Isle of Skye

September 29 – October 1, 2013

Distance: 9.8 miles

We woke up early, packed up the car, hit the road and headed for the trailhead. We figured we would get there pretty quickly, but we got a little distracted by some cows. The cows were so different looking and cute, I had to get some photos. Chan thought they looked like Muppet cows.

Somebody needs a haircut

She looks like a Muppet

Soon we were on the trail. The scenery was immediately stunning as we hiked along the coast. We had no idea what to expect but were hoping for an easy 6 mile walk along a cliff edge. We were headed out to a bothy, which is an old sheep herder’s cabin that was restored by locals to be used by campers for free. Sounded perfect to us.

Not a bad view

Chandler’s wannabe Backpacker Magazine cover photo

The hike wasn’t too difficult, a little more climbing than expected. The trouble started when we hit 7 miles and still no bothy in sight. We had the GPS coordinates and decided to just hoof it over land instead of remaining on the trail which meandered along the top of the cliffs. We ended up walking through the moors and our shoes were soaking in no time. After an extra 3 miles, we finally reached the bothy.

The bothy

We immediately removed our wet shoes and relaxed outside in the setting sun. We opted to have dinner outside and I began cutting cheese and tomatoes for a Mexican feast when I noticed several small ticks all over my legs. Ticks were EVERYWHERE! We had to retreat inside the dark cabin for our dinner and a little après hike refreshment.

45 years of whisky

The next day, we hiked down to a nearby beach to collect some firewood.

Off to collect wood

The beach ended up being covered in washed up litter. We were able to collect a bagful of wood, enough for our purposes and the next person who visits the bothy. Not wanting to head back yet, we ended up playing with the jetsam. There were so many buoys and plastic bottles full of liquid that we developed a game of throwing these items against the rocks, trying to make them bounce and explode. It was pretty fun until a rigid plastic buoy exploded and sent shrapnel in my direction, then the game was over.

Chandler winding up

Distance: 4.9 miles

The next day, it was time to hike out. Not wanting to do the same route twice, we opted hike overland. This route took us up and over one big hill and down the other side. We had no trail, so our feet were instantly soaked again, but we had about 5 miles less to travel.

Help from a barbed wire fence

Happy to finally reach the car, we took off our wet shoes and socks and headed to Inverness. We drove along Loch Ness for a while, but as hard we we looked, we did not see the monster. Instead we saw the ruins of a castle and learned some facts about John Cobb.

Urquhart Castle on Loch Ness

True story

We found a nice little campsite right on the river Ness, grabbed some fish and chips plus a few Guinness (Chan’s way of sticking it to the UK). We fell asleep to the sound of rather heavy rain on the tent.

UK roadtrip begins

Nov17

September 25 – 28, 2013

After our week with the family, Chandler and I borrowed Alyssa’s car, and headed out on a road trip. Our plan was to head straight up to the Isle of Skye in Scotland and do some hiking. Things didn’t go quite as planned. Long story short, we ended up spending a while trying to find butane for Alyssa’s stove, before realizing that we had another stove that ran on gasoline like ours that we left in France.

We had some fun though along the way. We went on a nice walk along the Hadrian’s Wall path. We were hoping to see actual ruins of the wall, but had no such luck. The path took us through some fields, but we turned around after realizing we were just on a cross-country walking path that only approximately followed the wall’s alignment.

But where is the wall?

Learning to drive on the wrong side of the car and on the wrong side of the road was a fun experience for Chandler. He did all the driving, but insisted I give it a go also. Thank goodness the pedals were in the correct position, because it took a lot of concentration to shift with my left hand while staying on the left side of the road. Chandler did a great job on the narrow roads and we are still alive to tell the tale.

Something seems strange about this car

The transition from England to Scotland was anti-climatic. There was a sign, but the land didn’t change and there was no other indication. It wasn’t until we hit the Highlands that the Scotland I imagined finally emerged.

Beautiful Scotland

We also made a quick stop at the Eilean Donan Castle. The castle was built in 1214 by the MacKenzies but destroyed by the Jacobite Rebellions. In the early 20^th century the MacRae family rebuilt the castle by the original plan. The castle was closed when we arrived, so we weren’t able to go inside.

