EMPTY BOTTLES - THE HEBRIDES, SCOTLAND - DAY 10
Last day on the Isle! I wake up with a massive cold, but if this is the only thing to go wrong on my entire trip, I’ll take it happily! My only goal is to stay as warm as possible at all times, take Sudafed during the day, and take a NyQuil this evening so the inside of my ears stay clear and dry.
It’s absolutely frigid and rainy today. God has blessed us with incredible weather this entire trip until now, and we couldn’t be more grateful. It was meant to be cold and raining everyday but one before we arrived, and it’s been just the opposite.
We do our routine and jump into the car to come to a nearby castle that neither of us can pronounce. We thought this would be a nice place for breakfast and tea, but we’re surprised to find that it’s a fully functioning castle, and still a private home, not open to tourists. The only thing they offer is game meat and some sweets for passerbys.
We double back to the Eagle Observatory, which is a two mile walk. I feel pretty crummy from my cold, and hiking 4 miles round trip in the freezing rain doesn’t sound appealing at all. Plus we don’t have binoculars or a telephoto lens for us to actually see anything, much less clear skies to expose the birds. Andrea reads my mind and verbalizes what I’m thinking.
We skip it, and head to the very last item on our itinerary- The gin distillery. It’s the most famous attraction on this Isle, and located adjacent to the twead shop. Both of these are located at the harbor, immediately when you get off the ferry- A brilliant move on their part and a tremendous success for both businesses.
We enter the distillery, and ask about tours. Andrea seemed to anticipate this, but it’s to my great surprise that they’re fully booked for all tours until next week. To be fair, I hadn’t even thought about it. There are many tourists on the island but then again, there’s so few people, it just hadn’t crossed my mind once that it would be completely booked. I don’t actually feel like we’re missing out. I don’t feel like taste testing gin today either. Instead, we visit the gift shop- The bottles are special made and that really what I’m after. ...Actually, I just want an empty one. Andrea buys one bottle but I scoff at wanting the bottle and having to pay 37pounds for gin that I can’t even travel with, much less want to drink. I have a plan to ask the cafeteria in the distillery for an empty one. Before we do, we ask the reception if we can sample the gin here. In a small communion cup no less, they allow us to taste the famous Hebridean liquid.
Honestly, like the Jura Whiskey, it’s not to my liking. It’s rough and tough just like the people here who survive this island and brave the frigid weather. I’m glad to not be missing anything by sticking to plan of wanting an EMPTY bottle. We mosey on over to the cafeteria and immediately spot rows of empty bottles on the shelves. I ask the head server how much it would cost to buy one of these. He simply points to the charity box across the room and says, “For a donation, I’ll give you one”. I take the remaining coins in my pocket, about 70p, and put it in the charity box, and walk away with a glorious blue twisted bottle. I smile from ear to ear and tell him he’s made my day.
We pop out to store with the full and empty bottles of gin safely in the car before exploring the twead store. It’s fun to walk around but I’m uninterested in anything. Andrea picks up a pair of earrings, and it begins to rain.
It’s still very early, especially since we’ve accomplished everything for the day in 5 minutes. Nothing is open and so we opt to head back to the distillery for tea. We stay and read for a few hours until our favorite hotel cafe opens for lunch.
I’m writing to you this early for this reason. It’s just cold, grey and rainy. We've done everything we’ve wanted to do here, and honestly, it feels really good to have one day where we do absolutely nothing. We’ve been driving, hiking, photographing, filming and doing everything else in between for every moment of every day since I’ve arrived in Scotland. I think Andrea is bored, but I’m thankful for a necessary pause with the weather forcing us to stop and just take a day. I know this seems ironic since we’re on vacation, and technically everyday is just “taking a day”, but resting is important when you're always on the move.
There’s not much else to report to be honest. I’ll probably finish the book Andrea lent me, “How To Be Alone”, and depending on the weather we’ll either see the beaches one last time or simply say in the car until dinner time to which then we’ll finish off our fire logs and the last of our canned food.
It’s been a lovely time to say the least, but I think Andrea and I are ready to get the f**k off this island. Three days is more than enough time to see everything, four is overkill. I can only justify this again, by my previous strategy of staying longer in hopes of having good weather for photography and filming. It worked!!
I’ll send another email tomorrow evening when we are expected to arrive in Fort William. We have a ferry ride, one stop at the Glennfinnan viaduct, and a very long drive ahead of us tomorrow. Love you all, and hoping to FaceTime soon! (Tomorrow night or the next day, I hope)??
****DEAR READER,
You may have noticed in the past few days, that I've edited out the exact location of this place. You can still discover the whereabouts with the (very) obvious clues that I've left, if you've read and looked carefully. My reasoning behind not making the location of this trip obvious is simply because it's such a magnificent place, that I want people to care as much about it as I do. For that, you'll need to take good care in finding exactly which Isle I'm writing about. This is not to be pompous or facetious. It is simply respecting a place still very much untouched by man. Happy hunting!
