Retrospective: Travelling Britain, Part 1

Hopefully this will be the second-last of my 'retrospective' series of posts... This should just about be able to bring me up to speed with you guys so that I can post my travels sooner rather than weeks later!

Since my parents and I spent so much time in Edinburgh, we also took the time to travel around some other parts of Scotland, England and Wales. We started off with Scotland first, of course, since we were in Scotland already.

One of the first places we took a trip out to were the Scottish highlands! Let me just say that the highlands are absolutely BEAUTIFUL, stunning and gorgeous... It's like heaven on earth, the scenery is breathtakingly beautiful.





There's something about Scotland that brings out the outdoors person in you - the wilderness is enchanting, and makes you want to be a part of it.

We took a day trip to the Scottish highlands operated by a company called Timberbush. Not gonna lie - nine hours on a coach isn't the most fun, but the scenery more than makes up for it! And coming across the most random things along the way, like this guy we found alone up in the hills...



I'm sure he was playing to the hoards of tourists who just so happened to get off where he was playing at a photo-stop along the hillside roads, but I like to think he was playing to himself and to the Scottish glen.

We visited Urquhart Castle which sits on the edges of Loch Ness.





It's all in ruins now because it was blasted to bits centuries ago when some other guys were trying to seize control of it (help me, long and complicated Scottish history combined with feuds between rulers and clan chiefs and kings and queens and god knows what not) but I think it looks a lot more enchanting ruined than all nice and intact. It's a visual reminder of a time gone by and sealed properly in the past.



There's a boat trip you can take that takes you on-to the waters of Loch Ness! The loch looks beautiful from this angle.

And for those of you wondering, no I didn't see Nessie... :(







One of the other places in Scotland we visited was a beautiful village called Pitlochry, nestled in the centre of a huge range of wilderness and woodlands and mountains.











Lots of Christmas trees! Christmas come early :p

Also, the most incredible thing happened - I got caught in the middle of a dandelion fluff storm! It was the most adorable thing, hundreds upon thousands of little bits of dandelion fluff swirling around in the air. And I saw this beautiful thing, too:



I took a woodlands walk into a place called the Black Sprout Woods, which is a deciduous forest in the middle of which there's a waterfall called the Black Sprout.



Saw the biggest bird ever - some sort of heron, and it took off right in front of me!









The path which I took was called the Edradour path, and it leads you through the woodlands right up to the waterfall and back. It was easily one of the greatest experiences I've had so far - walking up into the woodlands alone (my parents ditched me for more urban areas, lol) and without a soul around, only the occasional person walking their dog or family outing.

I've never been properly into wilderness like this, so feeling springy-soft ground beneath my feet was awesome, and clean moss and clear streams... Completely beautiful!

We also took another day-trip out to Glasgow, but I didn't take many pictures of Glasgow. Dad did comment that he liked the urban modernness of Glasgow a lot more than the old-world charm of Edinburgh, though. I'm quite the opposite, ha ha!

Next up: trips to York, Windermere, and Manchester! Stay tuned :)

Cheryl Keit xx