Lets visit Glen Nevis and Ben Nevis

Lets come with us to Glen Nevis and Ben Nevis. Please, don't forget to dress properly according to the weather forecast. (Yes its really -23)

Impressions from Loch Lomond

Impressions from Skye

It was March. Expectable for locals (but not for us :-)), the snow was at the 300m level, when we reached the Island of Skye. We found a cozy hostel which I would like to recommend here: http://www.skye-hostel.co.uk/ with breathtaking views on the mainland (if you wait until the clouds fly open). The landlord owns Eriskay Ponies. These are a special breed of ponies from the Island of Eriskay. Only a limited number of this breed exist worldwide. Believe me, it is a ferry tail feeling waking up and having these horses run in front of your window.



The weather got crazy as soon as we put away our things. The following two pictures show the view from the hostel's with just a few minute difference. When we woke up the following morning.. the snow was surrounding the hostel. We figured out that hiking on Skye will be an adventure :-)

The Cullin mountains on the island of Skye (Hebrid Islands)

We made quite a few hikes during our Scotland expedition. Maybe even more then some of us anticipated :-) I, however, want to spend some time talking about our 1.5 days in
the Cullin mountains.

Looking on the topographic map you may get the same wrong impression as I did.. "There should be no problem in defeating these small hills that are not more than 900 m high." I actually planned a hike for our "LOCH" expedition that would reach one of the tops on the southern part.

However, here is the 101 Geology about Cullins:
Cullin mountains are part of the Inner Hebrides and are a reminder of the time when volcanoes dominated western part of Scotland (The same time when Scotland separated from the North America). Since that time much changed. The repeated appearance and disappearance of glaciers caused the landscape to get the real 'Alpine' look. Also, caused by the much softer sediments underneath the old lava massive landslides unique for the entire Britain may occur. ..
.. You probably already got my point.. Cullins are not going to joke with you.


When we reached Cullin mountains it was about 0 Celsius, the weather forecast estimated -23 against wind at the 900 m elevation, the person at the information center just crossed himself when we asked about some advice for hikes.. However, we (or I ?) did not give up. When I think back, I am glad I was pushy and we could make these walks.

Here are examples of the way we saw landscape those days. The weather changed every 10 minutes.















Second day we only did a hike in 2. Cecilia left and Jens took day off :-) The weather was just great and the 9 hour hike was worth just having this amazing view.

.. But believe me.. its much nicer watching these pictures from the warm of my bed..

SCOTLAND 2008

I returned from Scotland jsut 3 days ago. I spent amazing time with 3 of my friends from Germany, Czech and USA traveling through Scotland - always surprising and unpredictable place on the Earth. We are short of money but we have amazing stories :-) These two pictures show something typical: hairy cows and ever changing weather.. More will come hopefully soon.