Cheshire Ring - Day One, Bon Voyage!

Several days after we returned from our Scottish West Coast adventure, we packed our bags again and headed south. This time, for an adventure with other friends along the Cheshire Ring canal system on rented narrow boats.  

Most of our two boat crew

Four families occupied two boats: our boat was smaller (the blue boat we're sitting on) and we shared with another couple and their two children (one three-year old and the other just a few months old). The second, larger boat consisted of another two couples, four children and one grandmother. Small or large, neither of the boats were luxurious, and that made it quirky and fun. 

Wee Captain Alex of the blue boat brigade

We brought food for breakfasts and snacks and planned on stopping at canal-side pubs for the majority of our meals over the next four days. And one of the guys brought his traveling barbeque for a BBQ feast on our last night.  

Home away from home for the weekend

While the guys were trained on how to navigate and manage the boats' systems, the gals and kids relaxed and got our luggage squirreled away. Truth be told, there's not a lot of places to squirrel away your stuff… and the guys' training consisted of "Go like this, then do that, and be careful not to do this. Right… See you Monday!" As they pushed us away from the canal edge. 

Leslie takes the prow

Away we went!

We're finally on our adventure!

I took a lot of photos the first day and a half, and then I realized the majority of them looked like variations on the theme of 'boat in a canal' so on the last half of the trip I set down my camera and enjoyed the scenery. 

Tootling down the canal at 4 MPH

But don't worry, I have PLENTY of photos (and borrowed some that our friends took) for several blog posts about our long weekend adventure as boat people! 

Oh captain, my captain!
(Photo Credit: Ihde Family)

To See the Sea

On our day of exploring the west coast of Scotland, we finally made it to the end of the line… that was a bit of a cheat because you cannot see the great expanse of sea one would think. The islands of Mull, Jura, and Islay were all easily visable with the naked eye.  

To the sea

Thankfully, we saw this sign before driving off the edge of the embankment… End of the line, folks!

You know you've hit the end of the road, when...

The geology was exceptional, the wind chilly, and the seagulls a'calling - everything else I had hoped to see at the seaside. 

Rocky, cliffside shore

After a long day of traveling and sightseeing, it was nice to get out into nature and breath in the fresh air. All nine of us scattered across the coastline, with the unsaid expectation that we'd spend some time (but not too long) exploring on our own or in pairs. 

Bill, pondering the isle of Mull (to the right), Jura (straight ahead), and Islay (to the left)

There was no one else within miles, as far as we could tell. The landscape was rocky and fairly unforgiving. If you stepped into the green grass you found yourself quickly sinking into marshy mud, so scrabbling across the rocky outcroppings quickly became to only way to move from here to there. 

Cliffside explorers

More cliffside explorers

The pictures really don't do the seaside justice, but the photos are still quite beautiful. Well, in my opinion, anyway! 

Cliff with either Jura or Islay in the distance

Beautiful! 

We eventually all made our way back to our cars and headed back to a restaurant we had passed and where we had made dinner reservations. Because, let's face it, a party of nine is rarely welcomed at a moments notice at any establishment worth patronizing.  We were a bit early, so we pulled off a few times in order to get a few more photos into the mix.

Cindy, photographing everything!

Here's my version of the photo that Cindy's taking:

Boat for sale - cheap!

And one last photo, at the harbor near the restaurant. 

Boats for sale - not so cheap!

What a great weekend away! Who cares that the hotel was creepy and had non-potable, brown water?! When you're with friends, you can have fun anywhere!! 

(But potable water next time would be nice…)

Really Old Stuff in Scotland

Whilst we were making our way to the western edge of Scotland, we passed one of the ubiquitous brown signs in the UK that means there is something historic to see nearby. The 11 of us were in 3 cars, and the lead car decided to pull off to see whatever the heck was at Dunchraigaig and to stretch our legs. 

Stop at the brown signs!!

There was no one around to tell us about the sights, but there were a few good signs that told us everything we needed to know for our 30 minute stop at Dunchraigaig. (Ten quid to anyone who can figure out how that's pronounced!) 

