YOU TAKE THE HIGH ROAD (and so will I)

Well, the Blog is no closer to being current.  Many days have passed since the last post.  As I write this we are about to head home, so I am three weeks behind.  Today (in Blog terms, it’s September 3) we leave Skye to head across the highlands to Nairn, east of Inverness on the other coast.  First we had to make a stop just after you cross the bridge from Skye to the mainland, at one of the most photographed castles in Scotland, Eilean Donan.

The castle itself isn’t all that hot, but the setting and that triple arched bridge leading to it certainly are.  We had a pretty misty day, so photography wasn’t at its best.  The site has been continuously inhabited since 618 when St. Donan lived there.  The castle itself was built in 12It was destroyed and rebuilt over the centuries, most recently in 1214 by the MacKenzies, was destroyed in the Jacobite Rebellion, and was rebuilt to the original specs (!?) in the early 20th century.  Looks like it’s old enough to be the original.  The view from the other side is pretty nice as well (except for me).

At the parking lot for the castle, we spied the ultimate off-road RV, so this is for all my Lazy Daze gang.  I think it was German.  Look carefully for the “Left Hand Drive” notation on the rear.  Wonder if they have a fold-out ladder or just drop a rope to get in?  Where in the world could you go to justify such overkill?

Time to navigate across Scotland.  Always fun to see the signs in Celtic and English.  Thank goodness for the translations.  Some of them have a passing similarity, but others, like for Fort William, could be in Greek.
I was hoping that we would be able to get up to Ullapool, and take the road north from there, as it was reputed to be the most beautiful drive in Scotland.  Alas, our timing wouldn’t allow it, as we have to position ourselves eastward in time for the Highland Games at Braemar.  Nonetheless, we had some pretty spectacular scenery along our route.  All the while we had the same overcast skies, although little or no actual rain, and ever-present moisture in the air that made scenic shots difficult.  We kept to what are considered pretty mainstream roads on our crossing of the country, but that didn’t mean they were even paved!  Still, they took us along some nice views.  I won’t bore you with all the peak names, Ben this and Ben that, since I’d probably get them wrong anyway.

We went up the A896 along Loch Carron and Loch Torridon (above, I think), and then circled clockwise around Wester Ross on A832, then southeast through Inverness to Nairn.  Much of the way was on one-lane roads like shown above.  The upside was that they were mostly deserted.  We felt we had the landscape as our own.  Still, we did a lot of pulling over to allow oncoming traffic to pass.  We stopped at Deer Park to check out the native Red Deer they have in captivity, and Loni also wanted a shot of the local longhorned Highland cattle.  The latter weren’t yet shaggy with their winter coats, and both were less than whelming.

Traveling up the A832 towards Gair Loch, we came across a sign for Victoria Falls, invisible from the road.  Well, it wasn’t quite of the African magnitude, but a nice little falls all the same.  It emptied into Loch Maree, which afforded some nice scenery along with the native flora.  Heather?  Gorse?  You got me.

Driving these rural roads with hairpin turns and single lanes can be tiring for both the driver (Chuck) and the flung-about passengers, so we took a break above the community of Gairloch (“Short Loch”).

After Gairloch, we turned northeast along Loch Ewe.  All around Scotland we’ve seen pictures and postcards portraying a body of water with a small island in the middle, impossibly covered with cartoon sheep, standing upon one another to form a pyramid, and the caption is always “Loch Ewe.”  Scottish humor.  After Gruinard Bay, A832 turns southeast along the shore of Little Loch Broom, where we stopped for another photo-op of the rugged granite hills at the foot of the loch.

After this we began descending out of the Highlands and onto more flat territory as we motored further southeast on A835 to Inverness.  We ended up in Nairn, an old city with virtually all stone houses dating from the mid-1800’s.  Our B&B, called Brighton House, was built around that time, and has been beautifully brought into the 21st century inside by the proprietors, a retired air force officer and his pharmacist wife.  We have a small room with a distant sea view across a playing field from our equally small window.  Chuck and Alice got the big suite with a fireplace.  Hmmm.  The pic of the ancient house cat (actually, it stays outside) is for Mom.
For diinner we went to a local pub, the Braelick.  Ordinary fish & chips for Loni, and an even more ordinary beer, Tennets.  Seems the U.S. doesn’t have a monopoly on boring suds.  I had monkfish with red pepper couscous and a shortbread and cream concoction for dessert.  Innes  & Gann for beer, again not noteworthy.  The place itself was fine for atmosphere.