Can I just say that sleeping in a hostel REALLY SUCKS after so many days in actual homes and real beds. The quality just isn’t there. Covers were as thin as sheets, a pillow that was no better than a puff of air with a sheet over it, a springy, saggy bed that made way too much noise whenever you shift. I think I got maybe 3 hours of sleep in total. Thank God its only one night!

Needless to say, I was eager to leave when I “woke up” at 5AM. Jake was up by 530AM and we did our best to quietly smuggle our stuff out of the room without making noise, and in total darkness.

The hostel has a really wonky layout, and has a common area at the end of our hallway. Jake had to scour for a kettle to heat up water for tea and coffee, since the kitchen is closed until 7AM. Trust me, coffee was a necessity for both of us today.

We heard another person walking about and saw an old guy, probably mid-70’s hanging around outside the kitchen. Apparently he has been here for awhile and pulled rank because he managed to get the place to open up early, which was perfect for us! Jake popped our ready-made quiche in the oven for a quick warmup and we proceeded to pack and chat with this other guy. He is from Scotland, though I can’t recall his name. But he was so chatty and adventurous, describing his plans to go kayaking across some of the islands. With the conditions as they are, I couldn’t imagine how this guy was going to survive, but he was determined, or blowing smoke up our asses. Either way it was a fun chat.

It was 730AM on the dot when we left and continued on the road to Skye, or rather around Skye. The island has 2 loops that follow the circumference and we chose to drive the smaller of the two, which boasts many of the best sight-seeing locations.

Today was absolutely beautiful weather. The sky on Skye was completely clear and that was really heartening, especially for Jake.

First stop was in Portree, which is the largest village on Skye, with a very beautiful hillside overlooking the water. We topped off on petrol and grabbed some pre-made salads for our lunch. The roads here have transformed from A-to-B-type roads and thus they are extremely narrow, winding, not always “finished” and only 1-lane wide, despite allowing traffic from both directions. Instead of 2 lanes, there are pullouts systematically lined alongside both sides and depending on the timing of oncoming car, you either pull yourself over or they do. At first, it was terrifying and Jake pulled over for everyone. But after an hour or so, he found a rhythm and could time the pullouts accordingly so it became second nature.

The Old Man of Storr was our first stop on the journey. This rock wall pops up out of nowhere and has huge pinnacles jutting out in an interesting array. It definitely stands out amongst the low-laying hills that surround it and from the road, we could see the pinnacle features distinctly. As we drove closer, they blended in with the rock wall behind it, and we thought we would go for a hike to see if we could get a better view.

There was only one other car in the small parking lot when we pulled in and no one in the car. So we felt like we were all alone and the hike began immediately with an uphill sluggish climb. Normally this sort of thing would be a treat and challenge for us, but as we barely slept last night and aren’t exactly wearing appropriate hiking clothes or shoes, it was a bit difficult to climb the steep, muddy and rocky terrain. But it certainly was beautiful as we continued the climb and it seemed like we were making really good headway. That is until we reached a high-point and saw a sign indicating that we still had a LONG distance to go to get to the “viewing” point of the pinnacles.

At this we opted to call it good enough, because we are on a bit of time-crunch and want to give ourselves as much as possible to see everything we hoped to see today. So we turned back and went down, which was even more treacherous in our very flat-bottomed shoes! There was already a line of people heading up as we headed down, so I’m really glad that we decided to turn around. And back at the car 20 minutes later, we barely managed to squeeze out of the parking spot with all the newcomers pulling in!

From here we continued our trek to the northeast tip of the island. It was so reminiscent of Iceland, especially when 3 sheep came out of nowhere and meandered right in the center of the road with nothing better to do than stand there. So cute, though I did have to get out and persuade them to cross the road so we could carry on.

Every few miles we would stop and pull over to look at something. Sometimes a parking lot was full with tourists and tour busses and other times completely empty. One pullout was along a very steep hillside that looked out over the ocean. It was so exquisite with the sun out and a clear sky. But it sure was windy up here!

