Trip Planning
My 54-day trip to the UK and Germany is simply a result of “dependency co-arising”. First, I had a gap of two months between June and August before commencement of a full-time Buddhist Counselling course in the University of Hong Kong in September. Second, Heritage Expedition which had canceled the Russian expedition from Otaru to Alaska, put forward in April an interesting “Atlantic Odyssey” itinerary from Aberdeen to Troon, Scotland via Faroe Islands from July 8 to 20. I signed up without second thought. Third, I would have a chance to visit old friends in Scotland and England. Finally, as Lufthansa (LH) flied direct from Edinburgh via Frankfurt, I would have a chance to visit Germany for three weeks.
It is impossible to plan these days! On June 23, I got an email announcing the cancellation of the July expedition owing to health and political considerations. As my friend, K and I had already booked flights and hotels in Scotland, we decided to go ahead. Within a week, we revamped our travelling plan in Scotland, booked flights to Faroe Islands and rental car in Scotland and Faroe Islands.
Part 1 – June 28 – July 1: Auchnarrow, Cairngorms National Park
My flight would depart after 11 pm. I left home shortly after 7 pm and had to take the airport express instead of the airport bus which no longer ran frequently. I was at the departure hall by 8:30pm. The airport was eerie, quiet, and deserted. Even the lounge I used before was now closed. The LH flight was full. Luckily, I had an aisle seat on Row 18 with plenty of leg room. It took off after midnight. I was so tired that I dosed off for several hours.
I landed at the Frankfurt airport before 7am on June 29. While waiting for my connecting flight to Edinburgh, I found a comfortable couch in a quiet corner and had some rest. Apparently, the airport was affected by staff shortage too and some flights had to be canceled. Luckily my flight took off after an hour’s delay. After an uneventful short flight, I landed in Edinburgh airport which has expanded a lot since my last visit in 2010. Owing to staff shortage, passengers had to stay on the plane for half an hour and waited a while for the luggage. Anyway, I was relieved to get out of the airport after 2 pm.
My plan was to stay for a few days with Denise, my late Godmother’s daughter whom I have known for over fifty years. Denise lives in a remote area located inside the Cairngorms National Park, UK’s largest national park with an area of some 4,500km². Things worked out perfectly. I bought a senior rail card for £30 which proved to be a good investment. I took the 3pm train from Inverkething to Aviemore, was picked up by Chris around 6 pm and arrived at Denise’s beautiful 150-year-old stone house (known as the ‘School House’) before 7 pm. From the kitchen, I had full views of the majestic Cairngorms range of mountains.
During the pandemic, we all trasure our family and friends. I have known Denise since 1966 in Hong Kong and we last met in Taunton in mid-March 2020 just before her mom (Mrs. Thorn) passed away. We sat in the kitchen or the sitting room drinking tea and coffee talking about the old days, her mom and dad, and everything under the sun. I did not know Chris is a celebrated rambler till I had a chance to see his work. I enjoy listening to his adventure, guiding and writing career. I also spent much time by the kitchen window watching birds, rabbits, squirrels, deer, the trees and landscape. I was excited when Helen who has recently moved from Aviemore to Inverness, arrived for a reunion. We all met in Hong Kong around 1968. All in all, I had a most memorable, peaceful and beautiful séjour in the ‘School House’.
Part 2- July 2 – 4: Aviemore, Cairngorms National Park
After a leisure breakfast with Denise, Chris drove me to Grantown-on-Spey to catch a bus at 12:30 pm. After meeting up with my friend, K in in Aviemore, I was delighted to have a chance to meet Hazel (Denise’s daughter) and James who live near Edinburgh before they drove to Denise’s School House for a week. Things worked out perfectly!
We were lucky to have fine weather during our 3-day stay in Aviemore. We had three short walks over two days. The first walk on July 3 was to the idyllic Loch an Eilein, a small irregular shaped lake in the Rothiemurchus Forest about 5km from Aviemore. In the middle of the lake is the ruin of a small 14th century castle. In the afternoon, we had a nice short walk up the park behind Aviemore for panoramic views. Good exercise.
On July 4, we decided to visit the Nature Reserve at Loch Garten to see the osprey and chicks which were under 24-hour camera surveillance. We took a bus at 9:10 am and were told to walk over a mile from the bus stop to the reserve. While on the main path, we decided to follow a forest trail on the advice of a cyclist. Alas, we had no trail map in hand and soon got lost. After two hours wandering in the forest, we had to retrace our steps to the starting point on the main road and followed it all the way to the reserve. We spent a while in the visitor centre to watch the osprey and her two chicks through the TV screen and binoculars.
