On Our Way

Our flight to Vancouver was uneventful, just a wee bit of turbulence.  While still in Nanaimo we learned that our flight to Sydney was overbooked and they were looking for volunteers willing to give up their seats. We considered it but took too long to come to a decision so we lost our chance.

We are sitting in the Air Canada lounge,  just finished a snack and we're having a couple of drinks. We have about 45 minutes before we have to go to the gate. I really hope that we are both able to sleep on the flight so we arrive fresh and ready to go full speed!

Two weeks, two people, two carry ons, two backpacks, and one purse.  South Pacific, here we come!

A New Beginning

Well, it's time to revive the Blog!  One week from today, Brad and I will head out on the trip of a lifetime - a week in Sydney Australia and a week in Nadi Fiji.  Australia has always been a dream of mine.  I was determined to go there after high school, but I had no one to travel with, and I was too shy and scared to go on my own.  I am so excited to have the chance to go now!  Originally this trip was to be just a week in Fiji, but when we discovered that we couldn't get there without flying through Sydney, we extended the trip to 2 weeks.  The plan is to be tourists from dawn to dusk in Sydney, to see, do and experience everything, then relax and do nothing in Fiji.

I said at the beginning that this is the trip of a lifetime, and it is, but it is only one of many trips of a lifetime we plan on making (we've had two already to Scotland).  We are determined to travel and experience the world while we are still young and healthy enough to be active and enjoy what life has to offer.

I encourage you to travel, take music lessons, change jobs, start a business, get out in the great outdoors, take up knitting, learn a new language, join a choir, take a cooking class, do whatever it is that you love and that makes you happy - don't wait!  If you have the chance, do it!  And if you don't have the chance now, make the chance happen soon!  I challenge all of you to challenge yourselves to do something new in 2017, something that you have always wanted to do, but didn't think you could, didn't think you had time for, didn't think you'd be good at, didn't think you could afford.  Find a way! You can do it!

Two posts in one day!

Before we left Vatisker we went across the road to visit the couple who own the old MacIver croft that Brad's great grandfather worked.  A very nice older couple named Norman and Ann.  It turns out Ann is Nan's cousin, the lady we met in Stornoway the other day.  Ann's grandfather bought the croft from the MacIvers, but she didn't know anything about them, so was glad to learn about them.  They were very sweet.

A few people we've met have been surprised that the decendants of 2 Lewis people met in Canada and got married.  What are the chances! they say.

We drove to the ferry lineup then hung around town for a while. It was sad leaving Lewis, but we'll go back someday.  We saw dolphins right outside Stornoway harbour.  Read for the 2 3/4 hour ferry ride, it was just a little rolly this time.  A beautiful rainbow met us in Ullapool.  In driving down the road we caught up to the rain, but it didn't last too long.  We stopped at Castle Leod, the home of the Earl of Cromartie, Chief of Clan MacKenzie.  Unfortunately it was their last Open Day of the year and we were too late for it - we got there around 6:30.  Got to walk around the grounds and take some pictures though.  We found our B&B in Strathpeffer, Holly Lodge.  It was built in 1901, a big Victorian house.  Strathpeffer was a Victorian spa town, so lots of villas and hotels. It's built on a hill, so it's different as we've mostly been staying in flat seaside towns.

After a late dinner we went to the town square, where the pipe band and dancers perform every Saturday night through the summer.  Back to our giant room at the B&B for some relaxation.

2 Upper Barvas, the Matheson croft (the half across the road from the house):

A blackhouse:

A peat fire:

Driving into the mouth of the ferry:

Ullapool:

The castle of my people:

Our room at Holly Lodge:

Callenish Standing Stones yesterday.  It bothers me that this is out of chronological order, but I'm too frustrated to fix it:

Friday we went to the Council Hall and a lovely lady spent time searching for Brad's family on ScotlandsPeople, which saved us a lot of time and money.  She told us to get out and enjoy the sunshine, so we drove up to Upper Barvas, and found the croft that my gg-grandfather John Matheson was born on, that his father and grandfather worked before him.  The current leasee, Murray, was wonderful, he spent an hour touring us around the property, explaining the croft system, and telling us what he is doing with the land.  He gave us a bottle of homemade beer, some peat and 3 warm eggs from the henhouse for our breakfast.  He also weaves Harris tweed, and gave us a demonstration and some scrap ends of cloth.

We drove on and stopped at the Blackhouse at Arnol, then the Blackhouse Village in Guiranin (I know that's probably spelled wrong!).  Learned a lot about the way of life of the crofters.  It was a very hard life.

We stopped at the Callenish Standing Stones next, very mysterious and not a lot known about them, as they don't seem to be marking anything astrological.

We drove back to Stornaway to pick up the information from the Council office, then dinner at the Arts Club restaurant.

We catch the ferry from Stornoway to Ullapool at 2:30 this afternoon (Saturday, nearly a 3 hour crossing), then stay at Holly Lodge B&B in Strathpeffer tonight.  I'll post pictures then.

Today we drove down to Harris in search of Brad's roots, and he found a lot of information.  The southern end of Harris has some beautiful sandy beaches, and the temperature got up to 17 degrees with a warm breeze.  The sun rarely comes out and there are nearly always clouds around the summits of the hills, but still, it was warm with no rain!