Time flew and we hardly noticed. We stopped at a few landmarks including Kilt Rocks, named for their resemblance to a kilt. A few tiny villages were really beautiful and everything looked simple and peaceful. Like technology is a million miles away. Lots of animals and farm-life. Our kind of living!

We stopped for lunch at an overlook out into the ocean, which was so beautiful, and enjoyed our lunch of Greek salads one with hummus and cabbage and rocket and tomato and the other a super green salad with pomegranates and feta. Both were great and paired with a mega giant bottle of water and cheese and onion chips which we really like. superfood salads and new favorite snack; vinegar and cheese potato chips. I know it sounds way gross, but they were SO GOOD!

I don’t know how its even possible, but we managed to actually get lost on the last bit of our journey around the loop. There is a town called Uig, the last one before we go back to Portree. The road signs here were of no use and made it so unclear which way is the main road and which is the side one that takes you down into the town center. We had to guess, and we guessed wrong. It took ages to find a spot to turn around, because the road was so narrow and steep, we just had to ride it out.

Jake was frazzled by now and really just wanted to be done with the drive. Unfortunately we have a few hours to go before that is possible.

Here’s a recap of our route:

We made it back to Broadford and then pushed on across Skye bridge to the tiny town; Kyle of Lochalsh. It turned out to be the perfect spot for respite, including a really delicious coffee and carrot cake snack. Neither of us was eager to hop back in the car.

Our next destination is still awhile away and we cannot checkin until 6PM. So, we enjoyed a semi-leisurely ride down some very winding mountainous roads. Thank God we have decent weather today, because icy roads would probably have us in a ditch in the middle of nowhere. And the roads weren’t as busy, but the tradeoff was much more steep, narrow driving that meant a lot more stress for Jake.

The Cairngorm Mountains are so beautiful. We are nearing Newtonmore, and still have about an hour to waste so we stopped at a small State Park for a reprieve. The parking lot was empty and we spotted some cute animals out in the fields, so we went for a short hike. I still haven’t seen a proper highland cow up close (until now).

30 minutes later we were back on the road and shortly, pulling into the drive of our new abode for the next 4 days. Jake was relieved to turn off the car for the day!

Kate was our host, who lives in the big house with her family. They built a semi-detached private apartment off of the front of the home, and that is where we will be staying. It was seriously one of the most beautiful places we have stayed so far in Europe. The home was very contemporary with a large kitchen, living room area, bedroom and bathroom, as well as an outdoor patio space that we could enjoy. Right across the way was a small farm with tons of baby cows roaming about and a lot of other animals, birds mostly, playing just outside the windows.

This is a big, no a HUGE step up from the hostel. I hate to say it but I don’t think I could do another hostel after staying in real homes for so long. I was aching for a hot bath and to sleep in a real bed, but we needed to get some food. After our tour, our host left us and we left to go for a walk down to the market, only a few blocks away. I love these small villages because everything is walking distance!

We really should know better by now, but if you leave me and Jake to our own devices with no plan and hunger on the rise, we WILL go overboard in the food-department. I think its PTSD from hiking the Te Araroa and losing 30 pounds each that has our minds in a food-frenzy. We overloaded our little cart with hot dogs (frankfurters), chili con carne, veggies, lots of bread and cheese and ham, a few small pizzas and pastries, and other odds and ends I just can’t remember. £20 later and a 15 minute walk later we were back home for the night.

And we did stuff our faces with way too much bread and cheese and hot dogs and chili and pie for dessert. And after all of that we were ready for our food-coma to proceed. I was out by 8PM and Jake followed suit not long after.

Highland Folk Museum

When morning came, we actually felt refreshed, for a change. I was shocked to see that it was already 8AM and the date was April 6! The time is flying by.

This morning was a perfect example of how the right accommodation can make a world of difference. We are completely surrounded by nature right outside the windows. We watched the baby cows run about and play, birds and owls flying around and a cup of coffee in hand, wrapped in a tartan wool blanket. It really doesn’t get any better than this!