Dunchraigaig

We crossed the road and made our way to the cairn. This particular cairn dates back about 4,000 years, to the early bronze age. Usually the focus of a cairn is a single individual, but this cairn had three different chambers with a few bodies in each. The third chamber was the deepest and most interesting, dug directly into the earth, lined with cobbles, and topped with a huge capstone. Inside were the burned skeletons of 10 individuals with artifacts such as an axe and a knife. I read that this type of burial is more in-line with a neolithic burial site than a bronze age one, so maybe this cairn was created during a time when burial styles were changing. 

Cairn

Not quite a quarter of a mile away, were the Nether Largie standing stones of Kilmartin Glen. I couldn't find out much about this stone circle, probably because not much is known about them. They date back to the neolithic period, so as my friend Brook said, "When the Egyptians were building their massive pyramids, the celts were building… this." Yeah, not so impressive now, huh? :-) 

Nether Largie standing stones

One thing I did read online was that in the 1970s, one historian declared these stones were part of an ancient lunar observatory, but another historian has already quashed that claim. So, much like the standing stones at Stonehenge, and Avebury, we still don't really know for certain the purpose of such standing stones. They sure are cool to look at, though!  

Taller than you'd think!

We stretched our legs and goofed off a bit while photographing the stones. 

Paul's groovin' with the stones

Brian, always the photo-bomber!

Not so subtle photo bomb

We drove a bit farther towards the western coast, but saw another brown sign and stopped again. This time, it was for Carnasserie Castle… and some lemonade.

Walk to the top!

It was a short, but steep (for me) walk up to the top of the hill to check out the remains of the castle. The castle was built in the mid 1500s, and was blown up (quite literally) by royal forces just a little over a hundred years later, after a failed uprising against the British crown. 

15th century fort

View inside fort (I'm not the only one taking pictures!)

Although the teensy, tiny spiral staircase was a bit treacherous, we all made the climb up to the top to see the views and the rest of the blown-up castle remains. 

Top of fort

And what spectacular views they were!! 

View from fort

Oh, Inveraray!

The first full day on the west coast of Scotland was mostly spent hiking (them, not me), so on the second day we went exploring and sight seeing by car… and foot, but no hiking. 

We first set off to see Inveraray Castle, the legendary and historic home of the Duke and Duchess of Argyle of Clan Campbell.

Inveraray Castle (view from car park)

The 13th and current Duke of Argyle is only two years older than me, and married to a Cadbury, of the famous chocolate making family. The current castle was built in the early 18th century and is pretty darned pretty! Its front was used in the filming of last season's Downton Abbey episode where they all went up to Scotland to see Cousin Ruby's family. Honestly, I would not have noticed, but they had some photos of the DA filming in one of the castle rooms, and only then did I connect the dots. 

Bridge near Inveraray Castle

Turrets

The Armory Hall was just inside the entrance and contains quite the display of arms. Guns? Check! Knives? Check! Swords? Check! Pole axes? Check! And so on, and on, and on. Impressive and a bit intimidating!  

Impressive armory hall

In the photo below, you can see a detail of the rifle wheel, arranged in 1783 by the 5th Duke, but also the wee statue of Robert the Bruce, sitting horseback sculpted by a "Princess Louise." No date or other identifier given, but I think Princess Louise was probably a pretty cool chick. 

A wheel of guns & Robert the Bruce

The necklace below was simply a find that had been at Inveraray Castle for as long as they know. It dates back to the Iron Age and was probably found when building the castle. 

This! This is the kind of stuff that I can sit and think about for hours on end… who wore this fancy necklace? Was it a gift? If so, from whom? Was she rich and nice, or rich and bitchy? How did she loose it? How does something so precious as an expensive necklace get lost in the dirt, only to be found 2,000 years later? I can daydream for hours (if given the chance) about the person who wore this necklace...

Iron age neckless

The chair in the picture below didn't have a lot of details, other than it was a gift from a Malaysian aristocrat sometime during the Victorian era. It is carved out of a single, solid piece of wood and is absolutely stunning. Sadly, the photos don't really do it justice, but trust me - it took someone a very, very long time to carve this chair!

