Day 9 - June 7, 2010
I woke fairly early to get set for our journey, though we had requested for our car only at 9 am. We planned to start shortly after breakfast. However, as usual, we were fairly late getting ready, and it was 10 by the time we left the hotel. Avi had been very excited by the Mercedes B class (during the earlier trip), and Radhika and I were worried how he would react to a Ford or VW.
On reaching the Europcar centre, we were told we had been upgraded again - this time to a Mercedes C class. As the assistant filled in our details and inspected our licenses, he suddenly had an issue - our drivers’ licenses state that they are valid throughout India, and he claimed they would not be suitable to rent from them in the UK. We pointed out that the UK law allows people to drive with their national drivers' licenses, and that we had rented from Europcar in London without a problem. We also told him that their web-site, which had quoted a Rupee rate to us did not mention any special requirement over and above what UK law required. Initially, he was still unwilling to budge, but when we pointed out that he was ruining our vacation which was centered on a car rental, he relented and agreed to use the driver ID created by their London office.
The car he gave us was a Mercedes C Class Estate - it looked fairly new. When we started to load our luggage, we were in for a shock - our luggage had expanded a bit in Bristol, and the C estate could barely accommodate it. Further rear leg room in this car was even less than in the B class and so we had to position the car seat behind me to give Radhika enough leg room. All this, plus fitting the car seat and Avi took till 1140. However, I managed to find a comfortable seating position this time around, set the GPS correctly and then we were ready to go.
As soon as I touched the accelerator, even in the slow Edinburgh traffic, I realized that this was a very different car compared to the B class. The car was extremely responsive, and handled extremely well - within a few minutes, I was commenting to Radhika on how we were very lucky to get this car, which was a real pleasure to drive.
We exited Edinburgh, which is a compact town, rather quickly and were soon on the motorway leading to the Forth Bridge. Scotland has a large number of marine inlets (or creeks) called Firths, and lakes (called Lochs). Just to the north of Edinburgh lies the Firth of Forth. The Forth bridge is an extremely beautiful suspension bridge - once again much longer than our sea link. We took our first halt immediately after crossing the bridge, stopping to take a number of pictures. Then we continued on the motorway till a town called Perth, after which the road turned into a 4 lane (2 each way) highway, followed by 2 lane sections.
Even the countryside around Edinburgh is extremely beautiful - but as we progressed past Perth, it became even more so. As we progressed, I grew more confident handling the C class, and was able to easily stay at the limit (70 mph on 4 lane roads, and 60 mph on 2 lane roads) even on the twisty mountain sections.
We stopped for lunch at a small restaurant and craft centre close to the town of Pitlochry (incidentally, before we chose to move to Twin Towers, we had almost finalized a flat in a building in Bandra called Pitlochry). Lunch was really good - a tasty lentil soup and some nice macaroni, which even Avi liked.
We had originally planned to visit Pitlochry, to look at the Salmon bridge there - but since we got delayed at lunch, we continued towards Inverness. At one stage during the drive, Radhika took the wheel, for about 20 miles (covered in a bit more than even time), but this stint was interrupted when Avi decided to protest being left behind alone by taking off the seat belts of his car seat.
After a few more halts to admire the scenery (there are "laybys" built every few kms to give people an opportunity to pull off the road and rest, as well as to admire the scenery), we approached Inverness around 6 pm. We had taken over 6 hours to cover 160 miles - which was a reflection of the number of halts we made rather than anything else. The GPS navigation did its job, and guided us through Inverness on the road towards our hotel.
Bunchrew House is a 15th century baronial mansion, located right on the shores of Beauly Firth.The road just before Bunchrew runs directly along the sea - just before the hotel, it turns inland, with thickly forested woods along the coast. Avi saw a number of boats in the harbour, and immediately started anticipating a Boat ride. To get to the hotel, one turns off the highway and drives for about half a mile thru woods.
The first sight of Bunchrew had us spell bound - a beautiful house by the sea, with trees surrounding it on the other three sides. The staff was warm and friendly, and carried our luggage to our room, which was on the second floor. The room was magnificent - if anything, the photos shown online did not fully convey its size. The bathroom alone was almost as large as the entire studio apartment we had in London.
