The Heather on the Hill

Trip Start May 19, 2008
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Trip End Jun 02, 2008


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Flag of United Kingdom  , Scotland,
Saturday, May 24, 2008

We're at a rest stop with free internet (YEAH!!!) looking for a place to stay for the night.  It may be in Newtonmore, Aviemore, or Inverness.  We are now definitely in the Highlands.  We took a steep and narrow road (wait, that's all the roads), where we found ourselves in the moor equivalent of an Alpine meadow.  It was pretty amazing to know how high we were, yet be in a flat moor.

We pulled over and I got out to walk around.  What appears flat ground is actually very rough and uneven.  Right now, the heather is very brown, but will bloom to purple and white probably in a few weeks.  I can only imagine how brilliant it will be, as the ground is a virtual carpet of heather.  It is also rather difficult to walk over.  They seem like plants very flat on the ground-- maybe because it looks so flat from the road, but in actuality, most of them are up to mid-calf on me, and when the ground takes a sudden dip, some of them reached almost to my hip.  Also, the ground has a disconcerting habit of going in just a step from perfectly dry to very boggy, sucking at your feet unexpectedly.
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