Annnnnd this should be a new paragraph!! So exciting also!! =) Huge thanks to Aaron for making this magic happen. So today's update....
I couldn't sleep at all last night, I think mostly due to worrying about my camera!! I tried going to bed around 1 am with a 7 am alarm to explore Oban a bit in the morning, but at 2 am I re-set the alarm for 8 am and at 4:30 am I got out of bed, took a shower, wrote some emails and skyped some friends!! It's times like these I love having a significant time difference! So I headed out to explore Oban a bit at 7 am, although I was feeling hesitant and not terribly adventurous as it was still raining. =/ I'm so resentful to rain right now. And after my utter saturation yesterday, I really don't want to get saturated again.
I'm suddenly realizing I didn't blog about yesterday, so in a nutshell: Thursday, October 3rd: got a rental car, drove to Torlundy to park in the North Face parking lot and do the North Face Hike to see Ben Nevis. It rained steadily the WHOLE time, with a few 2-3 minute pauses, which I zealously used to my advantage to snap some pictures. Since it was raining so much, I simply left my phone and most water sensitive things in the carm but I had a plastic bag for my camera and I definitely wanted to take some pictures of this hike! After the first few pictures, I realized that the plastic bag was not only a pain in the ass, but it also kept the little bit of rain drops trapped in the bag, so I decided the better option was in my waterproof jacket pocket. I checked the status of my pocket often, and all was good to go. At the top, I got some phenomenal pictures, though I never got to see the top as it stayed in the clouds. What I did get to see of the cliff faces was still tremendously impressive. I stopped at this hut/weather station house because the river was raging and the only way I could see to cross it was this little 2x4ish plank that was nearly in the water itself. It didn't inspire confidence. To really deter me though, there was a mountain rescue helicopter above me. It came twice. Such a disturbing sight and sound. Apparently some climbers had had problems and needed to be air lifted out. The second time the helicopter came by, it circled over me 4 times, and unsure what the hand signal is for "I'm good to go!" I just did a little wave hello and they flew over to the cliff for the second guy. I felt like their little hover over me was there way to say: "Don't even think about crossing that river. We are not coming back to recover you from the raging river because you used poor judgement and crossed a plank of wood you shouldn't have."
So feeling quite satisfied with where I was, I headed back down. I think this is when I compromised the water-proof-ness of my pocket. =/ I clipped the waist strap on my backpack because I ran some of the way down, and I am suspicious that it was during this time that water leaked in and created a lovely little puddle for my camera to bathe in. When I got back to my car (kicking myself HARD for not checking my pocket at all on the way down!!) I pulled my camera out and it was on....what??! Some random image was on my screen and there was line across it, which I soon realized was the level of water in my camera. NOOOOOOOOOOOOOOO!!! I removed the battery and SD card, shook my camera like crazy, drove to the nearest town to get rice and all parts of my camera are now sitting in bags of rice. I'm so so worried that 1.) I've lost ALL of my Scotland pictures - because I didn't have a chance to save any of them onto a USB key yet and 2.) my camera is dead.
Why do I murder technology in rain storms??!! WHY WHY WHY??!! I feel like the cruel joke of it is that I even had a plastic bag for my electronic device this time, and I chose not to use it. Ugh. Feeling frustrated with myself.
But back to October 4th, because that is much more fun!! The big bummer is that I didn't have my camera for the day. That was a bit heart-breaking. I did the best I could with my phone camera, but they are mediocre at best. Yet better than nothing, right? They'll at least spur memories, and that's my main goal, so I'll stop complaining now.
My morning exploration of Oban turned out to be fantastic!! The rain stopped within the first 15 minutes of my being outside, and I even got some sunshine and pockets of blue sky with wispy clouds. I went to grocery store and got lots of fruit and oat cakes (mmmmm, love oat cakes!! OH!! And randomly, but before I forget, I found that my absolute favorite baby food flavor on the WHW was a "spinach, pear, mango" WOW!! Amazing!!)
Back to today. I took a picnic breakfast up at McCraig's Tower and had a splendid little view - it was so nice!! Then I went to booked myself a boat tour to the islands of Mull, Iona and Staffa. GLORIOUS!!
We took a ferry over to Mull, had a guided bus ride across Mull to the West Coast, and our guide was very informative and amusing. From the West Coast, we took a small boat out to Staffa, and THAT is when we saw the dolphins. They chased us for about 10 minutes. I was in awe. I still am in awe thinking back on it. They are such beautiful, graceful creatures!! They were leaping out of the waves and one even did a little rotation mid-leap - it felt like a coordinated show. There was one pair of dolphins that was adorable in that it was a little baby with an adult (mom, dad?? who can say?) =) They were together the whole time, leaping at the same time, it was adorable. I felt like the baby was training! =)
Once we arrived at Staffa, we had 30 minutes to explore, which was quick, but not absurdly so. Staffa was my favorite. It is the "other end" (if you will) of Giant's Causeway in Northern Ireland, so this was a fantastic way to bring my trip around full circle. I even found Staffa more impressive than Giant's Causeway. It is a whole island of nothing but these hexagonal columns (from the same lavaflow as Giant's Causeway). It is tremendous. Some are even curvy, but still hexagonal. It is truly unreal. The kicker?? There is a cave called Fingal's Cave, famous for Scotland's mythical giant, yes, but you may also have heard of it as Mendelssohn's inspiration for his Hebridean Overture. I am unfamilar with it, but am very much looking forward to listening to it now that I've gotten to stand in Fingal's Cave. The best part of the cave is that I somehow managed to time my visit in a gap of people and I had the cave all to myself for nearly 5 minutes. It was awesome. Truly awesome.
After Staffa, we got about 75 minutes on Iona, which was far too brief, but I'll just have to come back some other time and spend a week on the island. They're meant to have a lovely hostel! =) So this island was the destination of St Columba from Ireland in the 6th century. He founded a monastery and there is still a (renovated) abbey there today. It is gorgeous. My whole time on the island was basically exploring the Abbey, seeing St Columba's shrine where he was originally buried (but no longer is) and taking close to 300 pictures with my phone. Yowzers. It was a brilliant day and I'm so happy I was able to capture it in pictures, even if only via camera-phone.
Tonight I had some fish and chips that everyone raved about and it was actually pretty decent (considering I'm typically completely against deep-frying fish). But I enjoyed it! And added some brussel sprouts =) Now I am off to pack and bed because my all-nighter is catching up to me! Onwards to explore the Northwest Coast tomorrow - Applecross and Gairloch on the list! Woohooooooooooooooo!!
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