Outer Glasgow

From fort William, we were headed to Glasgow, with one planned stop in the journey, and another that was quite spontaneous.

On the way there, we passed this really incredible dam and saw more of Scotland's exquisite scenery. The air is so clear and fresh there, you want to just stand with your arms open wide, breathing deeply while the winds blows your hair over your face. I'ts an incredible feeling to be so free and wild.

 First of all, we visited the Highland Wildlife Safari park. I'd never been to a drive yourself around kind of style safari park, so it was a new experience for me. I'd heard horror stories about when people visited monkey world, and came away with thousands of pounds worth of damage from the monkeys attacking the cars. But this was a peaceful and rather civilised affair. The animals seemed relaxed and friendly, and didn't seem to bothered that we were sat watching them.


                                     

 From there, we started our drive to Glasgow, and as we were driving, signs for the national crannog centre started to appear. I'd read a bit about crannogs on Wikipedia a while ago, so I knew a little bit about them, and begged (yes begged) James to drive us there, which he did. And I'm so glad we did. They had several people there, decked out in period clothes, telling us about not only the crannog, but also about how the people would have lived, how they farmed, how they interacted, how they would have spent their time. It was a really informative and enjoyable experience. They also showed us how to make fire, weave and make cloth, and also how to carve wood, using this large contraption which James had a go on. It's rather ingenious that they managed all this, using just man power and what was around them. It rather puts us today to shame.

 Of course, all the learning about history was making some of the locals very hungry, so I made sure                                                     to share some dinner with them! :D

I have to say, the National Crannog Centre was one of the highlights of our two weeks in Scotland. It was everything I love, History, restoration and duck feeding. You can't get better than that!