We quickly freshened up and headed for a walk on the grounds. The place reminded us of Coonoor in some ways - a quiet place, with the silence occasionally interrupted by the sound of trains trundling along. Avi really liked it - and we had a good time looking for the owls in the trees. When we moved out of the sheltered garden to the windward side (closer to the sea), we were hit by a biting cold breeze.
We then headed for dinner. The chef at Bunchrew is Michelin star rated, but his repertoire of dishes with understated flavours was not exactly to our taste. Avi in particular did not like anything prepared for him. Radhika and I did manage to eat, while Avi had to make do with Horlicks once we were back in the room.
Day 10 - June 8
Chandra and Latha had briefed us exhaustively on what could be done in Scotland. So on our first full day at Inverness, we set out immediately after breakfast (viz by 945 am) for Clansman Harbor on Loch Ness, which is the base for cruises on the lake. On the way, we stopped at a supermarket to stock up (usual stuff) for our picnic. The drive to Clansman offered spectacular views of the Loch, with the road set on a ridge above the lake, but we did not have much time to enjoy the sight.
We reached the harbor by 1045, just on time to catch the 1100 am ferry. The ferry ride was fabulous - despite the damp weather, we went onto the open upper deck and took in the spectacular views of the Loch and the surrounding hills. There was a running commentary providing the history of the Loch - Loch Ness forms part of what is called the Great Glen (Glen means valley), and was formed by retreating icebergs at the end of the last Ice Age. It is the second largest lake by surface area in the UK (after Loch Lomond) but is as much as 750 feet deep. Due to its great depth, it holds an enormous volume of water, and holds the possibility of having secrets such as the Loch Ness monster or Nessie. The Loch has been extensively surveyed thru sonar, and no trace of Nessie has been found - however, as the Guide on our boat said, Loch Ness occupies a sufficient volume to hide every human being on earth - so who knows.
The tour also gave us a view of Urquhart Castle, an ancient Scottish stronghold that was destroyed by British government troups during the Jacobite revolt in the 17th or 18th century. (The Jacobites were followers of James Stuart, who attempted to restore the Catholic Stuart dynasty to the throne of Britain). After a nice one hour cruise, we returned to the shore, where we had lunch and also picked up some souvenirs including a Nessie toy for Avinash (to join Noddy, Molly and Doggie, a small dog stuffed toy that Anoushka gifted him.)
After that, we drove down the Loch till Drumnadrochit, where the Loch Ness Centre is located. We had originally planned to stop there, but instead decided to proceed to Glen Affric, a nature reserve about 15 miles away. The road to Glen Affric was narrower, and surrounded by thick forests. At one of the stops we made on the way to admire the scenary, we met an old (perhaps mid 60s) British lady hiking by, who told us that she had been coming to the Highlands for the last 30 yrs to walk each June, leaving her husband behind in London. Radhika found that inspiring, I found it worrying!!!
At any rate, we gave her a lift, and she told us about a waterfall that we could go and see called Dog Falls, on the way to Glen Affric. After a while, we turned off the main road, and headed to Glen Affric on a narrow road thru the forest with two way traffic. Since most parts of the road are too narrow, specific passing areas are designated and widened every 200mtrs or so, and people stop and reverse if needed to allow others to pass safely.
We soon reached the Dog Falls parking area, where we dropped the lady off, and parked to take in the scenery. There were a number of trails marked out in the forest, including a 400 yard one leading to Dog Falls. We decided to hike down that path, based on advice from the lady, despite a nagging drizzle. 
So Radhika, Avi and I set out in the rain, thru a narrow path surrounded by woods, above rapids in a small river, looking for Dog Falls. Avi was extremely enthusiastic about the hike - and was only disappointed he cld not see wild animals. The hike was not difficult, but not a walk in the park by any stretch of imagination - it involved avoiding muddy sections, climbing over fairly high rocks etc. With umbrellas open to beat the rain, carrying Avi was not an option. Avi realised this, and kept walking holding my hand, with a constant refrain of "where are the wild animals?"
