Awa tae tcheuchter lan!
Trip Start
Oct 28, 2003
1
26
102
Trip End
Ongoing
Dornie, United Kingdom
Monday, October 10, 2005
As they knew I was coming home, my parents booked 5 days up north in a Loch side lodge, in order to be able to spend some "quality time" with us. There is a wonderful irony that my father chose the exact place that I acquired a picture of, for the voice room at work, to go to. The picture is of the wonderful Eilean Donan castle, which was only a 5 minute walk from our lodge. What a shock I got to realise that this was where we were to spend the next 5 days. Of course this was all after the most wonderful drive from Greenock through the Trossachs and Loch Lomond national park, up past Glencoe/Gleann Comhann, through Fort William/An Gearasdan up towards and past the ancient Road to the Isles/Rathad Iarainn nan Eilean. All of which command fantastic and superb views, especially if you were lucky enough to experience the weather that we had
Eilean Donan Castle
. Thankfully the roads were also quite empty, which made the journey all the more enjoyable. There's nothing like being stuck behind a tractor on a two way road which should be national speed limit but you end up only going 20mph!
After Eilean Donan Castle we turned right and into Dornie. I thought my Dad had taken a wrong turn, however followed him nonetheless. I was wrong, about 2 minutes along this small single track road we found our lodge about 20 metres from the banks of Loch Long. For those Scots reading, that's the Loch Long up beside Skye and not the one you can see from Greenock! I didn't know that there were two either!
The Lodge was amazing, brand spanking new. Fully furnished and with all you mod cons. I was really hoping for a dishwasher as I'm point blank refusing to wash a dish until I return to Japan. It also had a fantastic log fire, which Junya was obsessed with, partially due to him feeling the cold and partially due to an unhealthy and previously unkown pyronic obsession. Although to be honset he wasn't a very good fire starter. Once we settled in the wine was opened, and in good Scottish fashion, didn't stop flowing for the next 4 nights. Something my belly and chins will testify to! Christ I've got fat, and Junya ain't to far behind, especially with his new found obsession for Fish and Chips. A hobby I'd love to do as a couple, unfortunately my waistline just won't allow it. Bugger! We ended our first night, sipping wine (Junya Irn-Bru) and getting into deep and meaningful conversations with the beautiful backdrop of Loch Long behind us. Pure Bliss!
