This weekend I took a break from Edinburgh and headed north into the iconic Scottish Highlands and the Isle of Skye. As beautiful as they are rugged and misty, the mountains and lochs proved well worth the lengthy bus journey. The trip was organized by the International Student's Center at the University of Edinburgh. About 200 students in four large tour buses embarked on the journey at about 8am on Saturday morning, later staggering to avoid flooding the way points with too many excited students at once. Rain was in the forecast but this being Scotland I expected nothing less.
The one thing I did not anticipate was the mud. Very few people did. The trip packing list, which called for "proper walking shoes for walking and hiking" did not reference the mud either. Now you may be thinking "its just a little mud, I'm sure it cant be that bad," and of course Edinburgh receives enough rain to be consistently muddy as well, but it is usually just a thin layer on top of solid ground. In the mountains of the highland things are just a wee bit different. The entire ground feels like a sponge and the vegetation on top doesn't do anything to change that impression. The mud is everywhere, on the path, next to it, under the vegetation just waiting for your foot to rip though.
Since my everyday shoes are a pair of waterproofed trail running shoes I had no problems (the mud was only an inch or two deep in most places but there were definitely places where it was far thicker) but many students shoes were not as well suited or worse, white. My biggest problem with the mud was that it was slippery. Indeed, in one unfortunate incident I ended up on the ground with my entire right side soaked in the stuff and my right elbow (I was holding my camera right handed so I couldn't plant with that hand as I fell onto that side) lodged three inches deep. Thankfully most of it came off before I got to the hostel that night due to the on and off showers but day two had more mud in store. By the end of the trip my black shoes were a solid brown and so were my jeans until about shin height. That begs the question, was the trip worth the mud?
The answer is an unequivocal yes. The landscape was one of the most beautiful I have ever seen. The mist and rain which fed into the mud gave the world a mysterious and haunting feel. The rain also created hundreds of temporary waterfalls and over ten (yes, we lost count,) rainbows. Some of the lochs stood almost completely still, with crystalline reflections of the mountains beyond, while on others, waves lapped in the wind. The rocks we had to walk on at times were slippery but that's the ambiance we all wanted from Scotland and loved. The caws of crows echoed around in the mist and occasionally the sun came out. Much of the vegetation had a red orange or brown hue to it and thick dark green pine forests (possibly cultivated to be cut) provided a wonderful contrast. I've never before in my life been so in awe of a landscape, none the less one I could only half see (visibility was in and out.) I even loved the mud.
Here are a few lessons I learned from this trip:
1, Good footwear is key in the Highlands. (Seriously though, I've never been in a situation where recommendation to have good hiking shoes was unfounded.)
2, Our International Students Center (who organized the trip) is incredible and shouldn't be ignored by any visiting student.
3, Bus tours aren't the worst way to see someplace. (Just as I feared, I wished to have more time at each destination but I'm happy to have been able to see it anyway.)
4, That Gaelic is pronounced differently depending on weather or not you are referring to the Scottish or Irish version.
5. Always mind the tide when you're walking along a narrow beach.