Scotland (Trail of Hairy Coo – Part 2)
Updated: Oct 20, 2018
If you feel pressed for time for exploring the highlands, it’s a great idea to book with a tour operator. Although it’s not a “traveller” kind of thing to do, but with them you get to experience the Scottish pulchritude in a relatively shorter span of time given their know-how about the highland history, geography and culture. We followed suit and booked ours with Rabbie’s Trail Burners. Having retired to bed early preparing ourselves for two zippy days ahead, we woke up feeling full of life. We walked towards the bus pickup point at Rabbie’s Cafe, not very far from our hostel.
There came the Mercedes mini bus and a cheerful Emily, who we would later discover as a great tour guide. We were a varied group of 13 people – 2 Japanese, 2 Indians, 4 Americans, 2 Germans, 2 Irish and 1 from Austria. Emily did the introductions and ice breaking in the most perfect way. She gave us all the necessary details, answered the FAQs and there began the beautiful journey.
We passed through old and new Edinburgh, she narrated us stories on how the concept came into existence, the contrasting lives of people in old and new Edinburgh in the past and very quickly we were on the outskirts. We came across the Forth Bridge, a cantilever railway bridge on firth of River Forth. The steel edifice is a marvel of Scotland’s engineering pedigree, and is inscribed as a World Heritage site by UNESCO.
Moving further north, the road opened into vast grasslands on both sides with sheep grazing in a mellow sunshine. Emily, a great story-teller that she was, gave us the local lore about the highlands, the tragic life of the Queen of Scots, Mary, the geographical aspects of lowlands and highlands, and tidbits about the Scottish culture.
We passed the majestic Blair Castle and crossed the geological fault line separating the highlands and the lowlands. We made our first stop at the Dunkeld village, a settlement on the River Tay. As I hopped off the bus, I felt a breeze tickle me. The scent of flowers filled the air. We visited a nearby church. In the distance, we could witness a neat array of trees, a planned ornamental forest.
Further up, we entered the Cairngorms national park revealing a panoramic view of the wilderness, the snow capped mountains, the coos, the lochs and the colour coded sheep. Emily told us about the highlands Scots, the Gaelic language, the Clans and their subsequent suppression that diminished the customs, language and their way of life.
We headed for a small town Pitlochry. Emily made a detour to a brook with many bridges across it and colours of vegetation sprawling its banks. Standing on the bridge on that mystic river, a cloud passing beneath our feet left us spellbound. Scotland is so beautiful, it makes you cry.
Now was the time to witness alcohol in making. We reached the Blair Athol distillery in Pitlochry and took a guided tour, going through different chambers, learning the physics and chemistry of making the “water of life”. The whiskey aging process intrigued me the most. We were taken to a huge dark area of countless alcohol barrels, each labelled with the date of placement of that barrel, and I began doing the maths, looking for the oldest barrel in sight.
For lunch the group roamed in the town looking for options, and to my delight there was an Indian restaurant (Prince of India) serving vegetarian food. We gulped it quickly and spared enough time to take a leisurely stroll to a local dam.
The journey continued, and we forayed into the higher lands, the crystal clear water bodies, the pine trees kissing the sky and the hamlets, allowing us to make many photo stops as we were headed to our base for the night – Inverness, the highland capital.
We made a quick stop at a castle in one of the rural settlements, which was built to curb the Jacobite movement among the highlanders. It allowed the soldiers to stay near the folks and keep a watch. As beautiful the castle is, the Scottish ingenuity never fails to charm you.
The last stop that we made reminded me of Robert Frost’s “Stopping by Woods on a Snowy Evening” that I read back in school. I was standing on a sandy shore of a huge water body. On the distant edge of the lake, mountains sparkling with white tips arose. On my back were the dense mysterious woods with narrow streams of water here and there, making way to empty themselves into that water body. Taking a walk through the pretty jungle, I experienced boundless joy.
We got high on the Scottish extravaganza, as we made our way to Inverness. The Inverness sky was smudged with a soothing red, shade of the setting sun. That’s the thing with the Scottish sky, the colours will leave you gasping for words. Sitting by my hostel room window, I saw the waters swallow the sun.
We rested a bit in our hostel room. And then it was time to hit the street. We made our way to the riverside passing through the alleys full of weekend energy. More than the river Ness, it was the beauty of the bridges built on it that had me in high snuff.
We signed off for the day and retired to the bed.
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