Roosters were crowing in the background as we ate our homemade pancake parfait breakfast, which I put together pretty quickly considering what it was.

Our host suggested that we visit the Highland Folk Museum dubbed the Pioneer Village which is only about a mile down the road from here. She happens to work there and mentioned that it is FREE to visitors. That’s all we needed to hear and thus became the main event of our agenda for the day.

It was cold and rainy out there, but we figured that its close enough to our house AND we don’t have to drive (Jake was doing his happy dance).

So, what is this Pioneer Village all about you ask? Well, it is an outdoor museum that spans over 4 miles of grounds and is loaded with a whole heap of artifacts and exhibits spanning from the early 1700’s – early 1900’s. The collections were developed to show different aspects of the material setting of life in the Highlands in byegone days.

What makes it even more special is that not only are all of the exhibits well-preserved, but they use live demonstrations to reenact what life was like in those days. Employees were dressed up in garb and spoke just as if you were back in time living in rural Scotland.

There were so many really amazing things to see here from furniture, tools, art, sporting equipment and weaponry and clothing. But my favorite were the old thatched-roof cottages, the Lewis blockhouse and the Highland but-and-ben. Not to mention the live demonstration that we experienced when we walked late into the schoolhouse when the teacher’s “session” had already begun. Because we walked in late, we had to be made an example of, and properly punished via a whipping, which is what would have happened in the olden days if you came to school late. We weren’t actually whipped but the teacher explained what would happen and I can honestly say that if I lived during these times, I would NEVER EVER be late for school!

Despite the rain, we managed to walk the entire grounds and walk into just about every building we could. Some of the walk had us go through large forest and then other areas that were setup like miniature towns all in one place.

It was a fantastic and car-free day that turned out to be really fun, pleasant and still relaxing.

We left the village after many hours and spent the afternoon in our hovel enjoying hot pizza and hot tea. However, we couldn’t leave it at that. We thought it’d be a waste if we don’t at least go down to city center to see more of Newtonmore before calling it a day, so we took a nice and leisurely walk.

After about a block, I noticed something very brightly colored out of the corner of my eye and turned to see a bright painted cat that was placed on top of a roof. That seemed odd and yet kind of interesting too. I didn’t really think about it again until after another couple of blocks I noticed another brightly painted cat, only this one had very different colors and patterns. It must be some kind of coincidence? Or maybe not.

The more we walked, we started to see cats popping out everywhere. At the center of town, there were only a few small shops and apartment homes lining the street. One shop had a big sign for the Wildcat Walk and that’s where we discovered the Wildcat Trail. The community in Newtonmore came together to make a fun scavenger hunt for visitors by placing painted wildcats all over town. It pairs with a self-guided walk that goes all through the town as well as the outskirts and something we are very intrigued to do on another day.

We stopped in a kilt shop in town because Jake is now keen on getting a kilt, but these were way too fancy for us (thousands of pounds), so we skipped that and opted to stop at the grocery market instead for more food.

It was Dinner Date Mania tonight at the Scotland home of Jake and Jill.

Cairngorm Reindeer

With our time in Scotland drawing to an end, we still have a few things on our agenda. Reindeer and a kilt. Yes, I know, we are strange!

Viewing tame reindeer in the wild is something that we both knew we had to do before we leave Scotland. And we are in the perfect place to do just that. And what’s even better is that the weather today, unlike yesterday, will be really good…or really good for Scotland at this time of year. It will not rain or storm all day. Though it is cold and windy, but that’s something we can deal with.

In order to see reindeer you have to arrive to the visitor center before they open and do it on a good-weather day. So we were up early with anticipation and out the door as early as we could be to get there in plenty of time. It was still early and there were only 2 people in line, so we know that we’re good.

Within 30 minutes the line was REALLY long and finally they opened the doors to let us in and purchase our ticket. Today will be a good day (they said) to see the herd. We had to rent some Wellingtons (boots) since our shoes wouldn’t do to hike up the wet and mucky mountainside. They told us that we needed a car to get up to the site and as we were about to walk out, a young guy reached out and asked us if he could get a ride with us to the top. Of course, we said yes!

