Haggis, Highlanders and Hairy Coos

Day 5 of Highlands tour - Oban to Edinburgh - 7th August 2009

The last day. The first stop was at Carnassarie Castle not far out of Oban. It was just a shell, but pretty cool, to climb up and around it. We didn't stay here long as there wasn't much to do.

We had a toilet stop in a little place called Killmartin, which across the road had a little church with graveyard. They had some tombstones displayed which date right back to the 13th century, so that was kind've cool. They were really nicely made with lots of Celtic patterns carved into them

The next stop was at a place called Dunadd Fort. Which was a super old place where the Picts (People there before the Scots) built a big fort to see all around the valley. Not much of it remained, and it was a pretty grueling walk up to see not a great deal. We were met at the top by swarms of flying ants, so we didn't stay here very long either. We also met up with a different tour group, that we'd seen in various other places throughout the week. The highlight of seeing this other group was that they had an older passenger who wore a suit and tie all week. Dan had a bit of a chat to him at the pub on Skye one night, and he was a little odd. We all had a good laugh that he had removed the tie to climb up to the fort, but when we saw him later on the tie had been put back on.

Our lunch stop for the day was at a little town called Inverary. It was again a nice little town, so we grabbed lunch and sat at the harbour and ate. There wasn't really that much to do, so we ended up just sitting before jumping back on the bus.

I can't remember when we did it, but we did also manage to drive past the castle which they used for the filming of Monty Python and the Holy Grail. We weren't allowed to stop there because the guy who owns it has stopped all tour buses using the car park, after one of them ran over his dog. Dan took some quick snaps and was happy.

After lunch we stopped at a little village called Luss, on the side of Loch Lomand, which is the largest in surface area of all of Scotland's Lochs. It was really quite pretty and I took the shoes off and went for a little paddle. We explored the pier and wandered through the little town for a bit. We saw some sort of weird dog that looked like a sheep. It had us confused for a little while,, but we all had a good laugh at is. Justin made our afternoons and told us that the Poms were all out for 102, as we sat and enjoyed the sunshine on the nice grass.

Our final stop of the trip was in Stirling. A rather large city sort of half way between Edinburgh and Glasgow. It is also home to the William Wallace Monument. This amazingly huge structure stands on the top of a hill overlooking the city, and also the Stirling Castle, which we unfortunately didn't get to visit. We didn't bother climbing up the top of the tower, as it was rather costly, and we were a little bit stuffed from climbing up the hill to get to the monument. Apparently the locals cracked the s***s when a statue of Wallace was put on the monument a few years ago, when they discovered the William looked remarkably like Mel Gibson. He was quickly brought down and a new statue created. I wont put any of the stories about Rob Roy, Robert the Bruce or Wallace in, because quite frankly I didn't take full notice of them. Dan did, so he can tell you all about it when we get home if you give a s***!

And with that the bus made its way back to Edinburgh. It was kind of nice that the whole week Colin only played Scottish music - a mix of traditional and modern bands. He saved the best until last. A band called the Red Hot Chili Pipers. They did covers of well known songs on the bagpipes. It was quite awesome to have to whole bus singing along to We Will Rock You. We arrived back in Edinburgh, made plans for the evening and all went our separate ways.

It was quite easy to find our hostel and the guys there were really strange - Some sort of eastern European nationality. They had only just taken the place over and had no idea what they were doing. They didn't even know about our reservation. We dumped our bags and relaxed for a bit, before grabbing a quick bite and heading up to the Royal Mile to catch up with our tour group. We all met at a busy, and small little pub. Edinburgh's vibe had certainly changed in the week we were away, as the Edinburgh festival had begun. Buskers and people everywhere. It was quite nice to walk through and watch and listen to all the people trying to sell their shows. We found the pub and the others and enjoyed a laugh and a few beers together before swapping email addresses and setting off on our separate ways. Dan and I strolled back to the hostel for another well deserved good nights sleep. So in summing up. Best. Week. Ever.