Summer Roadtrip Day 1 - Scottish Highlands

Finally, we got the chance to enjoy the true beauty of Scotland which is the highlands! Scotland is famous with its castles, lochs and mountains. These nature beauty have become not-to-be-miss landmarks to tourists who come to visit Scotland. So far, I've only been to several cities such as Edinburgh, Dundee and Fort William but never further north. It's really far though.

This time we travelled by car. Joe became the driver and Syed Faiz as the navigator. He got previous experience to highlands, therefore he helped a lot in directing to the right directions. In this post, I would to highlight several attractions that we visited on our way north.

1. Rest and Be Thankful

This is a small stop we we could our car and take photo with the fantastic panorama. There's one stall selling food and drinks here. The view from this point was great, we could see the greenery in between the valleys. We were in the middle of mountains actually. Very nice.

2. Inveraray

Inveraray is a small town located beside a loch. There a bridge and a castle here. Inveraray Castle. Since we arrived at the place quite early in the morning, it was not yet opened (the castle open at 10 am). Therefore, we just basically took some photos from far outside the castle. There's a vintage ship at the loch as well. Around the castle area, there were bluebell flowers lying all around the ground along the walkway making the environment quite bluish.

3. Loch Awe

Loch Awe was not in our original plan, but since we saw a small castle from the road, we directly diverted our direction there. Loch Awe Castle is located in the middle of Loch Awe. In front of the castle, there's a huge grass field thus taking photos here would be very nice. The sky was so blue at that time and the weather was kinda nice. Not too cold, not too warm.

4. Ranoch Moor

Another grass field located along the road. It's an open area with the background of mountains. Some mountains got a little bit of snow on top of them. I'm so excited!  

5. Glencoe

Glencoe is a valley area with stunning scenery. Glen means valley in Scottish language. Glencoe has become one of the filming location for Harry Potter and the Prisoner of Azkaban where Hagrid's Hut was built here but didn't come across the area. Maybe it's further away from the main road. Some mountains here are famous among the hikers.

6. Glenfinnan

Another filming location for Harry Potter. Here lies the magnificent Glenfinnan Viaduct which is actually a railroad on a top of an archway bridge. This railroad is still functioning and we were unlucky that day because we didn't managed to see any steam trains passed by. We hike a bit on the hill to take photo from above. There is a tourist centre here where I bought postcards and pin badges.

7. Fort William


We stopped here for lunch at Morrison's. As usual, I had fish & chips while some of us tried the salmon & potato.




8. Loch Ness

Nessie is a monster who live deep inside Loch Ness. However, it's more to a myth than a fact. Loch Ness is in fact the biggest loch in Scotland. When we stopped here for a while, it looks like a sea. The breeze here was so chilly and we only stopped for about 5 minutes to take photos.

9. Fort Augustus

One of the small town located near the Loch Ness. We just stopped here to find direction and for toilet break. I could see a lot of souvenir shops but didn't enter any.

10. Urquhart Castle

Urquhart Castle lies further at the middle of Loch Ness. It's quite far from Fort Augustus actually and already closed by the time we reached there. Plus, they charged an entrance fee if we wanna look the castle closer. Thus, we only captured some photos from far above at the car park.

11. Eilean Donan

Our last stop before we entered Isle of Skye. There's another castle lies here. This place is kinda significant because it had become one of the filming location for a Bollywood movie, Kuch Kuch Hota Hai. By the time we arrived at this beautiful castle, there's a couple doing a photography session with their wedding dress. How nice~

Then, we quickly drove to Isle of Skye to check in our hostel which is located at Broadford. The Skye Bridge is very high but I didn't managed to capture a proper picture. Basically, the photos were captured from inside the car.

Skye Bridge

It was really tiring today. Despite the tiredness, we managed to had a small birthday celebration for Syed Faiz because his birthday was on 3 days ago. Happy birthday dude!

Alhamdulillah, our journey today was very smooth although we were a bit behind the schedule. However, we still managed to cover all of the places that we initially planned to visit.

=)

Another Winter Trip Day 2 - Nevis Range

We had our breakfast at the dining area with the waffle and tuna that I brought from home. I had hot choc plus coffee as my drink. It's very convenient these drinks were provided for free. I think we were the earliest to wake this morning since all of our dorm mates were still in their deep slumber. We got prepared very carefully so that we didn't make any noise. During breakfast, the Spanish guy from our dorm also went down to online and have breakfast. This hostel is sure the best in Scotland. The staff was friendly even though he was a bit drunk.

We checked out the hostel at quarter past nine. We went directly to the same bus station as yesterday to take a bus to Nevis Range. Our plan for today was to play ski and sledge at Nevis Range. We bought two sledges yesterday. We took the 9.40 am Stagecoach bus (service 41) to reach there. It took 20 minutes from Fort William to Nevis Range. The weather was a bit rainy and cold like usual. According to our dorm mate yesterday, he told us that Fort William has the highest rainfall in UK. No wonder it rains everyday.

From Fort William to Nevis Range

We couldn't decided properly what should we play first for today. After discussing for a moment, we decided to play sledge first and later at noon we were planning to go down again to hire the ski equipment. That was our initial plan. The ticket for gondola + full day beginner area is £15. Only Beginner Area was opened today. The journey on the gondola to reach the top of the mountain took 15 minutes. As we were reaching the top, we got excited when seeing the snow there. Iyela, Glasgow dah lama tak snow kan.. Jadi jakun kejap...

As predicted, it was cold up there. Plus the wind was a little bit extreme. Awal2 lagi sledge dah melayang ditiup angin. We walked further up the mountain and saw a couple already started playing with their sledges. Without patience, Wanji played first followed by Anis. I was still busy capturing photos during that time. Then, suddenly Wanji told me that the sledge had cracked after he hit a rock. Ish3... But luckily we could still use it. I played several rounds before the wind went rough. Not just the wind, hail also fall accompanying the wind  It was very painful when the ice hit me especially on my face. Sakit sangat, until I couldn't open my eyes properly. Then, I headed into the restaurant to take shelter. At that time, Anis and Wanji were lost in action. I didn't where were they at that time. After a moment, Wanji also went inside the restaurant.

When the wind had resolved a bit, we headed outside again to continue playing with our sledge. We tried different areas but the best was still at our initial place. We had our lunch at the restaurant. I ordered a cup of cappucino. 

At 12.30 pm, we were planning to went down to hire the ski equipment for half day. We were so unlucky today because the gondola guy told us that if we went down, we wouldn't be allowed to go up again because of the strong wind. The place was closed for today and they tried to evacuate people as soon as possible. Takde rezeki nak main ski hari ni..

So, after performing our prayer at the gondola station, we went outside for the last time to make snowman. It was just a small snowman and we decorated it with our scarf, specs and beanie. The wind was still blowing strongly outside. After finished playing with our snowman, we took the gondola to go down the mountain. Sedih tau..

We spent the rest of the day touring Fort William. We walked to Ben Nevis Highland Centre to shop for more souvenirs. The shop is very big but I found out the souvenirs were repetitive. It was merely the same with other shops that we went before. I bought a couple of fridge magnets and a badge pin. We also dropped by a charity shop and ended up buying a novel. 

We had dinner at Morrisons again. This time we tried different menu which was Vegetable Lasagna. As usual, the food here never failed to impress us. Sedap dan mengenyangkan! =)

Finally, this trip came to an end. We boarded our bus back to Glasgow at 7.10 pm. There were quite a lot people boarded the bus because it was almost full.

After 3 hours, we reached Glasgow. Safe and sound although we still haven't reach our goal to play ski. Gonna have to plan for another trip this year.