This is how we met Anders. Anders is the first American that we have met since traveling abroad in Europe. He is originally from California, but currently living and studying in Germany. He is on a short holiday and thought Scotland would be a great place for his getaway. He was super easy to chat to and very charismatic and energetic. A bright and refreshing person to spice up our Jake and Jill duo.

Jake drove us up to the top, where we parked and waited for the rest of the group. It was so beautiful up here but also freezing cold and windy. There was snow all around us and apparently yesterday’s weather was so bad they had to cancel the tour.

There were probably 40 or 50 people in total and 2 “herd-leaders” who explained about reindeer in general, this herd and what to expect before making the trek uphill. They gave their short speech explaining that these animals are wild and free to roam in the surrounding mountains. However they are somewhat tame and therefor they can control them to a point, in that they can bribe them with food. These reindeer have been in the area for so long and around people enough that they are pretty much okay with people.

And with that we began our walk uphill. None of knew how far we are actually going and everyone’s heads were looking around and keen to spot the reindeer.

These reindeer are separated into 2 herds. The male and female are kept apart for obvious reasons (to control the population) and currently have have about 200 in total. Did you know that reindeer are the only type of deer where both male and female of the species have antlers? That’s pretty cool! Both of them shed antlers but at different times of the year. Males lose theirs around November and Females not until Spring (so they can fight off Males for food if they are preggers).

The female reindeer are more friendly and so today, we are going to meet the lady reindeer (and the baby reindeer with them)

It didn’t take long before the first animal could be seen from around the bend of a mountainous hill ahead. And with her followed many many more, like white flecks coming toward us in one motion. They were massive and so beautiful.

In total we met about 50 reindeer and several baby deer. Each generation is tagged with a different color on their ear, so the herders can keep track. And in general, they are pretty mild-mannered. They don’t really care about people at all, they ONLY care about food. And so we all got handfuls of food to bribe them to come over and let us pet them.

You wouldn’t believe it but we spent more than 2 hours up here with all of these reindeer milling about us. The babies were less shy than the adults and all of us enjoyed our interactions with these lady-deers. They are kind of amazing animals in that their fur is super soft, especially their noses. And their fur is so insulating that if you were to use infrared goggles, all you would see of these animals is their eyes and nose. That’s some warm fur!

Some other fun facts about reindeer Their antlers fall out and grow back each year in the exact same pattern as the one before, just bigger. Almost like their own fingerprint because no two reindeer antlers are identical. They have really big hooves to keep them from sinking in the snow. They live above the tree line and eat this tiny sage grass all year long, which seems kind of shocking since they’re such huge animals. But I guess that’s why they are constantly grazing. They don’t have any upper teeth and so they don’t bite, instead they would use their antlers, which I guess is obvious.

We had so much fun but I was numb after 2 hours in this chill and so we headed back down to the car with our new friend, Anders. We dropped him off at his hostel, which is just next-door and then decided where to go next; Jake still wants to get a kilt and our friend Robert from Inverness suggested a store in town. Its only about a 40 minute drive from here, so we thought, what the hell!

Along the way to Inverness, we stopped in Aviemore for a short walk just to see what it was all about. Basically it was super touristy and very crowded, but nothing that we were looking for, so we moved along. Inverness came quickly and it was way nicer than our earlier visit, because it was actually bright and sunny out instead of cold and raining (like last time). We stopped by the waterfront and walked around before meandering into the world’s largest kilt store. For over an hour Jake and the store employee were working to get him everything he needs for his own version of the Scottish traditional garb. And it was all so much cheaper (because he got a party kilt) than the high-quality ones that are usually sold. For less than $100, Jake was outfitted!

Before heading back, we stopped at our favorite JD Weatherspoons for dinner (the pub that we love).

WildCat Trail

The mini TA

Well, the day has come. The Wildcat Trail is calling our name, and we’re here to answer that call.

Despite our enthusiasm, we were both feeling very wiped out after yesterday’s adventures. On the plus side, that means, Jake doesn’t have to drive (and I don’t have to navigate) today.

