Scotland Days 6 and 7: hiking the Highlands

 We spent two nights in Cairngorms, which gave us a little more time to explore than our usual move-every-night pattern. 

Yummy leisurely brunch of meat pie and quiche at The Barn at the Rothiemurchus

 headquarters.

First, we did a gentle hike around Lock an Eilein (lock is lake in Scotland) that had an island with a ruined castle on it. 

so many cool mushrooms

But Drew's feet were killing him. He needed some better boots, so we went into an overpriced outdoor gear store in Aviemore and bought him some "Italian boots" i.e. La Sportivas, which is a brand we have in the States. 

So with happy feet we could do a steeper hike to Meall a' Bhuachaille.

Trail building here is unlike that in the US. They don't believe in switchbacks. Instead, they just go straight up but build steps to do it.

We got sprinkled on - the first rain we had on any outing in 6 days!

With two hikes under out belts today, we needed some beer and dinner. I guess we should have clued into the fact that restaurants are so busy here you need reservations from our host last night, but we didn't. We were out of luck finding anywhere that had room for two diners. Not to fear, the grocery store had cold beer and there was an Indian take out close to our B&B. 

Dinner of champions of loch hiking

The unglamorous side of traveling for two weeks. Heated towel bars are handy for drying sort-of-washed clothes.

Day 6 with two hikes was a good one.

Day 7 the Great Glen

Day 7 would take us over to Glencoe, by way of Inverness. Yeah, not the most direct route, but we wanted to see the Great Glen and Loch Ness.

The hike we chose was the Abriachan trails. 

It had ferns as tall as Drew.

Heather or heath is everywhere we've been. Most of it has past the blooming season, but pockets of purple still exist. 

I thought this bothy (toilet) was interesting with its nice sized conifer growing ON THE ROOF. 

In addition to the wild vegetation, there were plenty of things to see on this hike, including a reconstructed sod house,

inside of the sod house

a thatch hut.

But the views were also very interesting. 

We thought there would be great views of Loch Ness, but there were too many trees in that direction. Regardless, it got us out to see the countryside before a longish drive down the Great Glen, alongside Lock Ness and the Caledonian Canal

I wasn't feeling so great so we hightailed it to our hotel in Ballachulish, near Glencoe. 

The Ballachulish Hotel is the fanciest place we've stayed yet, with a lovely sitting room and pretty rooms. 

I think the hotel is over 150 years old, and the staircase shows it. 

I don't know why but I giggle every time I climb or descend. 

Being on a sound connected to the ocean means we have access to fresh fish so I had the seafood sampler plate for dinner. Drew had curry. There has been an Indian curry on every menu we've seen. 

 So far our stay has been great. Tomorrow, we explore Glencoe, if the weather allows.