If your interested ....

[nick the grief]

..... here's a few piccies from my recent foray into the land of the sewer rat .....and Alice

http://s128.photobucket.com/albums/p...otland%202007/

[MrsC]

nice piccies!

[mandyballantyne]

Fab pics, Glencoe is my fav place and I try to go visit every few weeks as it is only 2 hours from here

Let us know when you are next up this way and we can meet up for a pint in the Clachaig!

mandy

[sewer rat]

Great trip Nick. Like Mandy, the Coe is one of my favourite places - climbed my first winter mountain there (Buchaille Etive Mor - climbed by various routes about 17 times to date), great nights and lost weekends in the Clachaig (before and after it went posh), camping on the "Bowling Green", sleeping in the "Bendy" and 1 night spent at the Infamous Creag Dhu bothy Jacksonville....... sorry, memories of my mis-spent youth just came flooding back.
Loved Mull & Iona too - one reason daughter is called Iona.
One teeny weeny error to point out to you - its not Loch Lomand, it's Loch Lomond

[kirsty b]

Ooh lovely.
Will use these pics in my arguments that travelling all the way to Scotland for our hols is worth it.

[nick the grief]

.....One teeny weeny error to point out to you - its not Loch Lomand, it's Loch Lomond

Glad you all liked them.

I've been in the Clachaig many a time, last time I watched a group of Glaswegians coming down the gully off aonach eagach ..... the language was ....errr..... colourful had a great laugh with them and they baought me a pint too ...... must have been altitude sickness.

Mrs G really loved Rannoch Moor and rumour has it we're going back next year and doing some walking

[Peter]

Wondered where you had gone, now we know.

[nick the grief]

Ooh lovely.
Will use these pics in my arguments that travelling all the way to Scotland for our hols is worth it.

If/when we go next time I think we'll either fly to Glasgow & hire a car or stop off somewhere like Teebay ( excellent breakfasts) or Moffat.

The West coast is my favourite - more rugged than the east coast ... well the bit's of the east coast I've seen.

Fort William isn't a bad base as you can go to Mull fairly easy (corran ferry across Loch Linnhe then Lochaline to Fishnish on Mull )- you can get a rover ticket so you could come back on the Craignure to Oban ferry - a bit longer sail time but a bigger boat then you could have some time in Oban as well.

Iona was picturesque and well worth the 1 hr drive to Fionnphort to catch the ferry (foot only unless you live on Iona).

If you time it right you can go from The Fort to Mallaig by steam Train over some of the most stunning scenery and over Concrete Bobs viaduct at Glennfinnan or drive there & catch the ferry to Skye.

Added to that you've some of the most breathtaking walks on this planet ( Ben Nevis, Glen Nevis, The Lost Glenat Glencoe and the Devils Staircase from Glencoe to Kinlochleven and my favourite the General Wades Military road from the Kingshouse Inn at the top of Glencoe down the glen to the Clachaig inn at the bottom.

[sewer rat]

Clachaig is good - used to be excellent but that was when it was one wee room, polystyrene tiles on the ceiling and an open fire - you clamber down from the tops after a day playing in snow and ice, dumped your kit along with 20 or 30 others in a pile by the fire, ordered up a pint or twelve, and if you were really skint (and not worried about catching something horrible) you could position your pint so that the drips from the ceiling tiles kept it topped up for you. Best laugh was trying to get back to your tent and into your sleeping bag without a) falling over b)tripping over a guy rope, c) clambering into completely the wrong tent d)being sick. Been there, done all of the above
Oh yeah - also the only pub where one's wife (the first one, not the current one) could get pissed drinking hot toddy's (she did have quite a few though - about 20 as I recollect)

[JennieAtkinson]

You need to go further north!

[Alice]

I'm glad you had such a good holiday in Scotland Nick. I wish you had said you were coming - we could have had a good get together for Grapes. Next time for sure. Thanks for sharing your pics - all my part of the world. Oban's my old home town - but that was the big city to me. Hick from the sticks for sure. We can have another wee look at the bonnie banks
Loch Lomond

[mandyballantyne]

Hi Sewer Rat,

Those tiles, remember them well what times were had in there!

Then when they stoped camping at the pub and we had to pitch up down the hill. Some sort of weird gravity happening there never seem to be able to walk down that hill always seem to run?? Maybe that is the beer though

Think I may head up there this week, Mandy

[JennieAtkinson]

Glad you and your wife enjoyed the west coast Nick. Even further north into Sutherland is pretty wonderful too, and some great walking. And hardly anyone seems to go there either.

I have rather rashly agreed to consider walking the West Highland Way next year ........

beautiful walk (done bits of it in the past) and I've got 8 months to get fit

[moggssue]

Great pics Nick, thanks for sharing. I used to visit the highlands around Grantown on Spey and just loved it. Haven't been for years (OH prefers to holiday to the sun/sand) but you have me thinking that it's high time for a return visit ....... hmmmmmm

[multiveg]

Nice piccies, including the cacti in your other albums. I miss my collection. I miss the pretty flowers, though don't miss getting caught probably by M.boscana .