Hitchhikers and One Lane Roads

 

Robby being a dork at Strome Castle

 

 

Elian Donan Castle - made famous by "Highlander, the movie"

 

We picked up hitchhikers and it was awesome. Now, I know that in America it is a bad thing to pick up the creepy, smelly guy sticking his thumb out, but in Europe, it's relatively a safe and sane thing to do. Plus, Robby and I were a little bored and we felt that we would be doing a Mithaz by helping the strained couple that we saw on the side of the road. I think it does help that a girl was in the hitchhiking party as she looked more friendly and safe than if there was a random guy on the side of the road. Anyhow, we ended up with Roger and Debbie for the whole day.

Let me backtrack a second, Robby and I had arrive on the Isle of Skye the previous evening and went out drinking with a couple of the hostel employees and about 14 people from a 28-person tour group. It was a little like being back in College as the average age of the kids was 23, plus we played "King's Cup" and some other "get-you-drunk-fast" card game. Good thing the local pub had cheap beer on tap. Overall it was an enjoyable evening considering that we've been old hags lately and not experienced any type of nightlife at all. Partly due to us having to be at our couchsurfing people's houses at a certain time or being boring ass "old people" 50 years too soon. Anyhow, we closed the bar down and then went to sleep in our "Yellow Welly Caravan", quite literally a Winnebago/Connex container with 5 bunk beds squished in it and parked in the garden behind the hostel. The bathroom being outside, in a shack, or inside the actually hostel. What can I say, we like to travel cheap. Best part, the beds were super comfy; worst part, every time someone walked in the trailer, it shook everything, including our bunk - not cool.

Ok, back to the hitchhikers. Robby and I decided that we were going to have a "relaxing" day; we weren't going to make any plans, just go with the flow. We started with a lovely drive to Dunvegan Castle, on the far side of the island. Along the hour journey to the castle, we acquired Roger and Debbie, two backpackers from Switzerland. They were headed roughly the direction we were going and we offered to give them a lift to the town of Dunvegan, but told them we were going to the castle. They decided to come to the castle with us. Now, this was about Robby and my 8th or 9th castle, but their first. They looked a little worst for wear on the money front and we didn't really want to pressure them into coming into the castle with us, but they decided to follow us around and so I at least hoped that this castle was not a let down like some of the previous castles.

  

Entrance to Dunvegan Castle

 

We need-ant have worried as Dunvegan is an extremely large castle that sits on a loch (lake) and has about 15 rooms you can wandering in with placards describing everything in detail. A mini museum on the history of a very unfortunate family that owned the castle and kept dying or losing it to other armies. There was also spectacular gardens surrounding the castle with a walled garden, a rose garden, a mini forest garden, and a few other gardens. For about $15 dollars more you could have taken a mini boat ride on the loch to see the castle from the water and the local population of seals. Robby and I decided that since we know what seals look like - they are all over San Francisco and a nuisance, they weren't worth the extra fee to see them in Scotland.

Dunvegan from the Loch

Next stop, Neist Point, a small lighthouse at the Edge of the World - so said our hostel employee/new friend/drinking buddy in the morning. Roger and Debbie still accompanying us as we left Dunvegan. Apparently they didn't have any plans for the day and had also heard of the lighthouse, so why would they/should they give up a free car ride out to the cliffs and the lighthouse? Driving there, we realized that without a car, there is no way to see this attraction. It's at the tip of the Isle, along a small, curvy, one car-length wide road with two way traffic and "oh look, the road vanished" hills. A bit nerve wracking getting there, but after almost hitting one car and making another drive backwards down a cliff face, we arrived at a brilliant blue sea with jutting cliffs and an abandoned lighthouse.

 

Baby sheep on the drive out to the lighthouse.

 

We stomped down an impressive number of steps and proceeded to walk to the edge of the cliffs to get a better view of the lighthouse from the side. In every country, but America, your safety is your concern. The countries figure if they put up a "Warning Sign" telling you that you are entering a dangerous area, that is efficient enough. If you happen to walk to the edge of a 200-foot drop cliff to take a picture and you slip and fall to your death, well that's your fault now isn't it? The country isn't going to honor any family member's sue claim. You're an adult, take responsibility for your actions. So that is what we did, walked out to the edge of a cliff and peered over. I even tripped on a rock, nearly sending me to a watery grave - nightly news update, "Idiot America, trips. Darwin wins again!"

