Two days of walking down…
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Hey!
We’ve been walking the Great Glen for two days, and I currently haven’t got a clue where I am. We’re very tired (and by ‘we’ I mean George…) and we’re staying at a lovely youth hostel that was at some point in time a crofter’s house. I believe we’re in Laggan, at the bottom of Loch Oick. We camped at Gairlocky last night.
So far we’ve strolled past ruins, old crofter’s houses (ie: small stone houses) and large laird’s houses (ie: the big stone landowner’s houses). There have been innumerable locks in between the lakes, transporting huge sailboats and enormous barges from one lake to another, and eventually out to sea by way of Mallaig.
I love the wild flowers we see everywhere – thistles getting ready to bloom, sky blue forget-me-nots and foxgloves (rumored to be the flowers eaten by the Highlanders before they went to war, as foxgloves contain digitalis – which gets your heart racing – so they use to use it to ‘energize’ themselves before an ‘Highland charge’).
The trees are amazing – enormous oaks, beach and elm trees, along with some Scots Pine and a few Rowan trees. The locals consider this forest to be ‘new’ forest, as pretty much the entire Highland area was clear-cut during the land clearances of the 1700′s and 1800′s to make way for sheep grazing. By our standards, many of the trees are 200 years old, so they are ‘old growth’ compared to the majority of the trees you see around Marathon. The wood here form the kind of forest you can imagine Robin Hood and his ‘merry men’ living in, or a tribe of Ewoks from Star Wars living in; perhaps even the Elves from Lord of the Rings… in short, and entirely different forest from the stunted Jack Pines we’re accustomed to.
Well, we’d better make supper before we fall asleep without eating. As usual, we miss our friends, families, and doggies.
Take care,
Noel & George
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