After about 15 minutes, we reached a place where the path rose, crossed the road and continued to climb Ínto the forest - around the same place, there were a number of small waterfalls. This section was steeper and so we decided that discretion is the better part of valor, and turned back. Am not sure if the small waterfalls we saw were the much wonted Dog Falls, or if there was something more substantial, which cld be seen from higher up the path. Nevertheless, Avi's love of the outdoors, and his ability and willingness to walk with us on a narrow path thru the woods in cold and wet conditions came as a surprise to us.
With the weather being cold and dull, we didn’t realise that it was well past lunch time and suddenly all of us started feeling hungry. It was time to open our picnic lunch for the second round of tomato cheese sandwich, this time with mayonnaise (sachets being picked from various coffee shops) but avi chose to stick to his blueberry muffin.
We then set out for the Glen Affric parking lot - with the road taking us above still more Lochs. On the way, Avi fell asleep. The parking lot had a number of cars in it - obviously various people had set out on short or long treks along the various trails marked there. From the lot itself, we cld see very interesting countryside. But with Avi asleep, we did not venture further, but instead headed back toward Drumnadrochit, with Radhika driving this time around.
When we reached Drumnadrochit, Avi was still asleep - hence, we decided to not see the Loch Ness Centre and to push that off by 2 days, when we anticipated we wld have some free time. (Wrongly as it turned out, but that is another story). Post Drumnadrochit, Radhika decided she was too tense driving (perhaps due to my occasional back seat nagging), and handed the wheel back to me.
We reached Bunchrew, and turned in relatively early, as we had planned an extremely long drive for the following day.
Day 11 - June 9
The Road to Skye
While in Bristol, Chandra and Latha had raved about the fabulous beauty of Skye, an island located off the west coast of Northern Scotland (the opposite end of the highands from Inverness which is on the East coast).
The road from Inverness to Skye would go along Loch Ness for about 15 miles beyond Drumnadrochit, and then turn off, running along various other Lochs, to a town called Kyle of Lochalsh, the last pt of mainland Scotland. The journey to Kyle of Lochalsh was about 95 miles each way.
>Initially, I was skeptical about driving 200 miles plus on a single day. However, I recalled reading about how this was considered to be one of the best drives in Britain, which tempted me to go for it. Driving the C class on the way to Inverness decided it for me - and we decided to make an early start and head to Skye. Two ancillary factors helped take this decision: a) the weather forecast, which predicted a clear day over Skye; and b) the belief that we could take it easy on the following day before heading back to Edinburgh.
While we aimed to start very early for Skye, it was past 9 by the time we actually got going. Since the journey was the destination in this case, we took time out to admire the scenic beauty at various points along Loch Ness. Some of the best views were shortly after Drumnadrochit, close to Urquhart Castle. Nevertheless, we made pretty good time till Invermoriston, where we turned off onto the Road to Skye. The road from Invermoriston towards the Kyle of Localsh got prettier by the mile, with a Loch (Loch Cluanie) on the left, and a number of peaks on the right.
While it had been cloudy at Inverness, the sun started to peep out of the clouds when we reached Invermoriston, and the play of light on the hills and Lochs was spectacular. 
There were shrubs with pretty yellow flowers (were they the famous Daffodils? I don't know) as well as some purple ones along the way. The road was hilly, and twisty, moving quickly from driving by a Loch to perhaps hundred feet above it. As we continued on, I grew more confident that the Merc would do what I wanted it to do, and so could maintain a steady 60 mph while driving. Nevertheless, we did take a number of breaks at various view pts, and so progress was quite slow. Around 1230, as we were driving along a Loch (Loch Duich), from atop a hill, a beautiful Lochside (for want of a better word) castle came into view, the Eilean Donan castle.
Chandra and Latha had told us about the castle, and how it was a must see. It is a located at the junction of three Lochs, where the Loch we had been driving along (Loch Duich), and another one (Loch Long) flow into Loch Alsh (which separates Skye from the mainland). We pulled into the parking lot of the castle, with just a hint of grey left in the air, at about 1230.
