June 18, 2003
Laurie and I went walking this morning. We heard about and saw this spot to hike up to. We just had a hard time finding how to get to the top. I think the spot was called Arthur's Seat. It was good for us to do some real walking where we have to breathe a little harder. We then caught the 11:40 train to Inverness. It was a nice ride through the country side. We didn't get to Inverness until about 3:30. Lauire made reservations at a hostel. It was about five minutes away.
The hostel is called Eastgate Hostel. We are in a dorm room of six. At first when I went in it smelled like a smelly gym locker room. It didn't make me happy to be there. The window didn't look like it would open which would have been bad. We were able to open it and try to air it out. I didn't want to stick around the hostel. It was a little too crowded for my taste. Richard, Laurie, and I went for a walk down by the river. There is a nice and peaceful walk that goes to these two small islands on the river. There were people wading in the river fishing.
The weather got very windy and cool. We just hope it is nice for us to camp for the next three weeks.
We picked up something at the grocery store to eat for dinner and went back to the hostel. After dinner I went out. Just about everything was shut down. The streets seemed dead. Even Burger King was closed. That closed at 7:00. I guess I will ship my diet Coke tonight.
June 19, 2003
Today ended up being just a travel day. We left the hostel to find the bus stop to take us to the airport. We had to go to the airport to pick up our rental car.
Once we got the car we headed for Torridon. The scenery was beautiful. Everything was so green. So many different colors of green. The sheep were white dots in the hills. We drove by lakes, or locks, as they are called in Scotland. So it was a lovely setting with the green hills, white sheep, gray rocks, blue water, and grey and white clouds.
We got into the hostel about 2:00. The office was closed and wouldn't be open until 5:00. We decided to find something to eat. That was easier said than done. First of all the roads are very narrow and winding. There are quite a few spots that the road is only large enough for one car, so there are pull offs. Just when you get speed, you have to pull over. The other problem is that there is very little here. We had to drive about 20 miles to get to a store. It took forever, especially when we thought we were going the wrong way, turned around, drove down another road for awhile. We stopped at a B & B. They told us what we feared, we were going the wrong way and that the original way was correct.
So it took us over three hours to get something to eat, shop, and get back to the hostel. Good thing we didn't want to hike in the rain. We wouldn't have had time.
We checked into the hostel. It is one of the nicest that we have been in since traveling in Great Britian. It is a big room, comfortable, and clean. I wish we could stop here another night, but we have to move on.
June 20, 2003
Today ended up being another rainy day and another day of driving. We skipped the hike that we planned in Torridon. It would have been over 6 hours exposed to bad weather. So we just drove to the Isle of Skye. We had made reservations at a youth hostel in Broadford.. When we got there it was not open for checking in. So we decided to take a drive and possibly find a hike. We drove to Sligachan and started hiking. The rain had stopped before, but as soon as we walked about half a mile it started again. We continued for a while, but turned around once we were pretty wet. When we got back to the parking lot the rain stopped and we decided to check out another trail. This time we were able to hike for about an hour. The trail was pretty wet and mucky in spots. We turned around where there was a stream we were going to have to ford.
I had passed some women going the other way. I then caught up to another woman and started talking to her. She told me she was from Indiana and that she was with five other woman and they were hiking from B & B to B & B.
We talked for a while and found out that she had done Kilimanjaro. When she told me she was from Indiana and hiked a bit I thought of a woman who was from Indiana, hiked the AT, and wrote a book. I asked this woman if she knew her. The woman told me that she was one of the women that I passed earlier. I couldn't believe it. What a small world!!! The woman was Jean Deeds and wrote, There Are Mountains to Climb. I had read her book before I left for the AT. I enjoyed her book and called to order more. I didn't realize that I was actually going to speak with her. When I talked to her I was very emotional. Right before I left for the AT I was emotional about everything.
Anyways, I had hoped that Jean would come back in time for me to meet her. Laurie, Richard, and I had something to drink in the lounge. Molly, the woman I had met joined us. I didn't get to meet Jean, but it was still neat to know that she was there.
We also met another guy in the lounge. He overheard our conversation and joined us. He was from Georgia. His daughter and son-in-law had done the AT and also wrote a book.
We left the lounge and drove back to the hostel. We picked up groceries on the way. The hostel seemed pretty quiet. Well at least until 10:00 when a bunch of adolescent groups checked in. They are right across from our room. Hopefully they won't keep us up all night.
June 21, 2003
Today we were going to do a guided hike. We got there and it was raining, so we decided not to do it. We just drove around the Isle of Sky. It is beautiful especially along the water. We took all of these back roads. The villages were small with very little there.
We did get out at one point and walked for an hour and a half. When we started it wasn't raining, but started after a while. The hike was nice. It was along the coast.
We drove to Portrel where we are spending the night at the Portrel Independent Hostel.
