Vom 11. - 13. November haben sich 8 Studenten zusammengetan, um die Schottischen Highlands zu erkunden.
Nachdem ein Trip der International Society gecancelt wurde, haben wir uns entschieden, unser Schicksal selbst in die Hand zu nehmen.
Wir reservierten 2 Kleinwagen bei einer Autovermietung in Glasgow für Freitag, 9 Uhr. Um 11 Uhr hatten wir nach längerem Hin und Her endlich die Autoschlüssel in unseren Händen. Doch wir fuhren nun einen Opel Astra 1.6 und einen Mazda 6 1.8
Was geschah: Es dauerte erstmal ewig, bis die netten Damen unsere Daten aufgenommen hatten. Obwohl die Autos reserviert waren, war nur noch ein Nissan Micra in dieser Fahrzeugkategorie zu haben, na gut. Nach etwas Diskussion und gemecker bekamen wir ein unschlagbares Angebot: Den Astra als kostenloses upgrade und den Mazda für 15 Pfund mehr - für das ganze Wochenende.
Den Mazda fuhr Carl, einer unserer Norweger. Den Astra fuhren Rolf und ich.
Ein kleiner Überblick: Wir fuhren also in Glasgow los. Die erste Nacht verbrachten wir in Fort William, die zweite in Inverness. Der dritte Tag war für die Heimfahrt reserviert, an diesem Tag fuhren wir ca. 1000 km.
Damit ihr wisst, wer so am Start war, möchte ich das Wort an Rolf abgeben, der euch unsere kleine Highland-Runde vorstellen und weiter erzählen wird (um ein Hauch Originalität zu belassen in Englisch !):
From left to right:
- Me (Rolf)
- Timo, he was driving the "Astra" together with me. Don't mind about his posture, he always looks like this ;)
- Karl, the norwegian guy who was driving the other car. He has my respect for driving that car 24/7 without having a spare driver!
- Anita, one of our two norwegian girls.
- Johannes, "Hallo Johanneees"
- Emily. I'm wondering if every american girl can sleep that much in a car...
- Hilde, the second norwegian girl.
- Chad "I-will-finish-the-punsch" Mangan from USA
After leaving Glasgow behind us on a rainy and windy friday morning, our first stop was in Arrochar. A little town at Loch Long (right next to Loch Lomond) with a nice beach and a fish and chips shop.
Our next stop was in Invereray, where we more or less accidentally found a little (private) castle.
Back on the road and a short time later we reached Oban. This town (which has NO castle, but a nice roman tower) is located directly on the coast of the North Sea. Since the wind was VERY strong on that day, the waves have been accordingly high. Hence Chad was accordingly wet afterwards...
Before sunset we finally reached Fort William, where we found a nice hostel called Backpackers. We shared a nice 8-bed room there. I would have slept like a baby if there would not have been drunken-Chad, who fought with his duvet all the night.
Before we left Fort William on Saturday, we checked out a room in the Backpackers in Inverness. As we know now, this was one of the best decisions on the trip ;)
On of our few stops on that day was Eilian Donan. Its on old (and very beautiful) castle where also one of the Highlander movies was made.
The next adventure was not a place we stopped, but a road (if you can call it a road) we drove. The legend on our roadmap calls it a "Narrow class B road with passing places". This description is actually very accurate. It was like a forest track just wide enough for one car. It was really fun driving there!
When we finally reached Inverness in the evening, we first passed the city and drove to the famous Loch Ness. Johannes, Chad, Emily and Hilde immediatly put on their swimming clothes and went swimming! The water was freezing cold (7°C!!!) but that could not stop them.
Inverness itself is a really beautiful city, not as industrial as Glasgow and not as big as Edinburgh. Probably a nice place to live.
After the four swimmers warmed up in the car, we found the Backpackers. Like in Fort William we got one room for all of us again. The big and best difference was the party in the hostel. It seems we arrived just at the right day, when a member of the staff celebrated his last day in Scotland. Especially when someone brought two bags full of customes the party got a bit out of hand.
I've met a lot of nice people at that evening, greetings to all of them!
On the next morning many of us had slight problems getting out of the bed. But after a while of us have been more or less awake.
Before leaving Inverness, we had a little walk along and over the River Ness. Then we drove to
Fort George, a really impressive fortress build in 1760.
After that we visited the white beach of Nairn. This beach has to be a really nice place to be in the summer!
Our last stop before we headed home was the ruin of Elgin Cathedral. It is really impressive, when you stand in the middle of the ruin and try to imagine how big this cathedral was. Pictures can't tell you how awesome this place is!
Since it was already dark after we left Elgin, we took the fastest way home to Glasgow, without driving along a nice landscape.
My last word is dedicated to the seven people who accompanied me at this trip and to those I met: The trip would not have been the same without you ;)
More pictures about the highland-trip in our
picture gallery-Rolf
