We had a nice 3.5-hour train ride to Inverness and we checked into he Eastgate Backpackers Hostel about 4PM. We were in a 6-bed dorm room that was pretty much filled up by 3 sets of bunkbeds so there wasn't too much floorspace for our packs. We made do though, and the kitchen was well stocked and they had a pretty roomy dining/living room. There was one older fellow from Wiscinsin staying at the hostel and otherwise it was mostly young people. All the young men and women were very nice and we had 2 young women from Canada in our bunkroom. They gave us the name of a place to stay in the Black Forest (Lydia's) in Germany that they said was beautiful and inexpensive...our kind of place.
Richard, Shari and I went for a walk down to the River Ness where there are some islands to walk on in the middle of the river. It was a very nice walk, but it was very cool and windy along the river. We then went to Marks & Spenser to buy food to cook for dinner, and I bought some wine to enjoy before dinner. After dinner, Shari went off to use the internet and Richard and I went for a walk around town. We had seen an advertisement for a string ensamble concert playing Hayden, Handel and Debussey at the cathedral, so we decided to stroll by the catherdral. The concert was from 8-10PM and cost 7.5 pounds, but we didn't feel like spending the money to attend. Well, we got there about 9PM, right at intermission, so we we walked in and sat down and got to listen to the last half of the concert.
We had only a short time in Inverness, but it is a lovely city and we had a good walk, listened to some music and stayed in a nice hostel. Not bad for a short visit.
6/19: We had breakfast at the hostel and then took the 10:30 bus out to the airport to pick up our rental car at Hertz. They wanted 7.50 pounds per day, per extra driver, and we didn't think it was worth it, so I am the only driver.
There were going to be 4 of us traveling for the week, so we rented a mid-size car, but one person dropped out. We have a Ford Vectra and it is bigger than we need for 3 people, but it's a nice car and it is a standard. So, I'm driving a standard car on the left side of these narrow roads. It's quite exciting.
We left the airport and drove to Torridon. It's probably only 65 miles but it took about 3 hours to get there because after we got off the main highway the roads get pretty small.
We got to the Youth Hostel in Torridon about 2PM only to find out we couldn't check in until 5PM. We asked a fellow who was cleaning at the hostel if he knew where we could get lunch and he directed us to a place a couple of miles down the road. Well, they stopped serving lunch at 2PM, so the woman at the restaurant told us about a place she said was 20 minutes further, and we ended up doing a few u-turns before we finally found a place for lunch, and then a place to buy groceries. Practically the whole drive was on one lane roads and I don't mean one lane on each side - just one lane. They have passing bays every 20 feet or so and if you see a vehicle coming in the other direction you stop at the passing bay and let them pass. I missed on of them and had to back up and let a bus pass me.
We didn't get back to the hostel until 5:15 and luckily they had beds for us. It's a beatuful place, probably the best hostel I've ever stayed in. Shari and I are in a 6-bed bunk room and Richard is in another room.
It has been the strangest weather today. One minute it poured buckets and the next minute the sun was out. We had thought about camping, but the rain put us off that idea. Plus, the hostel is so nice, we all just wanted to stay there.
I'm getting worried about the Coast-to-Coast walk. My pack is so heavy that I think it will be a very grueling hike. The first few days seem to be the worst in terms of elevation gain, but there are some really long hiking days. We will shorten a few of them by adding a couple of extra days to the hike, but it still seems like it will be quite an undertaking. Hopefully, we won't be camping and hiking in rain like we had today.
6/20: It was overcast and misty and looked like rain when we got up so we decided to skip the hike in Torridon and drive up towards Sligachan on the Isle of Skye, where we will do a guided hike tomorrow. We asked the hostel to check the availability of rooms at the Youth Hostel in Broadford in Skye. We got a room for tonight but they had nothing for Saturday night. Along the way to Skye we called a hostel in Portree and were able to get a room for Saturday night. We are booked into dorm rooms both nights and I'm glad we made reservations because the hostels seem to book up pretty quickly here.
We had a nice drive up to Sligachan and we did a pleasant 2-hour walk near where we will hikle tomorrow. Shortly after we first started hiking it poured rain so we turned around and started back to the car. Within 20 minutes it stopped raining so we started hiking again and we ended up hiking until around 4PM. It was a flat trail leading into the Red Cuillins mountain area and it was very different landscape than where I usually hike - green and rolling hills and nothing else around.
After our hike we went into the Sligachan Hotel for coffee and cookies. We ended up talking to a woman from Indiana that Shari had hiked with a bit, and a fellow from Georgia. After we left Sligachan we drove back to Broadford, went to the grocery store and then to the hostel.
Now that I'm getting used to the standard car I'm enjoying driving on the roads in Scotland. Actually the roads in Skye are much better than the roads we were on in Torridon. Here they are mostly 2 lane roads instead on the one road with the passing bays.
HOME PAGE
HOME PAGE