We had an enjoyable leisure walk halfway around Loch Garten and took some lovely photos of the blue sky, water lilies, weeds, trees and the lake. We had a delicious early dinner with slow-cooked cod in the Old Bridge Inn in Aviemore. The bonus of our stay in Aviemore was my purchase of a pair of Hoka training shoes highly recommended by Chris: I wore it throughout my travel!
Part 3- July 5 – 10: Inverness & Isle of Skye (Skye)
July 5: We took the 10:51 am train to Inverness and later picked up a Honda automatic Jazz (expensive – £650 for 6 days). We decided to drive and explore the eastern part of Inverness. We arrived in Nairn, a small port with a lively beach where we had nice take-away seafood as restaurants were all closed after 2:30pm. Next, we arrived at the Findhorn Beach with sand dunes and colourful beach huts. In Burghead a small town mainly built on a peninsular projecting north-westward into the Moray Firth, we visited the Pictish Fort from where we watched a school of dolphins swimming by.
By the time we reached Elgin, a former cathedral city and the administrative and commercial centre for Moray, it was well after 6 pm. Elgin, first documented in 1190, is known for its cathedral ruin. Founded in 1224, the cathedral had undergone periods of enlargement and renovation. The colossal and expansive ruin is most impressive and atmospheric. Unfortunately, we could not visit it. We had a surprisingly good time in a beautiful Biblical garden filled up plants and flowers mentioned in Bible.
It was a long drive back to Inverness. We stopped at a supermarket and had trouble driving to the BnB as the access road was temporarily closed. By the time we arrived at the BnB, it was close to 9pm. We were tired and only had cup noodles for supper.
July 6: We invited Helen to join us today. We set off to Dornoch which is a lovely compact old town with a dominating 13th-century cathedral, an imposing jail, a previous Bishop’s Palace which is now a hotel and a castle which is a golf club today. The town became better known internationally when son of pop star Madonna was christened in the Cathedral, and she got married in the nearby Skibo Castle. We spent more than two hours exploring the town, which is interesting, quiet and elegant.
The sudden downpour of rain forced us to take shelter at the Lairg Visitor Centre which has an interesting well-presented exhibition of the meteorite found in Scotland, the geology and human history of the area. I learn about the North West Highlands Geopark and hope to visit it on my next visit to Scotland.
Our third stop was the Falls of Shin. We got lost again and wasted an hour. Luckily, we watched more than half a dozen Atlantic salmon leaping over the falls to reach its sprawling grounds.
As the weather had improved with the sky brightening up, we drove around the Isle of Black and visited the picturesque Chanonry Point with a lighthouse. Helen kindly invited us to visit her new flat. K and I bought nice fish (but no chip) in Fortrose and had our supper at her place. A wonderful day.
July 7: We drove to Skye, the largest and northernmost of the major islands in the Inner Hebrides of Scotland with an area of 1,656km². The main highway to Skye is A87 that ends at Uig. On the advice of the BnB owner, we took the country road to visit Plockton, a picturesque village on the shores of Loch Carron in the Lochalsh, with stunning views of distant peaks and shorelines and a ‘sub-tropical appearance’ created by the plantation of New Zealand cabbage palm trees. I had steamed local mussels while K had soup for lunch. But the quality was average.
After lunch, we got back on A87 and drove to Portree where we would stay two nights. We did not settle down in the BnB till almost 6pm. Despite the foggy and poor visibility, we decided to follow the coastal road A855 to see a few more spots before dark. Luckily the weather improved after our first stop at the Bride’s Veil Falls which is not worth the time. The next stop was the Lealt Falls. We could see waterfalls from a distance from a viewing platform and ruin of a salmon factory on the beach below the cliff from another platform. I fell once and luckily had not hurt myself.
The third and final stop was the famous Mealt Falls & Kilt Rock. Here the sheer cliffs formed of basalt columns atop of a bed of sandstone, is famously known as ‘Kilt Rock’ as the natural ripple effect of the rock resembles the pleated folds of a traditional Highland kilt. Kilt Rock roughly 90m high is located north of the dramatic waterfalls created from the outflow of Loch Mealt which drops about 55m to the rocky shore below. The viewpoint offers spectacular views of these two natural wonders. Nonetheless, I think the best view would be from a boat.
We had Indian take-away for dinner. The room of the Bn is so small that we could not move around at all!
July 8: We had a good day. We arrived at the Dunvegan Castle around 10 am and saw at least a dozen of large coaches in the car park. We were not keen to stay indoor during the pandemic and decided to drive to the Neist Point, the most westerly tip of Skye, to take a hike to the Neist Point Lighthouse. The 2.2-km long hike is most enjoyable. The high cliffs and shorelines provide a dramatic backdrop for the 43-m high lighthouse built in 1900. The sea, rocks by the lighthouse and colonies of seabirds on the cliffs make the location even more atmospheric. It would be an excellent spot to watch sunset.
