Control Freak
We have our little blue Ford Fiesta, hired for a week of driving around the Scottish Highlands... I feel so much better behind the wheel now... David calls me a Control Freak but I don't mind it's better than feeling motion sickness.
We drive out of Glasgow and already I miss the boys who have all dispersed to different parts of Scotland and beyond... driving is easy the roads are excellent... Fort William is our first night over in a large old hotel where the hot water ran out before we could have a bath, David is surprised there is no shower but this hotel is a little behind the times like something out of an old movie in fact. The bar girl is from Canberra! Breakfast is in a very large dining room with just a scattering of people and everyone talks in whispers, one of the waitresses is from Poland.
Monday is raining, windy and quite bleak just like the countryside which is spectacular with it's steep cliffs barren hillsides with nothing but heather and weeds growing along the roadside. We are heading to Mallaig which is where a steam train still goes to and back once a day in the Summer... we pull into a small station and watch it go by, David was wishing he was on it till he saw how full the carriages were with windows frosting up by the warmth of bodies. We see the first Concrete Viaduct built by Lord McAlpine, there are in fact three viaducts... this we know because David has a video of a trip on this route, it is in fact one of Jackson Harry's favourite videos...
Just before Malliag is a little hamlet called Morar which is where the beach scenes of my all time favourite film Local Hero were shot... we see the beach through blinding rain and wind but we see it.
On to the Isle of Lochalsh where on another video Michael Palin catches a train and takes away one of the signs... we search the platform for other signs but he must have taken the only one because there is only one very modern replacement sign there. We see Skye in the distance and the very impressive bridge over to it but stay on the mainland and find a great hotel at Tingle Bay... next morning we are off to Plockton where they made the Hamish McBeth TV Series... it is very very touristy but very cute and much bigger than we see in the series... there is even a High School. I am running out of Internet time so will close now...
P.S. after a 45 min delay caught in traffic because of road works we eventually made it onto the new bridge to Skye... we only drove around one little hamlet then went back over the bridge and on our way to Inverness... but we did get to Skye! Last time we were in Scotland we drove all the way from Lands End in Cornwall to John O'Groats in Scotland sleeping in our old FX3 London Taxi Cab... these are the northern and southern most points of Great Britain... this time the memory of midges decided us on not repeating that exact trip! So Inverness is as far north as we went this time.
We drive out of Glasgow and already I miss the boys who have all dispersed to different parts of Scotland and beyond... driving is easy the roads are excellent... Fort William is our first night over in a large old hotel where the hot water ran out before we could have a bath, David is surprised there is no shower but this hotel is a little behind the times like something out of an old movie in fact. The bar girl is from Canberra! Breakfast is in a very large dining room with just a scattering of people and everyone talks in whispers, one of the waitresses is from Poland.
Monday is raining, windy and quite bleak just like the countryside which is spectacular with it's steep cliffs barren hillsides with nothing but heather and weeds growing along the roadside. We are heading to Mallaig which is where a steam train still goes to and back once a day in the Summer... we pull into a small station and watch it go by, David was wishing he was on it till he saw how full the carriages were with windows frosting up by the warmth of bodies. We see the first Concrete Viaduct built by Lord McAlpine, there are in fact three viaducts... this we know because David has a video of a trip on this route, it is in fact one of Jackson Harry's favourite videos...
Just before Malliag is a little hamlet called Morar which is where the beach scenes of my all time favourite film Local Hero were shot... we see the beach through blinding rain and wind but we see it.
On to the Isle of Lochalsh where on another video Michael Palin catches a train and takes away one of the signs... we search the platform for other signs but he must have taken the only one because there is only one very modern replacement sign there. We see Skye in the distance and the very impressive bridge over to it but stay on the mainland and find a great hotel at Tingle Bay... next morning we are off to Plockton where they made the Hamish McBeth TV Series... it is very very touristy but very cute and much bigger than we see in the series... there is even a High School. I am running out of Internet time so will close now...
P.S. after a 45 min delay caught in traffic because of road works we eventually made it onto the new bridge to Skye... we only drove around one little hamlet then went back over the bridge and on our way to Inverness... but we did get to Skye! Last time we were in Scotland we drove all the way from Lands End in Cornwall to John O'Groats in Scotland sleeping in our old FX3 London Taxi Cab... these are the northern and southern most points of Great Britain... this time the memory of midges decided us on not repeating that exact trip! So Inverness is as far north as we went this time.
Labels: Control Freak, Fort William, Hamish McBeth, Hire Car, Local Hero, Mallaig, Plockton
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