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.
