Misty Mountains, Midges and Magic Trains

Friday, June 15, 2017

AJ slept so soundly in the big soft bed at Glenmore Country House B&B that when she woke, it took a while to remember how she got there. When she mentally clawed back to her presence of mind, she smiled. 

Breakfast was served in the sitting room, with fruit, homemade bread, and American bacon, then the family took off on another action-packed nerve-racking drive, stopping first at Stalker Castle overlook. 

Castle Stalker

While B tried to get good shots of castle through a dreary grey drizzle of rain, AJ combed the gift shop where she bought a cheap, “I love Scotland” umbrella to keep B’s camera dry. Castle Stalker is a restored castle  in the middle of a tidal islet (only accessible when tides are low). The existing structure, built in the 1400s, changed hands many times, some of those hands being of the Campbell and Stewart families, until it was bought and restored by the present owners. 

The impression (again, quite inaccurate for so short a trip) AJ took from the Scots were that they were a people suspicious of strangers, cautious and not overly or falsely friendly. They were a lot like AJ herself. At times, honest sobriety must forgo superficial joviality, it prohibits false shows and fabricated facades. This can be a good thing sometimes.

A thirty minute drive brought the family to Glencoe, an area with huge green towering mountains veiled in mist, flanking a picturesque valley dotted with white stone cottages tucked away here and there in the bends of running streams. Heavy mist fell over the area, putting a damper on the best photo shots for B. 

The Glencoe mountains were perforated with deep cavernous rills and water falls ribboning down into the valley. B parked along the narrow pull offs and got out for pictures, with TwoSon holding the recently acquired Umbrella. After a few stops (and one harrowing, ill-advised u-turn), they drove to the Glennfinnan Station Museum Dining Car, a train car diner, but it was full and they couldn’t wait for a seat: they had a train to catch. (Picture) 

Parking in a small, crowded gravel lot, they walked a nice paved path, then a steep, rocky, sheepy path to find a spot for Tripod to catch pictures of a train crossing the Glennfinnan Viaduct. This is the high, picturesque viaduct seen in Harry Potter movie.

As the family climbed the hill, they passed a man who either had ants in his pants, or restless legs or … something. He was walking back and forth, never standing still for very long. AJ wondered why, until B stopped at the perfect spot for a picture. Within seconds of standing still, the most annoying, painful insects attacked: midges. The famous Scottish midges can only be described as abundant as gnats and painful as mosquitoes, only more aggressive. They swarmed her face, they crawled up her pants legs, and down sleeves and collars. She knew why the man was moving.  

Glennfinnan Station Museum Dining Car
and the rental car.

“We have bug spray in the car,” AJ said, swatting and waving at the tiny black pests. 

“The train will be here in 20 minutes, you won’t have time,” B said. 

“If I hurry, I’ll make it back. Anyway, it’s better than staying here and getting eaten alive,”  she said before hurrying down the side of the mountain, past unsuspecting tourists. 

AJ jogged a little, speed-walked a little, past ambling visitors with umbrellas. She grabbed the insect repellent from the car and hurried back the path, excuse me-ing and pardon me-ing around people. When she was halfway up the hill to where B and TwoSon were, the train came chugging along the viaduct. It was the moment every midge-bitten person clinging to the hillside was waiting for. AJ stopped and watched while spritzing herself with the bugspray. 

“You didn’t make it,” B said as she met them coming down. 

“Yeah, I did. I saw it, and that’s what counts. I just didn’t get the bug spray to you in time.” After spritzing the anti-midge spray all over them, they made there way down the mountain, back to the car, only slightly harassed by midges now. When they returned to the dining car, there were plenty of seats for them to eat warm soup and tasty sandwiches. 

Then it was back to Glencoe again for foggy, misty pictures of the Three Sisters (three large mountains in a row). AJ sat in the car for an after-lunch rest while B and TwoSon and Tripod and Umbrella disappeared down a trail. 

The road through Glencoe was curvy and very busy, with speeding cars and big trucks (lorries) and vans and busses and RV’s. The roads weren’t like the roads in the US National Parks where cars crawled past every 10 minutes or so. This made getting on and off the road very tricky. 

The mountains flanking the road were, in some ways, like so many AJ had seen and grown up around, but in all the important ways, they were different. They were bigger. Wind blew white mist around and over the tops, patches of exposed rocks showed through the green in places and white streaks of jagged white water falls accented the behomoths. 

Their last stop before traveling to their next B&B was to an out-of-the-way water falls at the end of a short, marshy, mucky walk from a small parking area. As they walked TwoSon tried to use the umbrella as a shield from the rain, but in an ill-fated turn of events, he held it the wrong way and the wind blew it inside out, crippling the handy thing for the rest of the trip.  

Letterfinlay Hotel was situated along Loch Lochy and was probably once a hunting lodge of some kind. They checked in, then proceeded to heave their luggage up the stairs, but B stopped at the top of the last landing, bent down, his eyes close to the ground. 

“Why’d we stop?” AJ asked, last in the line and impatient to get to the room. No answer. “B, are you okay? … B?” 

“Yeah, but there’s something … alive under this door here.” 

AJ pushed past TwoSon to look at the tiniest, yet very significant roadblock. “Oh, okay. Ummm, I’ll go get someone.” 

“There is a small … creature at the top of the stairs,” AJ told the desk attendant when he came to the summoning bell. After a more detailed explanation, the man sent a young woman up to take care of the poor, misguided critter and without much more to-do, the family settled in the  room. (P.S. It wasn’t a mouse, or common rodent, but a tiny black baby bat.) 

The room was adequate, but the bathroom could have used a rigorous scrubbing down with bleach. All the floors were covered with tartan wall-to-wall rugs.

After a small argument about misinterpreted packing advise (AJ and TwoSon had run out of shirts because of the unexpectedly tiny washing machine capacity in the London Flat), the family visited the dining room  for bedtime snacks and tea before turning in for the night. 

Thanks for reading!