Day 11 of Scotland Tour

Greetings from Inverness on Day 11 of the Scotland tour. In our last
episode, Michelle and David were on the Outer Hebrides looking
at standing stones and surreal landscape.

Day 7 saw them escape from Stornoway via the ferry to Ullapool
and the western highlands. The weather was extremely windy and
a little wet. From Ullapool, we drove north to Durness where we
stayed for the night. There is a lot of dramatic landscape along the
western and northern coastlines and a lot of it is viewed from single
track roads. It is hard to stay on the road, dodge sheep, and sightsee
at the same time. So, it was slow going.

Day 8 was a drive across the northern coast to Gills Bay, where we
caught the ferry to the Orkney Islands. About halfway across, the
landscape changes from high moor land to beautiful farm land. It
is a sudden and dramatic change. This drive had a slight twist in that
we had to dodge a herd of cows on the road. They blocked the entire
road and were in no hurry, so we had to detour around them. We
landed in St. Margaret's Hope and drove north to Kirkwall.

Day 9 we toured the main island with its standing stones and
historic buildings. These islands are beautiful farmland, lakes,
and dramatic coastline just like the NE part of mainland Scotland.
Kirkwall has a view sites as well.

Day 10 we toured downtown Kirkwall and South Ronaldsay
(the southern most island) before boarding the ferry back to
the mainland. Once on the mainland we drove south to Inverness.
Along the way we visited more standing stones and a castle.

Today we will go to Culloden (battlefield) and Loch Ness
(to see Nessie) before returning to Inverness for a second night.
Michelle has about 700 pictures thus far, so when she gets home,
do not ask to see any pictures of the trip or you may get more
than you bargained for.

I hope this finds all well where you are.

DWR