Gairloch, Mellon Udrigle. June 17.

 

We woke up on Friday to a strong forecast and sunshine in Inverness. We quick ate our full Scottish breakfast as fast as we could and jumped in the car to head back to the western part of Scotland. Keep in mind that things here are deceptively close, two hours in the car to an American is nothing - unless those Americans happed to be myself and Nic - then you might be in for a longer day. People in the UK were astonished to learn I drive 14 hours to see my parents. Perception is everything, people. Also the size of roads may play a role in that.

Rainbows like I have never seen before stretched out across the sky with the promise of a good day. We pulled over on the motorway as often as we could to take pictures of the Scottish mountains in the sunshine. They are still beautiful!

We saw a sign post for Beinn Eighe National Nature Reserve. Nic suspected they sold tea there and pulled off with the hope of a 'good cup of English tea.' We found instead a great hike through old growth woodland. Do you see a theme in this trip? Yeah, old growth woods are Nic's love language right now. Rather than tea, we took a quick hike up a happy trail with 400 year old trees. Hiking, tea, hiking tea. It's totally the same thing, right?

These were some happy trees.

And these little toadstools are to die for.

We found happy little streams where Nic worked on his other quest of this trip: to see a brown trout in its natural habitat. His real goal was to fish for one, but fishing in Scotland is a bit complicated. We have talked to locals, hotel owners, pub drinkers - we just are not sure where we can legally fish. Its a bit blurry legally. Nic is a cautious fellow, so we are erring on the side of caution. For the record, no brown trout were spotted in this expedition.

From the trail we were able to see Loch Morraine. There were splendid waterfalls streaming down the mountain face that I tried to photograph, but really could not capture the magnificence.

Gaelic is a thing here. All of the sign posts here are in English and Gaelic. I do understand there is dialectal difference between Scottish Gaelic and Irish. I cannot expound on those difference in any detail. I have a hard time with Scottish pronunciation, forget about the Gaelic. I think it is lovely, but I am a disaster with it on my best day. The visitor center at the hike had great resources on how different words translate into Gaelic. It was very helpful to me to see how place names play such a significant role in Scottish culture.

The best thing about the visitor center was that Nic was able to talk to the employees and learn where we could best/most likely spot a sea eagle - another one off his bucket lists for this trip. The employee sent us very near the area we had been scouting, but a tad to the north. This beach kind or scratched our itch to see the most remote beach in the UK. The beach he recommended was not the most remote, but it was still pretty out there, and as far as we could tell, pretty amazing.

I tried to take every picture of every loch I could. You're welcome.

And just like that, we were at the edge of the world, staring into the Atlantic Ocean.

Right before we headed off to our beach, we stopped for the cup of tea we had been seeking most of the day. We found a great, little, funky coffee shop inspired by Colorado and climbing. We felt right at home. Very sensibly, it was attached to a great book store. I love well-cultivated bookstores in which the book shop owner has thought intentionally about their products and offers really thoughtful reads. This shop owner offered a lot of books on climbing, science, and Scotland. The book choices were truly amazing. Nic picked two books. I misplaced my book somewhere in England, so I felt guilt ridden, but I like both of his choices and will likely read them too.

A view of the mountains from the sea.

As we drove to our beach the sun came out to see us and the world was glorious.

Lighthouse from the beach.

The hike up over the hills toward the beach. There is no road to this beach and we were not sure how long or how hard the hike would be. We set out and thrashed about on and off the trail. Walking in this landscape is like walking on a sponge. Each step sinks two inched into the land, soaking your shoe and sucking your feet into the earth. The trail, when we could see it was filled with mud and sheep poo. We walked over two miles and we could see that the path to the beach was a pretty long way off, so we called it. We sat and looked down at this amazing beach and ate cookies.

It may look like a tropical paradise, but it was COLD, and windy.

Seriously, this might be the most beautiful thing I have ever seen.

It is easy to be pristine if no one can get to you!

And then we slogged back. It was still beautiful. 

And the lighthouse was even more beautiful the second time we saw it.

As we drove back into town the wind kicked up and storm started to head in. We were thankful we had booked another hotel for the night. This time, in a little 'castle' or fancy house.

See? Basically a castle!

We could even see the beach from our bedroom window.

It was way fancier than any place I have stayed before. You had to make dinner reservations. Some people actually dressed for dinner. We did not. We wore hiking clothes. People looked horrified and disappointed, but Nic had Haggis and I had Mac-N-Cheese, and it was pretty much delicious. 

Then, we walked on the beach in the sunset - which was around 10 p.m. because we are super far north and it is almost summer solstice. 

Scotland is a magical, intense, spiritual place. I love it and I a little bit hate the weather. The people here are somewhat gruff, no nonsense. American that I am, I am not sure what to do with it. Scotland is a wild country. This time and experience are taking shape inside me. I am so thankful for this time and opportunity. I am also thankful for the sunshine and the beauty and no midges.

And this guy.