – no food – no menu! But other than that it was a good night that ended with ice cream & a walk through the university of Glasgow! To bed a little early bc 6am comes early! Our hiking adventure begins tomorrow, as well as a guest post from Bowen! Cheers!

Yay for automatic cars in the UK! Bc if we didn’t we would have been in big trouble! Driving on the “wrong” side of the road & having the wheel in the “passenger seat” is NUTS! I wasn’t even driving & I felt like I was having an anxiety attack! Bowen did well but we had issues with directions! He liked going sans-GPS, while I was having a fit trying to read a map that didn’t have all the streets labelled! But we made it to the hotel & went on our way! Ended up HEREat Hootenanny’s Pub – kicked back watching soccer – GEAUX CELTIC – & having a few pints!

What a flight! Leaving at night, arriving in the morning! Pretty amazing! I slept the whole way, thanks to some “dream pills” & it was ok! For such a massive plane it was still pretty small! Poor Bowen didn’t sleep at all! But we are here in Glasgow & ready to get the day started! It’s 10′ Celsius aka 50′ F! Didn’t expect that! But it’s gorgeous! Breathtaking actually!

“…chilin out, maxin’, relaxin’ all cool” at the Philly airport! First leg down, one to go! The flight was easy, as I fell asleep while Bowen read up on the history of Scotland. He later informed me that haggis is illegal in the US bc the Feds say it isn’t a suitable product for consumption! not that I was going to try it before, but I surely won’t be trying it now!
Sitting down for a couple of beers & Philly Cheese Steaks – when in Rome!