Thursday afternoon, we moved out of our apartment, loaded our little Fiat with the last of our belongings, and drove out of Ayrshire in a snowstorm!! By the time we reached the Glasgow area, the weather was clear. We headed up to Tyndrum for one last stop at the Real Food Cafe and on into Glencoe. We spent the night at a fantastic inn called the Clachaig Inn. We wish we had found it sooner, it is great. Our room was really nice, clean, and comfortable, but the rest of the Inn, the pubs and sitting rooms, were really rustic. It's an old hiking lodge, and it had great atmosphere- really comfortable with lots of wood fires and a great pub with tons of whiskey! We met some hikers who were camping nearby and had come into the pub for a dram before bed (it sounds like this place gets packed with hikers like this in the summer).
We woke up and ate breakfast around sunrise (8:30am). They served wild Scottish boar back bacon, sausage, blood pudding, and all the good stuff the comes with a Scottish breakfast! We left around 9:30 to hike Hidden Glen, a walk Colin and Ashley had shown us when we passed through with them. We wanted to go a bit further up the glen, and it was worth it. The landscape was frosted and shimmering in the early morning sunshine. The water was crystal clear in he falls we passed. The mountains towered above with snow-capped peaks. Truly breathtaking.
We drove on to Fort William for a quick stop, and then on to our next destination, Tongue. We went up past Loch Ness (no monster to be seen) and circled around to the west coast. We stopped for gas in Lochinver (we will have to come back here and stay longer than for just gas) and watched the sun set over the impressive international deep sea fishing boats in the harbour. From there, we drove the last leg up through Durness into Tongue. It was very dark and we missed all the scenery, but we saw at least 15 deer in and around the road on our way through. We had a friendly welcome at the Tongue Hotel, we had dinner in the public bar, and enjoyed our huge room. They gave us an upgrade since I had been there before. They also stock each room with a decanter of delicious fortified British wine called Armadillo. The owner had told us it was sherry- is fortified wine the same thing as sherry?
Anyways... we woke to a big snow storm! The power kept going on and off and it was snowing/hailing right down the flue into our fire place grate (no damper to close that we could find!) We ate breakfast and contemplated what to do. It cleared a bit, the snowfall lightened, so we took off toward Durness. The landscape was just breathtaking with the dramatic weather patterns, snow covered mountains, and crashing seas. We went for a crazy windy walk along the beach overlooking Cape Wrath, it was really cold, but fun! We stopped at the Cocoa Mountain for some classic Durness Truffles before heading back toward Tongue. Along the road, we saw a pack of what I think were roe deer- about 10 of them walking along the fields. Back in Tongue, we admired the beautiful Kyle of Tongue and hiked up to Varrick Castle in a sleet storm. It cleared by the time we reached the castle and we had spectacular views of the surrounding mountains. We went back to the Hotel and enjoyed the view of sunset over Varrick Castle from our room.
There was a big Christmas party that night- we had a 3 course Christmas dinner complete with crackers and party favors like noisy balloons and streamers. The large, noisy party of locals were very entertaining. We chatted a bit with the DJ and his Polish friend and enjoyed the festivities.
We woke in the morning to lots more snow and the threat of continued storms, which was bad news because our goal was to reach Perth. We tried to drive down the A836 but our little Fiat couldn't make it up the snowy hill, so we figured we'd have more luck driving East toward Thurso and then down the A9 to Inverness. We got 7 miles in the first hour and managed to get stuck in the valley between two snowy hills. Luckily, there was a small house right there in the valley, so we knocked on the door and a nice couple- Mike and Denise- took us in. They called the local police, local friends, local radio stations, and our hotel to try and find out how the roads were further on toward Thurso. We found out the the DJ and Polish friend were stuck a mile or so behind us, so Mike and Mike went to go rescue them. I actually had a nice chat with Denise to learn all about local customs and other interesting Scottish news. By the time the men got back, the gritter had gone by and the roads were looking much better. Mike and the DJ and Polish guy gave us a big push and we were off. We made it to Thurso!! The 45 mile drive from Tongue to Thurso had taken us four hours, but the A9 looked clear and we were determined to make it!
We had a long, occasionally slippery afternoon drive down to Perth. Our little Fiat finally got us to Perth by around 7 that night. We were welcomed warmly by the kind Italian man that runs the Sunbank Hotel. After bringing in all our bags and boxes, we repacked for the plane and got some sleep. We had a really nice breakfast in the morning and took off through a bit more snow toward Glasgow Airport.
British Airways put us on an earlier flight to Heathrow, which was a good start to the long travel day. Many flights were getting cancelled as storms rolled in and we were getting pretty nervous. Our flight was delayed by about an hour and a half, but we were finally off! Somehow we managed to land on time in Boston, and that marked the end of our long, snowy travels.
It was a bittersweet homecoming. We were sad to leave friends and our much loved Scottish life. We were quite happy to be among family and friends for the holidays, however. I will miss my carefree life as I go back to work, but it has been great to see my students and by back in the classroom! Mike has a busy semester ahead, and then graduation!
Thanks for following this journey with us. We will look back on this time in our lives and remember the adventure and fun of it. It has been a truly remarkable time in our lives. Thank you!
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| Scotland in December |
