Part Two

Ok, I'm doing this of memory now since I've forgotten my notebook...

So, Day Two. Started in Oban, we began our trek up the Great Glen, which is a huge valley with four substantial lochs in it (the most famous being the northernmost Loch Ness). We stopped in a small town to get lunch and then had a picnic at my favorite loch, Loch Garry (ok, it's not spelt that way but thats how it sounds :o)

I kissed a dirty old bagpiper on the cheek.

Then we wandered over to Skye, crossing the road bridge that caused soooo much angst. I can't quite remember how much it was to cross but it was an outrageous amount for people who had to work and live on either side of the bridge - but the Scots had a cunning plan.
- You could cross the bridge for free if you were transporting livestock. So people used to chase down sheep (the sheep wander pretty freely around here, they mark them with paint to keep track of whose is whose), chuck one in the back of the car and then point to it as they sped across the bridge, depositing said sheep on the otherside for someone else to pick up and take back home.

Anyway, Skye was gorgeous. Lots of munroes and bens and general star-like quality. We saw a few blackhouses (the traditional house of the Highlanders, basically a thatched roof cottage) and the grave of Fiona McDonald, who saved Bonnie Prince Charlie after one of the most disasterous and horrific fights between England and Scotland which basicallly led to the ethnic cleansing of the Scottish highlands (more on that later, it's actually pretty sad and we visited Culloden battlefield towards the end of the trip).

Slept in a gorgeous hostel on the edge of the ocean but no sunsets/sunrises (would it surprise anyone to know that Skye is Gaelic for misty/cloudy?)

The next day we wandered through Skye for a while and washed our faces in a river supposed to have been magicked by the 'wee people' (if you've never heard of the wee people, they are basically just like us, same likes/dislikes/prejudices/weaknesses/strengths except about three feet tall. And with magic powers. Some are good, some are bad, some I guess are just indifferent as long as they get what they want.)
Anyway, this river apparently makes you beautiful. Since I can't post photos, you'll just have to take my word that it worked and I am now a ravishing beauty with Scottish men falling at my feet :o) It's next to a pub and a steep-ish hill - story goes that one evening two guys were having a pint and one dared the other to run up the hill and back in under an hour. He did it in 59 minutes. Now it's a big charity event - the record is 48 minutes! Pretty damn impressive really.

Stay tuned for the next thrilling installment (i'm writing this for my fathers benefit more than anything else so he'd better be reading this!!!!)