Monday, October 02, 2006
Wednesday 27 - Friday 29 September 2006
Plockton - Fort Augustus - Loch Ness - Inverness - Cairngorms - Edinburgh
Wednesday morning I took a good look around the Plockton Village and joined a cruise around the bay - pretending to seal spot (we saw about 4) - but I was just pleased to get a look at the coast line and the mountains rolling down into the water. Duncraig Castle looks magnificant from the water and the tide was in which gave a very kind view of Plockton itself (they have a 6m tide so it's a bit like Cairns at low tide but seaweed and rocks instead of mud). I was still holding out hopes of seeing a Puffin. But no luck. It seems the fisherman come boat cruise operator never saw Puffins before two years ago and now they see them because the puffins have no food and are coming further south and further inshore trying to survive. How do you convince a hungry Spanish fisherman that he should stop fishing to save the hungry puffins?...
Here I have found place no.2 where I could retire but it would haveto be for the summer and then go somewhere warm for the winter. Scotland is definately a cold place. The weather has been very kind but it is still cold!
Anyway, went back up to the station and caught the same train I left yesterday to finish the journey into Inverness. As I said, wow! It's a branch line so the rolling stock are very old and ratty but you don't notice as the views are first class. A trip to repeat some time.
Just passed through Inverness, straight from the train to the bus south again to Fort Augustus (which is half way down the Loch line towards Fort William - Loch Lomond is south of here). The road follws the edge of the Loch Ness so you get a great view without having to walk or pay for a tour. Bargain. For the uninitiated the main Lochs including Loch Ness fill a huge active fault line that seperates the highlands from the lowlands. It is very similar in geographic definition to NZ - the two halves move a couple of inches every decade (or century...) as the techtonic plates move. Interestingly the scientists measure earth quakes every 30 odd days here. But they are so deep under the Loch that the water absorbs the shock and only they notice them.
Treated again tonight as I discovered on my afternoon town wander there was another local bloke playing tonight at the pub. Just one musician on a guitar and a small guitar that looked a bit like a Yukalele. Another good night. Lots of Polish, Latvians, Germans in the village and at the pub as there is a hydro electricity station being built on the Loch and they are the labour force (German/English money). In fact it's interesting but the Poles seem to like Scotland and the Romanians, Wales.
Thursday was a funny weather day, so I took advantage and had my first truely lazy day. Did a load of washing in the bath tub (well it was there with my name on it...) and snuggled under my doona reading a book about a road - Calum's Road - a non-fiction account of one man single handed determination to save his island of Raasay from de-population by building a road. When the sun poked through, I wandered down to the village and took a cruise on Loch Ness.
Ok Undara friends you will get this one. Guess who was the guide on the boat? Tony Speedie!!!! You would never credit it but this marine biologist was Tony's double. About 30 years younger but same build, same facial structure, same voice, accent, vocabulary, hand movements, even the same mouth movements and teeth...He was as passionate about his Nessie and the Loch and the geography/geology, etc as Tony is about Undara. He even had the same jokes about wives....
But boy oh boy, he had some amazing evidence that paleasours still exist and live in Loch Ness. All the science and evidence is copyright and has a 25 year non-release on it to stop unscrupulous people using the info to catch the animals. He had sonar pictures of mothers and calves, he has records of 18 individual animals living in the Loch, pictures of skeletons on the bottom of the Loch of dead animals. And the DNA samples from the skeletons matches the DNA of the opalised paleasour they found in Cooper Pedy 96+%. He sowed us all this but not photos were allowed, etc. And as it rained for most of the boat trip this gripping stuff more than made up for no outlook on the lake. Definately food for thought....
Fort Augustus is built on the Caladonian canal that was built in the 1800's to provide a safe passage for shis so they didn't have to steam arouns the north of Scotland to reach eastern ports. Had a wander along this picturesque (yes another one) waterway once the rain stopped after the cruise.
Tonight there was a karakoe night organised by one of the Haggis Tours groups in. Lots of fun and giggles. Great to start meeting a few international backpackers. Taiwanese, Japanese, German, French, Canadian, US as well as the usual Kiwis and Aussies.
Friday, I caught the bus back to Inverness and again just passed through changing to a train through the Cairngorms Mountain range to Edinburgh. Was a pretty average day visibility wise so it was good to be travelling in a warm train rather than out in the weather. It is a relatively new national park in Scotland (I think about 1999) and has some visitor impact issues - even the guide books say Scotland has not managed this area well). Once we got towards Edinburgh the train followed the coast line along the Firth of Forth so again got a great view and free scenery. Some of the villages would be very popularin summer with the Edinburgh population - rather like Loch Lamond for Glasgow.
Took a bit of an orientation walk around Edinburgh this afternoon. First impressions were of a rather dirty but romantically aged city. Very compact and seemingly friendly. As I overcame my geographic embarrassment I stumbled across a cafe I had read about in the guide book. So I spent the late afternoon in a warm cafe called the Elephant House drinking hot coffee, checking out my French Guide book (you need to have reading material of quality in this literary cafe...) and enjoying the view from the window of Edinburgh Castle as the evening came down. The most fantastic view as the light went from the (clear) sky and the lights of the castle took over. Then the clouds rolled in a storm broke and you could see the rain drops in the lights.