Eilean Donan Castle

We found a great campsite with views of the peaks to the west, which were surprisingly a lot larger than we expected. We got to bed early that night because we had a big hike the next day, but not before creatively drying out the rainfly.

A bit windy out

A week of museums

Nov16

September 20 – 25, 2013

Our one night of babysitting turned into almost a week when my sister’s nanny had a death in the family and had to return to France. So, Chandler and I got to play nanny to the kids. It was really wonderful to spend so much time with my niece and nephew because they are incredibly funny, intelligent and sweet children. Our evenings were spent enjoying relaxing meals and conversation with Alyssa and Martin after the kids went to sleep.

Our days all had a similar pattern. Someone would drop Luc off at school then Chandler, Lea and I would take the tube to one of London’s free museums. We would spend a few hours wandering around the museum looking at stuff or chasing Lea before leaving to get back to school to pick up Luc. Generally, Chandler would hang out with Lea while I took Luc to his various after school activities. After tennis lessons or trampoline, we had some time at home to hang out until Alyssa and Martin returned.

Trebuchet outside the Tower of London

Palace guard

Painting at the Tate Museum

Assyrian from about 865 – 860BC

The Rosetta Stone

Part of the Parthenon

Dinosaur skeleton

Luc, squirrel hunter

Lea having a good time

A change of pace

Nov15

September 18 – 19, 2013

All of the sudden, we found ourselves on a train to La Rochelle and then on a plane over the English Channel. This rather abrupt departure from our original travel plans arose because my sister Alyssa needed an overnight babysitter in London. This was an attractive opportunity because we were on the brink of unintentionally being illegal immigrants in Europe!

Here’s how that happened: beware it’s a bunch of bureaucratic mumbo-jumbo so feel free to skim. It turns out there is this thing called the Schengen Zone which is a collection of European countries (which predates the European Union) who dissolved border controls between themselves while unifying the border controls between Schengen and non-Schengen countries. So no border guards between Germany and the Netherlands for example. As US citizens we don’t need a visa in advance of traveling in the Schengen Zone, but the catch is: in any 6 month window we can only be in the Schengen Zone for 3 cumulative months. We looked at the calendar and the map and realized that if we stuck around in France we’d over stay our time by two weeks and technically be illegal immigrants subject to fines, deportation and a ban from future travel in the Schengen Zone. The actual degree of enforcement of the rules is pretty unclear though and really up to the immigration officer who checks our passport when departing. We read about a few people flying out of Switzerland who were hit with over $1,000 in fines and deported for being over by just a couple days. Luckily, the UK is not part of the Schengen Zone, so we could just hide out there for a couple of weeks then come back and not have to worry about anything.

We spent the entire day getting to London, but it was worth it. Especially since Alyssa ordered delicious Indian food when we arrived at her flat.

The next day we laid around the flat doing nothing. I had picked up a little cold en-route, so we didn’t feel like venturing too far. It felt good to be lazy after a month of good, solid work.

Around the farm

Nov8

August 24 – September 18, 2013

Feeding, milking, herding and making cheese were just the basic jobs that needed to be done every day to keep things moving. As with most farms, there was a long list of projects that needed attention. Once we had the basics down, we were able to tackle some of the project work each afternoon.

Once she found out that we enjoy building, she put us to good use. We helped her friend add an addition to on of the barns for the young. We also re-roofed the horse’s shelter and built her a little wood shed.

The barn addition we helped build

We also experienced death. Two goats died while we were there, both from sickness. One of the billies died from worms and diarrhea, so we got to help vaccinate all the remaining billies. This entailed Chandler putting the billies in a modified headlock, while I filled syringes and Alex performed the shots.

Vaccinations

A big highlight for us was learning to drive the tractor. Alex had mentioned it casually after about a week, but we didn’t take her up on the offer for another week. Basically, we just moved rotten hay bales to the compost. Not that exciting, but we thought it was cool. The tractor was pretty easy to learn, the joystick moves one way to raise and lower the bucket and moves another way to open and close it. Balance was important, because the tractor could tip over if too heavily loaded and the bucket too high.

Tractor lesson with Alex

Jenny and the tractor

Our month on the farm was a really wonderful experience. We learned a lot about running and maintaining a goat farm. Now, instead of talking about owning animals, we have a decent idea of what that would actually entail.

Chandler and his herding cat

A Few Days Off

the things that we do

Author Archives: cjengel