Missed a day again with the blog. We had a long travel day yesterday. We drove from Kilchoan on the Ardnamurchan Peninsula to Balquidder in The Trossachs. And it was another new kind of single track road experience, this time much narrower than the other roads we have seen so far. Far fewer passing places on this road as well but thankfully it was only six miles long. The start of yesterday's trip meant doing the return trip on that windy and twisty 26 mile road from the castle so we are happy to have all of that behind us now.
We passed some stunning scenery along the Glen Coe. We stopped at a nature preserve and got out for a nice walk and tour through their visitor centre and museum. All along the Glen Coe are these incredible mountain ranges and vistas that change from looking like our Rockies to the buttes of Arizona. It is very noted for being a popular mountain climbing location and there is lots of information on the famous climbers who have been to the region in the museum. As Sir IF noted, there were all kinds of blues to be seen. Blues from the lochs and the oceans, blues from the sky and a hazy grey green blue hue to the mountain tops. The vegetation changes along that whole route were quite remarkable as the Glen Coe had lots more greenery and trees in the valleys than the Ardnamurchan Peninsula and even more so as we got closer to The Trossachs. At one point on our drive we must have passed about six para-sailers gliding through the mountain tops.
We arrived at our spot for the night which was a working farm on a remote road that doubles as a small hotel. They have a particular reputation for serving quite the gastronomic feasts using almost everything from their own farm. Everyone here definitely had a much more casual approach to hospitality. We tucked into the tiny little bar where a family appeared to be having a hearty family reunion of sorts. Everyone is quite loud and jovial in the small towns of Scotland it seems. It was fun to be in that kind of an environment - very relaxing indeed. The servers seemed to be a collection of young people from all over - ours for the evening was a delightful young woman from Australia working her way to get to Europe and Asia before she heads home. The chef went out of his way to speak to Meg about her allergies and they did an excellent job with the meals. Meg had hake (which is a kind of fish similar to cod), Sir IF had the beef. They seem to be quite big on serving onions as one of your main vegetable in Scotland and they do them up so yummy. For starters Sir If had Katie's Crowdie (no that's not a typo) (it is a local cheese and onion appetizer) and Meg had Tamworth pork. Melt in your mouth delicious. They also delighted us with an amuse bouche, and appetizers in the lounge with our drinks. Dessert was mostly gobbled up by Sir If, a candied walnut tart with butterscotch and coffee ice cream.
Almost everyone brought a dog with them to the farm it seems and there was lots of room on the grounds for people to give their dogs a good run and play.
Even though we were seated by ourselves for dinner there was another couple at the table beside us who were delightful company. He lives in Edinburgh and she lived in Manchester and they have had a commuting relationship but are now looking at moving in to the same city. They met at a music festival on one of the Scottish Islands so we were enlightening them about some East Coast Canadian musicians. He was already familiar with the Rankin Family and when Meg asked if he knew about Great Big Sea he said he had one of their albums. We shared a little of our ukulele experiences and Jake Shimabukuru and the Ukulele Orchestra of Great Britain as a recommendation so they said they'd have a number of things to check out when they get home.
No comments:
Post a Comment