Plockton - Fort Augustus - Loch Ness - Inverness - Cairngorms - Edinburgh
Wednesday morning I took a good look around the Plockton Village and joined a cruise around the bay - pretending to seal spot (we saw about 4) - but I was just pleased to get a look at the coast line and the mountains rolling down into the water. Duncraig Castle looks magnificant from the water and the tide was in which gave a very kind view of Plockton itself (they have a 6m tide so it's a bit like Cairns at low tide but seaweed and rocks instead of mud). I was still holding out hopes of seeing a Puffin. But no luck. It seems the fisherman come boat cruise operator never saw Puffins before two years ago and now they see them because the puffins have no food and are coming further south and further inshore trying to survive. How do you convince a hungry Spanish fisherman that he should stop fishing to save the hungry puffins?...
Here I have found place no.2 where I could retire but it would haveto be for the summer and then go somewhere warm for the winter. Scotland is definately a cold place. The weather has been very kind but it is still cold!
Anyway, went back up to the station and caught the same train I left yesterday to finish the journey into Inverness. As I said, wow! It's a branch line so the rolling stock are very old and ratty but you don't notice as the views are first class. A trip to repeat some time.
Just passed through Inverness, straight from the train to the bus south again to Fort Augustus (which is half way down the Loch line towards Fort William - Loch Lomond is south of here). The road follws the edge of the Loch Ness so you get a great view without having to walk or pay for a tour. Bargain. For the uninitiated the main Lochs including Loch Ness fill a huge active fault line that seperates the highlands from the lowlands. It is very similar in geographic definition to NZ - the two halves move a couple of inches every decade (or century...) as the techtonic plates move. Interestingly the scientists measure earth quakes every 30 odd days here. But they are so deep under the Loch that the water absorbs the shock and only they notice them.
Treated again tonight as I discovered on my afternoon town wander there was another local bloke playing tonight at the pub. Just one musician on a guitar and a small guitar that looked a bit like a Yukalele. Another good night. Lots of Polish, Latvians, Germans in the village and at the pub as there is a hydro electricity station being built on the Loch and they are the labour force (German/English money). In fact it's interesting but the Poles seem to like Scotland and the Romanians, Wales.
Thursday was a funny weather day, so I took advantage and had my first truely lazy day. Did a load of washing in the bath tub (well it was there with my name on it...) and snuggled under my doona reading a book about a road - Calum's Road - a non-fiction account of one man single handed determination to save his island of Raasay from de-population by building a road. When the sun poked through, I wandered down to the village and took a cruise on Loch Ness.
Ok Undara friends you will get this one. Guess who was the guide on the boat? Tony Speedie!!!! You would never credit it but this marine biologist was Tony's double. About 30 years younger but same build, same facial structure, same voice, accent, vocabulary, hand movements, even the same mouth movements and teeth...He was as passionate about his Nessie and the Loch and the geography/geology, etc as Tony is about Undara. He even had the same jokes about wives....
But boy oh boy, he had some amazing evidence that paleasours still exist and live in Loch Ness. All the science and evidence is copyright and has a 25 year non-release on it to stop unscrupulous people using the info to catch the animals. He had sonar pictures of mothers and calves, he has records of 18 individual animals living in the Loch, pictures of skeletons on the bottom of the Loch of dead animals. And the DNA samples from the skeletons matches the DNA of the opalised paleasour they found in Cooper Pedy 96+%. He sowed us all this but not photos were allowed, etc. And as it rained for most of the boat trip this gripping stuff more than made up for no outlook on the lake. Definately food for thought....
Fort Augustus is built on the Caladonian canal that was built in the 1800's to provide a safe passage for shis so they didn't have to steam arouns the north of Scotland to reach eastern ports. Had a wander along this picturesque (yes another one) waterway once the rain stopped after the cruise.
Tonight there was a karakoe night organised by one of the Haggis Tours groups in. Lots of fun and giggles. Great to start meeting a few international backpackers. Taiwanese, Japanese, German, French, Canadian, US as well as the usual Kiwis and Aussies.
Friday, I caught the bus back to Inverness and again just passed through changing to a train through the Cairngorms Mountain range to Edinburgh. Was a pretty average day visibility wise so it was good to be travelling in a warm train rather than out in the weather. It is a relatively new national park in Scotland (I think about 1999) and has some visitor impact issues - even the guide books say Scotland has not managed this area well). Once we got towards Edinburgh the train followed the coast line along the Firth of Forth so again got a great view and free scenery. Some of the villages would be very popularin summer with the Edinburgh population - rather like Loch Lamond for Glasgow.
Took a bit of an orientation walk around Edinburgh this afternoon. First impressions were of a rather dirty but romantically aged city. Very compact and seemingly friendly. As I overcame my geographic embarrassment I stumbled across a cafe I had read about in the guide book. So I spent the late afternoon in a warm cafe called the Elephant House drinking hot coffee, checking out my French Guide book (you need to have reading material of quality in this literary cafe...) and enjoying the view from the window of Edinburgh Castle as the evening came down. The most fantastic view as the light went from the (clear) sky and the lights of the castle took over. Then the clouds rolled in a storm broke and you could see the rain drops in the lights.
# posted by The Essence of Good Taste @ 12:37 PM 
