Scotland VI: Wildlife Park I

Left Inverness Monday morning and drove down to the Highland Wildlife Park, where I spent several happy hours. I first did the driving tour and got some pics of various deer, horses, bison etc and then did some walking. I spent most of my time with the wolves, an animal I've always liked. It's a very special feeling to stand not ten feet away from them. The park is a wonderful place, and well worth the £10,50 you pay to get in. True to British form, when I bought my ticket the old guy in the booth apologized for the "unseasonal weather". It was sunny... I took so many pics I'm going to divide this into several posts. Click for larger versions.


Tibetan horses:




European bison. Hot damn, those things are huge.







Reindeer. A bloody nuisance to traffic in the north of Norway, they SHOULD be locked up in parks.



This one turned completely loco on me. I rolled down the window to take some pics, and he started shaking and snorting and then ran around like crazy. I was afraid he'd attack the car, so I drove on.




Moose. A bloody nuisance to traffic everywhere in Scandinavia. Their peasized brains just can't process the concept of cars bearing onto them, and it's touch and go if they run away into the woods or stay in the road.

A cow, nibling some food:



Here comes daddy - it's only the bulls that have antlers.



A wee one:

Scotland V b: Fort George

Rounded the day off with a dinner at McGonagall again, followed by live folk music at the Hootananny - fiddles, flutes and guitars, footstomping and highland dancing. All round good fun! On my way back to the hotel I was harassed by a friendly drunk, who became positively giddy when he heard I was Norwegian. There were numerous handshakes and assurances that I was always welcome in Scotland, and that the Scots loved Norwegians, etc, etc. Even the drunks are nice to me up here, is it any wonder I love the place?

Anyway... as promised, here are the pics from the middle ages thingy out at Fort George earlier today. It's an interesting place in itself, being a rare combination of museum and functioning military facility and definitely worth a visit. Click on the pics for a larger version.


An old guard room, containing a humorous, heartfelt "Soldier's Prayer":




It's a huge place:




The quiet before the storm:




"It's just a flesh wound"




The archer presentation was hilarious. This guy was a real show man and managed to insult just about everybody while yet managing to teach us a bit. They also pulled a Wilhelm Tell stunt on some poor bastard.




From the jousting tournament, which I thought was a bit disappointing. The presenter just tried too hard, and quickly became annoying . The whole setup was too childish for my taste, and not informative at all. If I wanted the Disney version, I'd have gone to Florida.








There were several tents on the other side of the square from the jousting arena. People were demonstrating weaponry and fighting techniques, arts and crafts, ancient games, food, etc.




"The meteor flag of England..."

A fool and his money

Please stop me before I spend money again. This morning I drove out to Fort George, where they were putting on a big show this weekend - archery, jousting, swordfights, and such (I'll post the pics later). I noticed a booth for Historic Scotland, a government organization that runs many of the old museums, houses, monuments etc up here - it is the equivalent to English Heritage. Long story short, I ended up signing up for a lifetime membership, which entitles me to free admission to hundreds of places all over the UK, including bringing a number of guests.

The cost? The lady with the credit card machine summed it up nicely, in a very Scottish way... "Ready to start your Sunday with an £800 payment, Sir?"

I'm sure I'll wake up screaming a couple of times tonight.

Scotland IV: Cromarty

I've had a pretty lazy day today... had breakfast around 9, then I spent a few hours in my room, reading the latest Rebus novel and occasionally marveling at the horrendous boredom that is British daytime television. Around 1:30 I went back to the same pub I went to on Wednesday (Findlay), and again had a good, cheap roast duck lunch. I was joined by my old friend Pam (aka The Mad Celt), who'd come up from Aberdeen "to ruin my holiday".

After lunch and the obligatory insults we drove out to Cromarty, a cozy little village on the tip of the Black Isle (which is really a peninsula). Cromarty is well known for its Victorian cottages, many of which are probably holiday homes today, and its dolphins, which can sometimes be seen playing out in the bay. It is also the birthplace of the famous 19th century geologist Hugh Miller, and his home is a museum these days.

I rounded off the day by stuffing my face at the excellent McGonagall's in Inverness and am now about to tuck in with my beloved Rebus novel.


The view across Cromarty Firth



A memorial to the many locals who left for Australia or North America



The climate is so mild because of the Gulf stream, that even palms grow here (sorry, Mr Gore)



The local name for a small street is "vennel":



A "mercat cross" - mercat being the agreed-upon Scottish misspelling of the English word "market" and the cross conspiciously and completely missing from all such monuments. I'm still uncertain whether it's gross incompetence or sheer spite that drives the Scots to pull these stunts on unwitting foreigners.



Life could be tough, incredibly tough in these parts. Imagine being one of these parents:



Some purdy dog roses



Some nice buildings






Cromarty Harbor



Workboots on a wall - a common sight in Scotland, Pam told me. Musn't get the floors dirty, you see. From Pam I also learned about the concept of "Highland time", which basically means that if you ask someone to give you a fixed time for anything, the standard reply will be "It'll happen".



The entrance to McGonagall's in Inverness. Good steaks and the best damn Bearnaisse sauce I've ever had. It's on Bridge street and is a part of the city's oldest bar, the Gellions.

Scotland III b: The sea monster that wasn't

I'd been so heavily delayed in Wick I decided to just skip the stuff I'd planned for the rest of the day and drive straight down to have dinner at Gilbert's, the aforementioned place in Helmsdale. After another good hour and a half of good food and banter I was just about to leave, when one of the new customers started showing us pictures she'd just taken of a strange animal in the water down by the harbour, just where the Helmsdale river flows out into the North Sea. The head shape of the animal was very strange, and from the way she told it, the thing had been absolutely huge. If I didn't know any better, I'd have said the head of the thing looked like a polar bear (quick, call Al Gore!).

My curiosity piqued I drove across the bridge and started walking back. Almost immediately I saw a dark head appear down below. I stood for a long time, freezing my ass off, but couldn't get a decent pic at that distance, so finally I drove down to the harbor (not that I'm obsessive or anything). There, I finally got a closer look at the thing, and (somewhat disappointed) I quickly established that it was a seal, albeit with a slightly unusual head shape. I took a couple of shots, and just as I was about to leave another seal appeared. The newcomer was smaller, had a lighter color and the shape of it was more conventional. The two swam around a bit and I managed to get some pics of them together.


The Polar Bear that wasn't:



First hellos:







Note the strange, elongated nose of the dark one:



Shake that booty:



Aww baby, where you going:





Kilroy was here:





Meh, she's not interested:



Hi ho, hi ho, it's off to sea we go:



UPDATED SATURDAY: Having read up on the subject and looked at some pictures, I am now confident the animal I saw was a Grey Seal, a species common in these parts.