Highland Hijinks

It's tough to say, but I believe Scotland may take the crown for most-scenic-workaway-as-of-yet! Congratulations, Scotland! As Mary previously informed, we went on with THE BEST HIKE EVER last Sunday. Those lucky readers who check our Flickr page will have had a sneak peak. For the rest of you: photos. For those of you who are unsure of how hiking works, I've prepared a video providing an overview:

This was the way up, maybe about a mile into our 8-mile hike.

This is the view from the top! There's a little loch where we had lunch; if you look reeeeaaally closely, you can Mary atop the little mound in front of the water.

This was the way back down. You can see the first hint of the forest beyond which our journey ended, to the left of my head.

We didn't go straight home, o'course! Mhairi took us to see another Iron Age Scottish house. This one remained in pretty good shape! As Mary noted in the Flickr album, a triangle out front (not visible in this pic) means a lady owned the place.

Mhairi is fond of taking us out to get pictures of the Scottish sunsets. This pic was snapped on our way to gather stones. By the way, Mary has been hard at work making stone paths in Mhairi's garden- they look great!

This is the nice war memorial of a village whose name escapes me. Mhairi told us the village was particularly affluent, and a nice memorial could be afforded them.

On one of our sunset photography trips we went atop a hill to try and get good pictures of Eilean Donan Castle, which may be visible to Mary's right. These pictures are definitely worth checking out.

Here's the castle itself, from down by the visitor parking lot. This is the very castle used as the home of the MacLeods in the 1986 cult science fiction hit, Highlander. The castle was turned to ruin by Royal Navy cannons in the 18th century, to be later almost completely restored by Lt. Col. John Macrae-Gilstrap.

The Scottish skies never cease to impress me (or the camera). This is a view of the morning sun breaking through the rain clouds outside of Eilean Donan Castle.

The Earl of Moray said it best, "the sight of justice so displayed was sweeter to him than any garland of roses."

There you have it- hiking, moving stones, and eating is all we've been doing for the past week, and believe me it's enough to keep us happy and busy! Tomorrow has even more in store as we hop aboard a scenic train ride and attend a Scottish Halloween party.

Everyone wish Mhairi, our workaway host, a happy birthday!

-Jake