After our night on the hallowed grounds of St Andrews we enjoyed a morning guided tour of nearby Kellie Castle, which was built in the 14th century. I largely forgot the details and so will spare you, but they make no claim that the Bruce, William Wallace or the Bonnie Prince stayed there – although past owners were Jacobites. James VI, son of Mary Queen of Scots, did visit once though and in preparation they painted crowns on the wallpaper. (Ok I didn’t completely spare you).
Our walk of the day was along the Fife Coastal Path, starting at St Monans Church and continuing north.
We stopped for lunch at Pittenweem (I know!) and while we didn’t really mind, it took the restaurant staff an hour or so to deliver our meals, and they knew we were coming and had had our specific orders in hand for 24 hours. We watched Fiona become more and more stressed even while being unfailingly polite to the staff. As much planning as the leaders do to make trips run seamlessly, some things are out of their control and we were all feeling it for Fiona. The guys were more (outwardly at least) lackadaisical about it because after all, white dudes are used to things somehow working themselves out around them thanks largely to the efforts of women.
Here are a few snaps along the way.
And then the most fun part of the day ensued. Our van from the hike to our next hotel was serendipitously populated by my favorite people on the trip – Peggy and Graham, Margot and Jim. Despite having two leaders and two of the vans with us at this point, somehow Fiona had absconded with both of our trail whiskies as she led a group heading a bit further up the coast. And we had the longest shuttle of the trip facing us – 2.5 hours to the Cameron House on Loch Lomond. Catastrophe!!!!
So, bless him, Stephen had the idea of stopping at a store on the way out of town to acquire a wee bit of the spirit. We were already quite a jolly group in an un-inebriated state but as we slowly had one wee dram after another we grew way more brilliantly entertaining and I know this because Stephen was laughing pretty hard at everything and obviously he wasn’t drinking. It was hilarious and bonding and awesome.
And we accidentally killed the bottle.
At which point Margot sang a rude rugby song (parental discretion advised) that Stephen surreptitiously recorded, a completely brilliant move. You can only see Stephen in the video and it perfectly illustrates what an awesome dude he is. He’s a self-described recovering Mormon and I think we helped him recover a little bit more during that van ride.
The next morning (with everyone feeling dandy because it’s impossible to be hungover on vacation), our last full day, we boarded a boat and headed across Loch Lomond, crossing the Highland Boundary Fault which traverses Scotland and separates the lowlands from the highlands – although there’s a little fudging along the way because identifying as being in the Highlands is good for business. In Loch Lomond you can see the fault in the form of a string of islands that cuts across the Loch in a straight line. The fault was born when two land masses crashed into one another a bazillion years ago, creating a massive mountain range. Over time this resulted in a lot of interesting historical and cultural differences between the two areas but my favorite has to do with squirrels. The boundary’s natural barrier prevented the northward movement of the large bossy grey squirrels which protected the population of wee shy red squirrels in the Highlands.
This being Scotland, on the crossing there were rainbows and also pre-recorded history lessons, with music, played over the speaker as we passed the inevitable historical landmarks along the way.
After lunch we continued onward, steadily climbing until we had killer views of Loch Lomond which we obviously celebrated with, yes, trail whisky.
That evening we sadly met for our farewell dinner, a Backroads tradition. Fiona and Josh made lovely toasts to the group. They led trips in Scotland all summer and this was their last one of the year.
The next morning we did a very short last walk which was along the famous Speyside Way. However, in truth this short bit is probably its lamest section because it’s full of “faeries” aka weird carvings and things hanging on trees and clearly made for kids. But I got a last great shot of the Loch.
Before we reluctantly boarded the bus that would take us back to Edinburgh, the party van alumni could not resist a reunion in the hotel lobby. Peggy and Graham were off to Dublin and Margot and Jim were headed south to visit an ancestral castle.
Sláinte mhath to new friends.
Wee Dram of Scotland 