It appears that the grumpy old guy slept in his car. Stupid bastard.... If he's stayed in bed for 10 minutes longer he would be asleep like the rest of us, instead of sleeping in a cold car all night. Stubborn eikel...
Anyway.... While the Cadet disappears for what seems like an hour, I start taking stuff out to the car.... I'm greeted with vistas that couldn't have been imagined in the dark the night before.
The car has also developed a tattoo:
We've decided to head up to inverness and then back down Loch Ness and home, but first, we are going to go closer to the cairngorms.
The Cairngorms is a region of mountains which form the highest plateau in the British isles. The plateau is the home to 4 of the 5 highest mountains in Scotland - the other being Ben Nevis. There's 17 munros here all together.
We drive up a single path road and the excitement wells up. We're getting higher and higher, and I'm thinking about heading up the cable car to the top.
When we get out the car, its absolutely freezing. This coupled with the 8.50 charge is enough to convince us that going to the top for a few photos would be a bit daft. Instead we head into the visitor centre for some breakfast. We are up so early that the kitchen isn't open yet... The youth Hostel would be a good option to make sure we are on the mountain early if we come back for some climbing. We take some photos for a while:
We eventually get a bacon roll and a cup of coffee in front of the log fire..... All the walking books and equipment in the visitor centre make me want to at least go higher by cable, but once we are outside with -10 blasting off our faces, the fantasy disappears.
So back in the car it is to the while the car speakers are vibrating to the sounds of "Coming down the mountain!!!!!" - The Mountain Song by Jane's Addiction:
Once we were back down to ground level, we returned to the scene of our aborted campfire. The ice is still frozen over and the views are lovely:
Before long , we are well on our road to Inverness. We see a sign for culloden, and decide to go an pay our respects. I was here, in the Summer during our road trip to Skye, but since we're passing anywayy, we take a quick trip in and show The Cadet some of our history:
It's a lot quieter than it was in tourist season, which just adds to the eeriness.
We head to the centre of Inverness, we're not really sure why, but we're very sure about leaving once we get stuck in traffic. After about an hour of bad navigation decisions and wrong turns, we are on the road to Loch Ness. It's good to get out of civilisation again. Normally the tourist laden road down Loch Ness wouldn't count as out of civilisation, but it's close to Christmas so it isn't bad. We're not long onto the road when we just have to stop. The scenery looks like a picture postcard, so we get out:
It is absolutely stunning. Really silent and calm. There's a mist rolling along the top of the loch which adds to the mystery and serenity of this place. We can see the edge of the loch, and with about 30 cm from the bank, you can see nothing in the water. It is dark, still and you can't see the top because of this rolling mist. No wonder we have legends of the Monster.
I decide to have a pee in the bushes. This is disturbed when a police car slowly drive past and I have to hold and hide for a little while until they pass. I nearly got arrested!!!!
We continue down Loch Ness knowing that nothing will match what we've just seen. We stop in Drumnadrochit to stock up on Irn Bru....
...after this, it's a stop at Urquart Castle for the inevitable postacrd photos of Loch Ness:
We're now close enough to home that the scenery isn't interesting any more. We've overloaded on Scottishness. This is always the toughest part of a road trip. We need to get Mowgli home by 6pm for a dentist appointment, so we are now on a tighter schedule.
We contemplate heading to Appin and Stalker castle to visit my grandmother, but decide that it would put us behind schedule. It's a good job, cos it turns out she was in glasgow at the time. It's also a good job, cos once we are through Glencoe again, we get stuck behind a stream of cars traveling at about 40 mph. This always seems to happen on my way back from road trips. It's when everyone has spent lots of time together and the conversation is waning. You;re left driving along at a boring speed, with no one talking.
By the time we are approaching Glasgow, we have learned that Mowgli's brother's leg is more serious than fist suspected and he's getting emergency surgery. We call in at the Southern general to drop off Mowgli and then we head back down to Ayrshire, or I try to.
My brain seems to be awake enough to drive, but too tired to navigate, it takes me about 45 minutes of wrong exits at roundabouts and wrong exits on motorways to finally take the road to Kilmarnock, but soon we are heading off down the road with Dookie keeping me awake:
About 10 miles from home, it starts to snow heavily. The Cadet is learning to drive and asks how much of problem snow is. I tell her its more a problem of dazzling you and making you think you are in the millenium falcon if you have your face to close to it:
For the next 2 miles or so, we drive along with our noses on the windscreen singing the Darth Vader theme:
Dum Dum Dumde Dum Dumde Dum. Dee dum dum dumde dum dumde dum. DUM DUm DE DUM De DUMDE DUm DUME Dee dum de dumdeded dum de dumde dee deumde dee
Its good fun, and I think shows that we have fallen off the edge of sanity.
We make it home and vegetate in front of the telly until Mowgli is finished with the Dentist. We then head for an early night after our adventures........
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