A Week at a Glance

Well some of you might be wondering why it has been so long since our last blog. I could make excuses like we're too busy exploring and seeing the sights etc. But the truth is our host has an excellent book collection that just so happens to have some of my favourite genres...only two weeks left to read them all so...

Last weekend we went hiking with our hosts and some of their friends near Ben Nevis (the largest mountain in Britain) to the Ring of Steall. It was great because we hiked up a picturesque valley to this waterfall and the sun was shining and the mountains were all in the background, it was awesome. After a few hours we hiked to the top of first munro and had an spectacular view of Ben Nevis and the surrounding area. We were pretty tired, we had some lunch and then most people headed back to the vehicles while 4 of us wanted to do the whole ring, which includes 4 munros. So we headed off and it wasn't too bad because once your done the first one your higher and you can just follow the ridge line and you only have to hike up and down…..less. The best part was walking along the narrow parts of the ridge where it was a steep slope on both sides, you really feel like your mouton liming then! The worst  part was the way down on the last one because you have to descend like 3,000 feet and your knees feel like jelly by the time you reach the bottom. So that was on last friday. 

The rest of the weekend we headed off back to Edinburgh to help our hosts paint and fix up their flat that they rent out. Did some painting and some cleaning. Morag took us out for a nice italian dinner so that was very nice of her. Other than that this week has been pretty normal just doing some more shearing, I've got the technique down now so i'm not as sore anymore. 

On thursday we went to the Isle of Mull for the Tobermory Highland Games. Took the ferry and then the bus to a small but pretty town on the north part of the island. Experiencing the highland games was tonnes of fun, all kinds of cool events and strength contests. Highland dancing, pipers and foot races. Of course I had to participate in the open 440 yard foot race. Didn't win, but I did get a small consolation bottle of Tobermory whiskey haha. The set up was great because where all the events took place was beside a hill where everyone could just sit in the grass and watch the whole event. 

Yesterday we went and did some shearing at one of Jamie's neighbours' farms. Lots of hard work but he is going to pay us for the help that we gave him. Also our hosts have paid us some money already for all the extra help and work we have put in on the farm which is awesome and unexpected. Only a week and a half until we head off to our next job. But we will be really sad to leave the farm. I think we enjoy the farm life!