Carved, wooden chair

Detail of carved, wooden chair

The tapestry room had original tapestries from the 18th century, but I was more impressed with the ceiling, chandelier, and furniture that also adorned the room. I took the picture of the harp especially for my sister, Toni, as she's been teaching herself how to play the harp for the last few years. Her harp is a wee bit smaller, though! 

Chandelier and ceiling - always, always look up!

Harp for my sister :-)

The painting in the dining room and all of the chairs are original, dating back to the completion of the formal dining hall in 1770. Apparently, when the castle was first built, it was not customary to have a dining room, but by the mid-18th century, dining rooms were coming into vogue, so the 5th Duke of Argyle had this room especially re-designed for such purpose. You cannot really tell, but the paintings were done so as to make the designs on the walls and ceilings look raised, but are actually flat. 

State dining room

The kitchen that is open to the public was last used in the 1950s. It had seven fireplaces, two stewing stoves, two baking stoves, a boiling stove, a roasting pit, and a hot plate; I'm guessing it was hot in the kitchens back in the day! They also had tons of antique copper pots, utensils, and baking equipment that would have even made Mrs. Padmore jealous. 

Kitchen

After we explored the castle's inside, we took a quick walk around the gardens and saw the picturesque front of the castle that they used for the scenes in Downton Abbey. We didn't spend much time in the castle gardens, though, because of the damned midges. What are midges, my American friends ask: think small mosquitos that swarm you like gnats. Yeah, they're evil little buggars. 

Front view of Inverary Castle

Artsy shot of castle

We then drove just a few minutes over to the quaint little town of Inveraray and had ourselves a nice cuppa. "Cuppa" was slang for a cup of tea, but I hear it used to refer to a sit-down with a friend at a tea room that usually consists of a cup of tea (or coffee) and some sort of sweet treat. In Inveraray, my cuppa consisted of coffee and ice cream :-) 

Town of Inverary

After our cuppa, we walked around the little shops and found a small whiskey shop where the boys (and a few of the gals) did some tasting. There may have been a sneaky purchase or two.  

Whiskey shop

Pour your own whiskey

After that, we headed off to see the sea! More on the rest of our adventures in the next blog post. Stay tuned! 

Hiking Loch Awe

Our first full day on Loch Awe had everyone (save me) geared up for a hike! Pete (far left) had hiked the nearby hills before, so he led everyone off on a sure-to-be-muddy adventure. I stayed at the hotel with my kindle and a cup of coffee, and it was perfectly relaxing. 

Pre-hike cleanliness

From the tales I heard when they returned,  Pete's "easy" hike started with a walk straight up a hill...

Climbing up the dam (Photo Credit: Patty) 

to the dam used by the local waterworks company, where they climbed up even higher...

View from the top

for a gorgeous view. But, with all of the elevation, I was told I would not have enjoyed myself; what is an easy for Pete would have been a rather challenging one for me & my ticker!

It got a bit misty for Reg and Patty!

The rain started to fall on their descent down the hill. Although it was wet, they sure look like they were having a great time! 

Heading back to the hotel (Photo Credit: Regine)

Back to the hotel they came, where I was ready with the camera for some grubby foot photos. They were all very muddy, but the mud doesn't show very well in the pictures below. Trust me, they were dirty! 

Post-hike and shoeless

Post-hike euphoria

When hiking in wet weather in England, you get wise to the wicking effect on your trousers. Experienced walkers know to tuck their trouser legs into their socks - it's not a fashionable thing, by any means, but it keeps your pant legs from getting soaked by the wet grass and sharing that moisture down into your socks and boots. Because hiking with wet socks/feet in cold England is apparently not a fun thing to do.  

Post-hike grubbiness

After everyone got themselves cleaned up, we gathered around the now-infamous hippo table for snacks, drinks, and games, whiling away the time until we took off for a right proper, Michelin recommended, gastro pub for dinner. Yum! 

Drinks at the hippo table (photo credit: Patty)

Cheers! (photo credit: Regine)