The Cairngorms restored our faith: Day 4

Day 4: Loch Ness & The Cairngorms

We planned to leave early, we really did, but that whisky tasting really didn't lend itself to an early departure. So we slept late and took our sweet time. It was our last full day anyway, and the roads had been pretty uninspiring by the end of the previous day, so why rush?

I plotted a weird route that would allow us to skip over Inverness (we had been enjoying the rural too much to want to be in a town) by following the whole curve of Loch Ness (because I was committed to maximizing my chances of seeing Nessie). We stopped and had some lunch in town, but mostly we kind of moped. Between our hangovers and the less-fun driving roads, our Scotland high was dying out. The roads were beautiful, but not the dramatic vistas we'd been spoiled on the last three days. We talk about the Sunday blues in my family - the general sadness that the weekend is over and real life has to start again with work on Monday. We were feeling the vacation version.

So beautiful, but the road was dull.

Then, when we thought all was lost, we saw it: another Connected Road. Obviously we took it. We're driving, excitement is growing, we're taking sharp turns and heading onto a road... that's not really paved. But we continue! Because Connected Road! And we're having fun!

I was, at least

And then we see the sign. The one that says we're on private property and have to turn back on this miles-long road we've been driving along or they're going to shoot us. Or something.

"You kids get off my lawn!"

Really it makes sense. This road was way too cool and windy to be just anyone's road. It was, in fact, the road to someone's hunting lodge. So we took stock, decided the road had been cool to drive down, and then turned ourselves around and started winding our way back out.

The day turned out to be lovely. We took fewer and fewer photos, but Cairngorms National Park taught us that we shouldn't give up too soon. There were still fun, curvy roads to be driven. There were still funny names of towns. Scotland hadn't given up all of her secrets.

Prototypical View

Tell me that's not straight out of a fairy tale

Our last night was on the house thanks to some Hilton points, and the hotel was gorgeous. It was halfway between Edinburgh and Glasgow, and I assume started off as someone's country estate. I wandered around the grounds a little bit after we arrived and found a little secret garden path.

Wouldn't have even been surprised to see fairies.

Look who I found!

Intellectually, I know there are hedgehogs in Britain. But finding a pair of them snuffling around in the leaves took me by COMPLETE surprise. I had hedgies as pets when I was a kid, so I immediately started missing those little critters and generally felt warm fuzzies at having found their brethren out in the wild. Anj and I took the easy route that night. We weren't racing across the country to arrive on time, food was available whenever we wanted it. It was less frantic, but also didn't feel like the Scotland we'd been loving our whole trip. But those little hedgehogs, man, they sure made me happy.