May 21, 2015

It was a long and winding road to Ullapool. As I've mentioned before, many of the roads here accommodate two-way traffic with only one lane. Tom wanted to take the scenic route, on the west coast of Scotland through the highlands, after we exited the ferry this morning. He thought all those blind curves and blind summits were fun. On the other hand, I was ready to either throw up or stroke out.

But while I was trying to figure out which was preferable, I was also admiring the landscape. (It's important to multi-task.) We've seen trees here, in dense clusters large and small, huddled together as though seeking shelter in those vast and lonely moors and rock-studded mountains. Many of the trees are pines; I couldn't identify the others. That's not because they're especially exotic trees--it's that I can only name about three tree species (and that's including pine trees).

Since we ate a late lunch today, we had dessert for supper: a fudge brownie for Tom, an ice-cream sundae for me. Did I mention the ice cream here is quite good? However, I fear we're sliding into nutritional anarchy.

So now we're staying at the Arch Inn (see photo), about a quarter mile from the ferry, and those in the room next to us have their TV on too loud. Tomorrow morning, we take another ferry (see other photo) to the Isle of Lewis, a 2 1/2 hour ride.

I'm sure we'll be driving on roads the width of a bike path, yet invite four lanes of traffic and post a high speed limit.