 

Picture I almost died for to take

 

Luckily I saved myself, not my pride, and was able to snap my photo and proceed down more steps to the lighthouse. I'm not sure when the lighthouse last worked, but at some point it was turned into a hostel (also closed now). I would certainly stay there for an evening - just listening to the waves crashing on the rocks below, watching the sheep grazing in the grassy field surrounding the cliffs and just relaxing, maybe even seeing a ghost of some lost soul trapped there because they decided to throw themselves off the cliffs in a fit of jealous rage or love - who knows, it's possible (hey, I come from Hollywood, everything has a story, whether it's true or not).

 

The Edge of the World

We all wandered around the abandoned and ":private property" lighthouse, taking various pictures and trying to imagine what it looked liked when it was still operational. At first Robby was freaking out because I went through the hole in the fence to see the buildings that were "off limits", but I figured, who is really going to chastise me in the middle of nowhere, and if someone was actually still living there (highly doubtful), I'd just apologize and walk away. It's not like I would ever get a chance to come back and I wanted to make the most of my journey. Apparently I started a coup and a bunch of the other people wandering around decided to follow my lead into trespassing. Opps.

As much as we were enjoying the peaceful calm of the cliffs, we still wanted to see the Fairy Pools. We weren't sure what they were, we just knew they were swimming capable pools of water and suppose to be beautiful. Since we weren't near any kind of town and Roger and Debbie still didn't have any plans, they stuck with us. It was getting on to about 6pm, but thankfully sunset in Scotland is around 11pm. Another hour later, and having circled the same area twice, a friendly cop told us the correct directions to the Fairy Pools. They turned out to be various waterfalls continuously pouring into one another and all flowing from a mountain range in the distance. We walked about two miles along the ridge of the falls, wanting to jump in, but chickening out because it was kind of chilly out and we didn't really feel like skinny dipping. Debbie really wanted to find the main pool that the water all flowed from, but it was getting late, 9pm now, and we didn't want to be driving on the one lane roads in the dark. It's hard enough to see the oncoming cars during the day, so why risk death at night. Sure, the tourist drive like cautious old ladies, but the locals are speed demons. I really think that a lot of get-a-way drivers come from Scotland - they can turn on a dime and speed through tiny crevices, plus they know how to back up in a straight line, no matter the angle of the road.

  

Little road and an oncoming car.

Fairy Pools

While walking next to the Fairy Pools, Debbie and Roger were curious what we did on a "non-relaxed" day. Apparently we do a bunch of stuff in a day and they think that relaxed mean - sit at a beach and do nothing or take a small hike and chill. We think it means to not have any plans and just go with the flow. The previous days we've been getting up early to rush to castles during the 10am-4pm opening hours. We haven't really gotten to truly appreciate what we're running through because we're constantly thinking about making the next castle tour before it closes for the day. It's kind of sad and depressing and we really should just take our time, we'd appreciate things better.

 

More Fairy Pools

So, twilight descended and we headed back to our awesome trailer for the evening. Along the way we acquired another hitchhiker, a College age Brit who came from a solo, 5 day backpacking camping trip in the mountains. We had originally drove past him because, why would we pick up another hitchhiker, but then he had looked so sad and pitiful that we turned around and stuffed him in the car. Apparently he was headed to the same town as Roger and Debbie and he had been standing on the side of the road for an hour. Debbie was joking that there were more hitchhikers in the car than "owners". It was also awesome because we were still driving the BMW, which Roger found amusing.

I think Roger and Debbie had originally thought Robby and I had a lot of money because of the car that we were driving, but then the realized that we were just working our way through the country as backpackers, just with a car. The people at the hostel also found the BMW awesome and all came out to admire it. There's no way not to stand out at hostels and poorer establishments driving a shiny car.Oh well, it gets us to all the far off places that no bus can manage and we get to meet interesting people like Roger and Debbie.

 Pretty scenery on the way to the Fairy Pools