The weather was wonderful, clear and cool. After the hike, we found a nice small café in Dunvegan that serves the best mussel we had during the entire journey. We drove to Borve in order to take A87 to Uig and went up to the northern end of the Trotternish peninsula. We stopped at the Grave of Flora MacDonald which commemorates her heroic act in helping Bonnie Prince Charlie to escape to Skye in June 1746.
Before returning to Portree, we stopped at the Kilt Rock & Mealt Falls Viewpoint again in order to fully appreciate the marvelous landscape in good weather.
July 9: We started off at 8 am in order to reach Elgol well before our boat ride scheduled at 10:45am to Loch Coruisk, an inland fresh-water loch lying at the foot of the Black Cuillin with 12 munros (a mountain with a height of 3,000 ft/914.4m) famous for dramatic and breathtaking scenery. The rugged soaring peaks are mainly composed of gabbro, a very rough igneous rock. The ridge curving around the loch is about 14 km long with Sgùrr at 992m as the highest point of the isle. The Red Cuillin mainly composed of granite subject more to erosion has lower and smoother outlines. The loch is reputed to be the home of water horse. We landed after 11:30am and had about two hours to explore the picturesque loch.
We headed back to the mainland despite our wish to visit other attractions like the Storr, Fairy Pools etc as we had to return the car by 1pm the following day. We followed A87 to a BnB close to Fort Augustus for the night and only stopped twice at Eilean Donan and for dinner. This BnB charging less than £100 turned out to be the best and most value-for-money for our time in Scotland.
July 10: We set off after 9 am and spent an hour in Fort Augustus watching the working of the locks and movements of boats. Thinking we would have enough time to take the car back to the airport by 1 pm, we took the winding scenic drive along the southern shore of Loch Ness instead of A87. This decision cost us dearly. As we did not have time to stop several kilometers outside the airport to refuel the tank, the car rental company charged us over £4 per liter to fill up the tank. After returning the car shortly after 1 pm, we waited over an hour for a bus to Inverness. Had I known the bus schedule, I would have simply taken a taxi and paid £25 for a quick ride.
We spent a lovely time in Inverness. We stayed in River Ness Hotel on Church Street and visited the Abertarff House, the oldest house built in Inverness in 1593 nearby. We strolled along the River Ness (the Ness walk) planked by the Old Gaelic Church which has a historic sanctuary with a graveyard, and the Free Church of Scotland. We crossed the Greig St. Bridge to visit the St Mary’s Roman Catholic Church and the St. Andrew Cathedral. After a pleasant stroll, we crossed the Infirmary Bridge and returned to the hotel to meet Helen for dinner at 5:30pm. We had a nice dinner in Blackfriars Inverness on Academy Street. The building dated 1793 has been beautifully renovated. The pub offers delicious Sunday roast. I had the best Yorkshire pudding I could remember in the last twenty years. After dinner, I walked Helen to the Market Brae Steps where she had left her bike. I had a lovely walk around that area, followed the Raining’s stairs to reach the High Street. I like old town centre and the river.
July 11: Departure for Faroe Islands (original plan: Faroe Islands July 11 – 18). Our Atlantic Airways flight to Faroe Islands would depart from Edinburgh before 5 pm. We got up early in order to take the 8:40 am train to Edinburgh. Things went smoothly until we were inside the departure hall searching for the departure gate an hour before departure. We were shocked to see the flight cancellation. For the next few hours, the frantic passengers all tried to find out what happened. Apparently, all flights were canceled owing to foul weather in Faroe Islands. The Swissport, the ground handling agent, told us to find accommodation ourselves and we would be reimbursed with proper receipt up to €250 per room plus taxi fares. We were also given £20 for food to be spent at the airport. As an event was going on in Edinburgh, it was difficult to find a decent hotel for €250. Incredible! Anyway, we stayed at Hampton Court West End
July 12: We returned to the airport before 11:30am to wait for our flight scheduled for departure around 2 pm. It turned out to be a nightmare. First, when I checked in, they could not find my booking. I showed Swissport staff my boarding pass of July 11. They understood but could not do anything. They told me to contact my agent in Hong Kong and Atlantic Airways direct. I frantically WhatsApp my agent in Hong Kong but he could not do anything. I sent an email to Atlantic Airways in vain. Anyway, after checking-in all passengers, the officer in charge came and decided to issue me a boarding pass. I fully appreciate his understanding and decision to override the information from the computer system. He has the quality of a responsible and smart manager. Second, it was a long wait at the airport. The incoming flight from Faroe Islands did not land till after 4 pm. We stood by the gate and ready to board around 5pm. But we could not get onboard till 6pm and had to sit inside the plane waiting for delivery of luggage for an hour. The flight did not take off till 7pm. (Part 1 of my UK leg)