We found a pamphlet in our apartment with details for the Wildcat trail, which is part scavenger hunt and part hike through Newtonmore, Inverness-shire and Cairngorms. After our light Scottish breakfast of porridge, we hit the pavement, donning our best hiking clothes. Which sad to say aren’t any different from our everyday clothes, and so we will just have to do the best with what we have.

At least it was a sunny day today and much warmer than yesterday. We left at 1030AM, and though it would take us around 3 hours to complete the trail. So we packed ourselves some water and our cameras and that’s about it.

The walk began near the Highland Folk Museum, which we are now familiar with. Our map for the trail seemed basic and so we didn’t give it much thought, just walking in the direction that it stated. Jake has his trusty watch/compass so we thought we would have no problem.

Well that was short lived because our walk kept on going down a long sidewalk and open expanse of farm with no sign of anything. It didn’t make sense because in the trail description, we are supposed to go up along a mountainous area and see some very distinct landmarks. Not just flat nothingness. So we consult our map and realize that we have gone too far already. Almost 2km too far and so we turned around. Lost already and so soon! This isn’t a good sign.

We came back and spotted the river that we were NOT supposed to cross (whoops) and turned to cross the street. It took a little bit to figure out exactly where to go and then we noticed the big brown wildcat burnished on a wooden signpost ahead. That’s our sign and so we followed the trail up into the trees.

The path grew nice and rustic and then wilderness was surrounding us completely. This is what I’m talking about! It was very reminiscent of the TA walk and that made it all the more fun. It was so beautiful as we walked deeper into the trees and along the river. The distance shown snow-capped hills (not quite mountains but still very large.). Then we were upon the sheep.

The trail had to cross several private farm areas (hello TA) and they were loaded with sheep. Not just adult sheep but also lots of little lambs too. One of the sheep we passed was either giving birth or dying. It was hard to tell the difference, but there were signs everywhere for lambing sheep and to keep a distance from them. The lambs were SOOOOO CUTE!!!!!

Its crazy to be out here and with the feeling of the only people in the world. I absolutely love that more than anything on these walks in the wilderness. The more we walk the more lost we get in the spongey wilderness around us. It was slow going with me taking photos and Jake having difficulty keeping us on track. But we made forward progress and thats really all you can ask for.

The terrain changed a lot. The forest opened up into farm which then grew into a wide open marshland followed by another very muddy forest and a steep hike uphill to a wide open expanse. After a few hours I was thinking how much I wish I had my hiking shoes and not these flat-bottom boots that have done me well, but aren’t equipped to handle this type of walking.

We stopped for a snack at an overlook and then passed by another walker after awhile and she told us there were some frisky frogs up ahead to keep a lookout for. And sure enough, the frogs were frisky and croaking their songs to Mother Nature. It was totally random and amazing.

The frog path turned into a bog and then a very dark and spooky forest. It was all short-lived but so cool and with such a variety of terrain to keep it interesting.

Eventually we ended up down along another river and followed that around the last 1/3 of the track. We met a really cute old Scottish dog (and his owner) and chatted about our adventures. It felt so great to be out here and I’m so glad we made this journey today.

By now we were feeling like we should be done, but we still had a ways to go before the end / beginning of the Wildcat trail. We knew we were close when we spotted several wildcats in backyards or along the path. And then finally, we did it! We made it to the end of the walk and felt like we just conquered the TA all over again.

It was 230PM, so we were a bit slower than the trail guide suggested (though we did get a bit lost or held up due to terrain).

Stats Total:
13.8km
Ascent: 159m | Decent: 176m
Speed: 3.2km
Time: 4 hours

After that we were pretty much exhausted and opted to call it an early day. We spent the rest of our time enjoying the last of our Newtonmore home, watching bad tele, eating as much food as we had and getting ourselves packed and prepped for a very early start tomorrow. We have to be out of here before dawn to get the car back to Aberdeen by 10AM. I know Jake will be very pleased to be done with driving on the wrong side of the road!