We found that the castle as it stands today is not very old - it was rebuilt in the early part of the 20th century, but to medieval plans. The site, on an island just off the mainland, however is a very old one - it has been inhabited since the stone age, and the first castle built there was put up in the 5th century. A 12th century castle there, which was the base of a major Scottish highland clan which took the Jacobite side, was razed to ground around the same time as the destruction of Urquhart. However unlike Urquhart which still lies in ruins, Eilean Donan was painstakingly restored by a Scottish army officer (it was unclear to me if he was a member of the clan that originally owned it) in the early part of the 20th century. After being used as family home till the 1980s, it was transferred to a trust which now gives tourists a glimpse of a medieval Scottish lifestyle.
More than the displays, the best thing about the castle is probably the view - it looks out over a range of hills and the Loch Alsh to Skye and other islands of the Hebrides beyond. We spent over an hour at Eilean Donan and a further 45 minutes at lunch - and set off around 230 towards Kyle.
From Eilean Donan on, the drive was even more spectacular - a little after Eilean Donan, we caught our first glance of the Skye bridge, and at a crest of the road just before Kyle, we caught what must be one of the best sea views in the world. Kyle of Localsh is a bit of a one horse town…. mainly used by tourists to tank up on the way to Skye. 
The Skye bridge is rather short, but a high arc bridge. While the architectural merits of the bridge are limited, it does provide spectacular views… though we did not stop to enjoy the same (as it would have meant parking 500 mtrs before or after the bridge and then walking). We decided to head into Skye upto Portree, the biggest town on the Island.
The landscape at Skye was spectacular too… unlike the Great Glen and other parts of Scotland we had seen so far, it was not green, but comprised of high, dry peaks, which looked to us like pictures we had seen of Ladakh (though the peaks were obviously tiny runts compared to those in Ladakh). The road to Portree was winding, perched on cliffs high above the sea. In the distance, we could see various rugged peaks, both on Skye and on neighbouring islands. At one point, there was a spectacular curve along the sea, with the cliffs we were driving on forming more than a semi-circle around the sea. I am acutely conscious that my attempts to describe the beauty of the road to Skye and of Skye itself are pitifully inadequate. It is something that needs to be experienced.
We did take a number of photos on the way, but we don’t think any of them adequately captured what our eyes could see.
At 430, we reached a point about 4 miles from Portree, where there was an exhibition centre with a play area for kids. Avi had fun playing for a while, though our stop necessarily had to be brief, as the parking lot had stark notices that it would be closed at 5 PM.
Thereafter, instead of continuing to Portree, we decided to turn around. My initial plan was to take an alternate route back to Inverness, travelling north to a village called Achnasheen, and then heading back to Inverness…. But given the late hour, we decided to head straight back via the main road. While our journey to Skye had taken 7 and a half hours (admittedly including a two hour halt at Eilean Donan) to cover 120 miles, the return trip was covered in about 3 hours.
Radhika and Avi were tired and rested in the back, while I had a good time, maintaining a steady high speed. The interesting thing was that the return journey offered an entirely new perspective to the route, as the hills we could see were different from those we had seen while going to Skye.
We reached the hotel by 8 (viz in under 3 hours), but decided to skip the hotel dinner (we were not able to enjoy the award winning chef’s food any more) and instead heat the Aashirvaad Channa Masala and Dal Bukhara we had carried with us. The relish with which we wolfed down the food surprised us.
At this point, we were under the impression that the next day would be a relaxed one spent at Inverness, before another long journey to Edinburgh on the day after. We then decided to speak to Chandra to thank him for his suggestion that we go to Skye… during this conversation, we suddenly realized that our plans were not adding up. And then the realization dawned that the next day was not going to be a relaxed day but was the day when we needed to drive to Edinburgh.
We had booked to stay at Bunchrew for 3 nights. Somehow, while we were planning the Scotland leg of our trip, I assumed this meant we would also have three days there…. without realising that the first day had been spent driving to Bunchrew, and the last would need to be spent driving back, and hence we had already used up both days we had at Bunchrew. Fortunately, we were more or less packed for at least a car journey. For a brief while, I toyed with the idea of changing our plans and taking the direct route back to Edinburgh (which would have been a 160 mile trip). But the temptation of seeing the rest of the Scottish highlands proved too great… and we decided to make an early start and head back to Edinburgh via Fort William, Glen Coe and Loch Lomond… a journey that would take us into Glasgow before heading for Edinburgh and would involve travel of 250 miles.
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