Day 14 - UK 2013 ( Northern Scotland)

Today was another long day but well worth the trip.  We drove up to the tippy top lands end of Scotland.  The only part farther north are some islands.  The road signs around here are rather unique. We ran into one section that said watch for otters.  Other signs show some towns in parenthesis, basically meaning your gonna turn off is road to get there but here is the distance.

 

On our way up we first stopped at DunRobin castle.  Very impressive castle built in the 1200s.  But the best part of this place was the falconry.  They had about an hour show where the falconer talked about his hawks.  He has 30 birds he exercises daily thru games like catch the fake rabbit or the fake bird he swings.  Then he says every evening he takes them hunting and they catch enough food for him and all the birds.  The whole training process was very impressive, he does it thru games and rewards.

From here we drove up a way and took a stroll on a rocky beach.  It was suppose to be a good place for fossils but it was very rocky and tide pooly.  So we found more squishy red things, crabs and other colorful things.

From here we went all the way up to John O'Groats.  here we ran into an army of tents for bicyclists.  it was a huge field, and dang cold and cloudy.  Tuff run for those guys.  On our way to the next stop we found a big sandy beach.  What's cool about this is we were on a beach that was a few steps from the road but if you look off one way there's a huge cliff

going into the sea, and you could see the Scottish isles with the same landscape. Quinn also found this cool looking guy relaxing in the sand. 

Next stop Thurso, here we had dinner in a nice restaurant, Scottish food has been fine.  We had lamb chops and beef burgers.  It's all local so was real good.  On our way to the restaurant a lorrie (small truck open back) drove down the street, on the back there was a guy without his shirt that had black stuff and what looked like wood chips all over.  We asked the waitress what that was about she said for good luck the groom has everything grown at him, for example eggs so stuff sticks, flour, coffee, basically anything.  Then he is paraded around town.  Interesting custom.
 

Next stop was home but on the way we saw the most spectacular view.  The sun was setting behind this mountain that had clouds running over it like water.  Finally when we found a place to park for a picture there was one sole deer silhouette at the top of the hill before the rolling clouds.  It was amazing.