Back Home!
Still in one piece and a few pounds lighter than before. Not as much as I expected but better than nothing.
Scotland was great even if it didn't went as I wished. I'll post pics as well in one of my next entries. Most of them are already on my fbsite
Here's the story:
Drove up on the 29th at 8pm and arrived the next day in the evening. It took me 26h to get up to Fort William. Spent my time searching for a parking spot for my car. That isn't as easy as there's not much parking space for once and if I park anywhere for the duration of 3 weeks my car was in danger to be plowed away or even worse. So, I went to the police to ask for a safe place to park. They where super-nice and said that they would even check on my car regularly if it is still parking safe and sound where I was allowed to park, which was down at the train station.
Went to the JW-congregation on Sunday morning and met some nice people but didn't stay long in order to go over things and repack my backpack again and again.
Started my hike on Monday morning while it was raining heavily. It already stormed and rained all night long and I was really fearing that it would stay like this for weeks. It looked like it at least. Went on the little rusty, like Diesel-smelling ferry to get over Loch Linhe to the start. Went on my hike and the rain got less during the day and it was decreasing into showers. It wasn't only rain, though, but hail and stormy too. The first day was tiring on easy to walk tarmac or gravel roads. Went on for like 9 hours and found my first place to camp on a not too wet grassy spot near a little stream. It's tricky to camp in the Highlands as it is almost wet everywhere due to all the moss and rainy days. When it rains the mosses sucks in all the wetness and makes these squishy sounds while walking. I had ugly very hurtful cramps in my upper legs during the night and my feet were aching badly. Took 1200mg of Ibuprofen which I luckily packed too. It got better then.
The next morning it was still raining/hailing/storming on and off and I went off the normal roads up my first steeper hill. I began to cuss myself for packing that much. I think my backpack weighed around 30kg (66lbs) in the beginning. It got less each day by 1 pound or so, but it even was still a lot after a week.
The landscape is really beautiful, stunning, rough, sparse and wild in Scotland and I took my time while hiking and looking around and pausing every now and then.
The next stop was near Gelnfinnan. There's the viaduct which was used for the movies of those Harry Potter films. It's stunning. Weather got better at the end of the day and I was able to pack a nearly dried off tent in the morning(the wet tent adds around 1lbs to the weight). I had to take 1200 Ibuprofen again because everything was hurting. I took 1200 mg Ibuprofen each day while I was hiking, though I won't mention it anymore. It was nice weather in the morning but got worse after noon and it went into very heavy and very, very stormy weather. Another steep hill was coming up which I masterd very good but hill down was the worst. It took me like 5 hours to get down as it was so very wet, very slippery and partly very steep. I slipped like 4 times and fell on my butt. Falling down wasn't the worst but getting up with such a big pack is really an effort of it's own. When I finally made it down I took the wrong turn and landed at a boothy which wasn't on my planned route, but I was very lucky to get to that and ended that damn day-hike there. There where already 4 people in the boothie who already had a fire going, lucky me! I was so very glad to get out of the rain and cold. It was 4 nice Scots (1f,3m) who did a short 3 day-hike on this trail going the other direction. I was totally drained. Every muscle and bone in my body was aching. This was the first night I didn't sleep good due to snoring people around me and the hard wood floor (it's a lot nicer to sleep in the tent on mossy/grassy ground). I got maybe 3 hours of sleep or so. Not so good if you want to do energy-sapping hiking the days after. Ibu didn't work the wonders it did before, though I wasn't feeling too good the next morning. Went on nevertheless on my way to the next goal which was Sourlies-boothie, which I didn't reach that day. It took me longer than expected due to the detour and very muggy, stony terrain. After a strenous river crossing I ended the day after 9 hours of hiking on a place with a stunning but windy view down to Loch Nevis. It stopped raining in the late morning, though it was a lot nicer than the day before. The place wasn't ideal as it was rocky and not really flat. Due to that fact I didn't sleep very good again. But I had the stunning view again while breakfast. It took me 2 hours to get down to Sourlies-boothie were there was a female deer which wasn't a bit afraid of me. I could have touched it. Hiked on through a very boggy river-meadow into a beautiful littly river valley where I stopped after only 6 hours of hiking. I didn't wanted to go on any further as my feet where killing me and my left hip began hurting like hell. Rested for the rest of the afternoon and had a semi-nice night in my tent. Not much sleep again. I had to go up a very steep and very long hill the next morning. No more rain, lucky me. It took me like 6 hours to get up to the pass and down to my next goal the Barrisdale-boothy where I had my last night of the hike on the campsite. My hip was killing me. It got worse each hour and Ibuprofen wasn't helping a bit. Though, I decided to get out of the hike the next day. It doesn't make sense when you have to take that much pain killers each day which don't help a bit (and due to the fact that the packed Ibuprofen wouldn't have lasted for the rest of the hike). The next day I hiked the rest of 5 hours to the next little village with like 3 houses/farms and a parking lot named Kinloch Hourn where I met a nice couple who gave me a lift to the next bigger village named Invergarry with a bus stop to Fort William. The bus wouldn't come as it was Sunday, so I hitch-hiked and already the first car stopped with a father and his son and they gave me a ride back to my car.
Back in Fort William I arrived safely at my still safely parked car.
Got in and drove off. After like 20km it began making strange sounds and after a few minutes something crashed in left rear wheel. Something broke down and breaking was nearly impossible. Real bad luck, huh?
Though I made it to Invermorriston where I got into a B&B with a very nice elderly couple who where super-nice and caring. I got my first shower after 7 days. It was heavenly. The next morning - after another wonderful shower and a good breakfast - the man of the B&B convoyed me to the next garage in Fort Augustus which is at Loch Ness. There, they were able to fix my car within 3 hours.
The brake shoe broke into two pieces. How could this happen? The bill was 95£. I was fearing that I would have cost more and was happy that it was below 100£.
Then I went on with my journey as I decided to go up north to Cape Wrath by car. I stopped where it was beautiful and slept in my car for all the coming nights. I "bathed" (more like catlick) in Lochs (very, very cold). I did some walking for 1-4 hours per day but nothing too strenous. My hip got better each day. I had to take some more Ibu but stopped after 3 days as it really improved with the pain.
To get to Cape Wrath you can't get there by your own car. You have to take a little ferry to cross over a little inlet and then go further on by a little bus on a very small and bumpy road. It takes like 1h to get from the ferry landing up to Cape Wrath in snails pace. It's a very secluded and rough place used for military training of all of the European military forces.
Well, that's it. I explored Northern Scotland by foot and by car. It is worth a journey! I might travel there again. It easily made it to my top-10-list of the most beautiful places. It comes right after Western Canada.
On my way back home I visited Bruegge in Belgium which is a very nice city and I visited an old friend, Matthias, in Schwerin at the Eastern sea in north-eastern Germany.
Today I got back home. My car put up a very good fight and made it back without any more incidents. But I thing the exhaust is somehow damaged. I guess those horrible cobblestone streets in Schwerin cooked its goose.
I'll have to go to the garage again tomorrow and see if it can be fixed very cheap. I'm totally, totally broke after this vacation. I'm glad that the next salary is coming this weekend.
Next Tuesday I have to go to work again -yuck!
9:22 pm - May 26, 2016
Recent entries:
- - April 17, 2019
- - April 10, 2019
Das kannste schon so machen, aber dann ist es halt Kacke - April 08, 2019
- - March 25, 2019
- - March 18, 2019
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