Mist and blue sky:

A beach in the distance:

Selfie on the beach:

It's all sand under the grass:

Tyler, I finally had my Irn Bru:

Well, the ferry was running 20 minutes late so we pulled out of Uig at 6:20 pm Monday.  I have to say, he man at the ticket window gave us a hard time (joking) about how we pronounce MacIver (here McIvor is pronounced that way, but MacIver is pronounced MacEEver). And every time a Canadian came to pick up their tickets, he would point to us and say 'More Canadians!' It was gray but not raining and the sea (The Little Minch) was a bit rolly.  It wasn't very crowded, so we had our choice of comfy reclining seats.  Sighted dolphins off the port side!  We had a late dinner of ferry food, and arrived in Tarbert at 8:00.  We drove north from Harris to Lewis, and after getting a bit lost driving through Stornoway in the dark, we arrived at Ravenstone B&B in Back at about 9:15.  I was pleasantly surprised that the entire drive was on a two lane road, not a single track in sight!  And I should explain that Harris and Lewis is one island, but they are called the Isle of Harris and the Isle of Lewis separately.  I don't know why.  Because we couldn't stay at this B&B Tuesday night, the owners found us another one that had a vacancy in Balallan.

This morning we had breakfast in the farmhouse kitchen with the other guests, a young couple from Ottawa with their baby, and the mans' parents from Toronto.  We had a pleasant visit with them, then headed in to Stornoway.  We found the house Brad's grandfather MacIver was born in.  A workman was replacing the upstairs window, so Brad asked him if he owned the house.  He said no, but he got the owner, and she invited us in.  George and Nan Smith bought the house in the 1950's and have lived in it ever since.  They think it was built around 1850. She gave us tea and homemade shortbread and we visited for quite a while.  They both speak Gaelic so I got to practise a bit! We were just going to leave when a friend from Harris popped in for a visit.  It turns out that Chris and her husband run the genealogy centre that a few people have told us we should visit! So we stayed and visited a bit more, and will see her at the centre tomorrow!

We then moved on to the library.  Brad found a bit of information about his family, and I found the history of the crofts in Barvas which included my family.  We went for dinner at the Royal Hotel.  Stornoway is bigger than Rothesay or Portree, so we have been pleasantly surprised.  Trees are more rare on Harris and Lewis than on Skye.  The land is rolling hills, but very rock strewn, not smooth like Skye.  There is lots of heather, and the sheep have free run.  On Skye you had to watch for sheep on the back roads, but here they are right on the highway.  We drove down to Balallan to stay at Tigh na Braich B&B. We have a large bedroom and a private sitting room.

Driving south from Stornoway to Balallan:

Lewis has hundreds of tiny lakes:

Tomorrow we drive to the south end of Harris, to the genealogy centre in Northon.

On Saturday we got up, caught the ferry to Colintraive and drove to Dunoon.  It was a bit overcast in the morning.  We wandered around the town in the morning,  as the Worlds finals didn't start until noon.  The sun came out in the afternoon,  and the dancing was amazing!  Out of the 60 dancers in the final, 24 were from Scotland, 22 from Canada and the other 14 from the US, Australia, New Zealand and even one from South Africa.  The juvenile champion is from the US, the junior from Scotland (the crowd went wild!), and the adult is Marielle Lesperance from Ontario.  We drove back to Bute and ate dinner in Port Bannatyne.

On Sunday we took the same ferry and drove north up the Cowal Peninsula.  We drove some familiar roads as we travelled, north from Inverary, past the wall of the Cruachan Reservoir, and up past Fort William.  We actually got to see Inverary twice, as after stopping there, we took the wrong road out.  It was my turn to drive, and it took us 1/2 hour to realize our mistake, so after driving a full hour, we were right back in Inverary again!  We stopped at Eillean Donan Castle, just before the bridge to Skye, which was the seat of Clan MacKenzie.  The tour guide was pleased to learn that I'm a McKenzie and showed me everything to do with the MacKenzies in the castle.  He told me he would raise a glass to me when he got home that night.  The castle is no longer the MacKenzies, it now belongs to the MacRaes.  We continued on into Broadford to the hostel.  It was a hot sunny day up to 20 degrees until about 6:00, when the weather worsened.  By evening it was blowing a sideways mist. Discovered that I had accidentally booked us in to separate dorm rooms, but was able to change to a private room for Monday night.  I've been spoiled with the B&B, it's hard to go back to hostelling!

Monday we drove up the west coast of Skye to Dunvegan castle, the castle of the MacLeods.  It was lived in at least up until the 1970's, and is undergoing renovation in one of the towers, so you can see the earlier renos that have been done.  Wandered through the beautiful gardens, I love the kitchen gardens and the greenhouses.  We took as many single track coast roads so we could to see the scenery.  I drove my first single track today!

Today we drove up the east coast and stopped in Portree for tea/coffee.  Picked up stuffed rolls and sweeties at the MacKenzie Bakery.  We continued up the coast and around the north end. What a desolate, windswept place, but beautiful with the purple heather spread over the hills.  We stopped at the Museum of Highland Life for a while (the cheapest Harris Tweed purses I've seen yet, but I'm holding out hope for cheaper on Lewis).  We also saw Flora MacDonald's grave.  Continued on to Uig and now have a few hours to kill before the ferry leaves.  So glad I am able to bring you all up to date!

The main stage at Cowal:

The MacKenzie crest above the door at Eilean Donan Castle:

The castle at low tide:

A single track road on Skye:

The Round Garden at Dunvegan Castle:



My drink of the day:

Mountain on Skye:

The pier at Portree: