By Cara Sulieman

A WOMAN who went out to buy the Christmas turkey almost a week before the big day still hasn’t managed to get home thanks to the weather.

Kay Ure has been staying in a friend’s caravan as she can’t get back to her remote home in Cape Wrath.

She and her husband John run Scotland’s most isolated restaurant– Café Ozone – in an old lighthouse and have been separated since December 19 when Kay went to Inverness on a shopping trip.

John said: “Kay left for Inverness on December 19 before the heavy snow came. She was part of an organised shopping trip going by mini-bus.”

“Total whiteout”

He had driven his wife along the 11 mile road to the jetty where their boat is moored. From there they crossed the Kyle of Durness and arrived at Keoldale, where Kay joined the trip.

Dutiful John was supposed to pick her up a few days later but the bad weather prevented him from driving back to the jetty, leaving Kay stranded in Durness.

He said: “The road has disappeared here under the heavy snow and it all looks just like moorland.

“It’s a total whiteout and has to be seen to be believed. It was minus 10 at one point here but it seems to be thawing a bit today so I’m hoping for the best.”

The 57-year-old is hoping his wife gets home this week so they can have their belated Christmas day.

“Want to get home”

He added: “We’ve been in touch by phone every night. I spent Christmas Day with my six Springer Spaniels.

“Two walkers who had been walking the Cape Wrath trail called in briefly. I gave them a coffee and they went on their way.”

It is the first time in 36 years that the couple have been apart on Christmas day and their presents are lying unopened under the tree, waiting for Kay’s return.

Kay, 54, said: “I’m staying in a friend’s caravan just now, which is okay but I’m obviously wanting to get home.

“I think it will be a few days yet as the road from our home is dangerous. Part of it is known as the Wall of Death so I don’t want John attempting it until it’s clear. It would be crazy to try it.

“I’m looking forward to a belated Christmas dinner but it might be Burns’ Night before I get to eat it.”

“Good laugh”

The couple moved from Milngavie to try out rural life in Durness for a few years before buying the café last year.

It was officially opened on June 7 by the Princess Royal.

John and Kay live in the former lighthouse keeper’s cottage and have no electricity or mains water.

They rely on gas canisters, a diesel generator and bottled water to help them survive the harsh elements.

But even this latest event hasn’t put the pair off their remote lifestyle.

John said: “Despite being apart I wouldn’t go back and join the rat race again.

“We’ll have a good laugh about the situation when we do eventually meet up.”

As we reached the top of Scotland, we based ourselves in Dunnet Bay. This was a pretty nice caravan park, right on the beach with some beautiful views.

Sunrays

The beach was great, especially if you like flying kites.

Tracks

When the wind came out, it was time to duck and cover. Our tent copped a flogging and the poles were never the same. At night I thought we might lift up and go floating off into the ocean. The lighter patches in the photo below are gusts of sand, moving about rather rapidly in the aformentioned wind.

Rapidly moving sand patches

When the sun came out and the wind went away, the beach was a great place to be. I still wouldn’t swim there though; the water was freezing.

While in Dunnet Bay we encountered our second and third airbed failure. Luckily this time we had kept the receipts so it was a simple case of changing it at Tesco. Maybe it was trying to use it as a trampoline that made it fail. I think it was just shoddy workmanship.

From Dunnet Bay it was relatively easy to get to John O’ Groats, the northern-most tip. This was mainly a tourist trap with a love-hate relationship with the customers and overpriced pay toilets.

From here we took a ferry to Stroma, a small island which is now largely deserted (except for a few people and some seals).

Stroma lighthouse

Vanessa was hoping to spot an elusive Puffin but was mostly let down. There were a few flying above the water in the distance but we had just missed the nesting season.

The ferry ride was quite funny. For some reason, lots of people had brought their dogs. The ferry didn’t actually stop (it just did a loop around the island and came back) so I don’t really understand what was in it for canine passengers. They pretty much just skittered around on the deck and shivered.

We also took a ferry to the Orkney Islands, which was a great day out. We took a bus trip around Scapa Flow which was the main British naval base in both world wars and is the site where the German fleet was scuttled.

Orkney also has a lot of ancient archeological sites like Skara Brae, Europe’s most complete Neolithic village. Apparently it was buried under a lot of sand and then one day after some fierce winds it just appeared. The village is amazingly preserved and would make a fantastic minature golf course.

Par 4

Orkney also has the Ring of Brogdar. No, it isn’t a film from the eighties starring Arnold Schwarzenegger but in fact a henge, like Stonehenge.

Standing near the standing stones

I was amazed at the grafitti on the stones, some of it was very old. Compared to the age of the stones though (over four thousand years) it was nothing.

Master. D.M Broad esq. woz ere - 1859

There’s also an Italian chapel built by prisoners of war during World War II.

Goin' to the chapel and we're....gonna get....interred in a POW camp

Leaving Dunnet Bay, we passed through the ruins of Ardvreck castle which was unique in that it was free to enter.

Mmmmm...free ruins

We also stopped at the amusingly-named Smoo cave, near Durness.

Smoo cave beach

We took a boat tour of the cave, which is enormous.

Drip drip

There were so many beautiful, white, sandy beaches in the northern highlands. I can’t imagine swimming in any of them though, even at that time of year the water would have been freezing.

Beautiful but deadly

Sacred Nature:  OS Grid Reference – NC 419 672

Getting Here

From Durness take the road east for a couple of miles till you see the signpost which takes you on the left-hand side of the road, down to the coast.  You can’t miss it!

Archaeology & History

Findings here allege to take the history of the place into the mesolithic period, but we don’t know this for sure.  An excavation here by a Mr Donald Macdonald of Sangobeg in 1904 uncovered the presence of several small bone pins, which seem consistent with Mesolithic finds elsewhere.  When archaeo-excavations were done here in 1982, human remains going back to at least Iron Age were found in the simple deposit of many shells.  A further analysis by the Glasgow Archaeology Unit in 1996 was prevented of some excavation by (get this!) those screwy Health & Safety regulations.  Here’s a definite case for an independent group to undertake work here, as we could ignore such preventative measures (and if we drown it’s our fault!).  Smoo Cave’s primary function is pretty obvious: it would have been used for both shelter and ritual. 

Folklore

The folklore here tells of magick and occultism and possible remnants of rites of passage lore. For herein, many centuries ago, a powerful land-owner called Lord Reay — reputed as a master in the black arts — battled with the devil in the Smoo Cave.

The devil was keeping watch on Lord Reay following a previous dispute between the two of them, and espied him as he entered the cave. As Alexander Polson told it, the cave

“consists of three caverns, one within the other. Lord Reay had got as far as the second, and his dog, which had gone on in advance, returned howling and hairless. By this, Lord Reay knew that Satan was there before him, and bravely waited the attack, which was soon made, and his lordship fought lustily. Happily at the opportune moment a cock crew. This frightened the devil and his attendant witches, but Lord Reay stood between them and the exit. In their fright they blew holes through the roof of the cave, and this is the origin of the two openings through which the Smoo burns fall.”

Pitch black cave; protective spirit animal; encountering one’s psychological nemesis; unconscious battles with Underworld forces; rebirth of the sun at cock-crowing time; the conquering of the dark forces and renewal of Lord Reay.  These are typical hallmarks probably signifying folk-remnants of rites of passage for which this cave may once have been used.

References:

Polson, Alexander, Scottish Witchcraft Lore, W. Alexander: Inverness 1932.

Our world today is dominated by the cult of celebrity. A new American president ie even described as a “hunk” in The Times colour supplement though other politicians apparently do not measure up so well when snapped on the beach apparently, particularly Clinton and Blair. I doubt if Nellie would even have used the word celebrity in the way we do today. Yet her town was surely not immune to the idea of fame. It is surely possible that the Royal train may have passed through Coupar Angus station, taking Queen Victoria and some of her many progeny up to Balmoral. Would the locals have crowded the platform here to wave at their monarch?

Unlike my grandmother , down in Warwickshire, Nellie did not tell tales of the naughty antics of  Bertie, later Edward VII. Granny, who worked for a Lord and Lady Wiseman, claimed that they entertained the prince down in the country and one of his alleged mistresses, Lily Langtry. I wonder if Lily read about the theatre stars in the Dundee Courier? Nor quite the same as the magazines like “Heat” that my colleagues scan for gossip about contemporary stars! It did cover the Antarctic expedition made by the Dundee ship, the Discovery, under the command of R.F. Scott. That must have been a big news story.

I had a quick look on the web, and though I found that two film stars had been born in Blairgowrie, I think it unlikely that Nellie would ever have heard of them even though one began his career before the talkies. He was called Andy Clyde. Both my husband and I would have been interested in his later career as an old man in the “Lassie” t.v. shows. One probably watched them, the other always became too worried that Lassie would be hurt, to cope! The second, George Anton is a modern film and t.v. actor so not much likelihood of Nellie seeing him.

What about poor old Coupar Angus? Has anybody famous come from there? Not that I’ve found so far. I’d quite like Nellie and her postcard collection to be better known, but I realise there are hundreds of other blogs out there dealing with our cult of the ancestor. We do have a star living locally who seems quite amenable to adding a bit of glitz to local events. All right, so I’ve never seen her and I don’t watch her television programme , but my partner reports that he’s been in the co-op around the same time. Unfortunately, he is completely disinterested in the cult of celebrity, so it didn’t mean much when some-one said, “Do you know who that was who just walked out? That was Lorraine Kelly!’

I think you might meet more famous Scots if you walked through Regent Street or Soho on a visit to London. Maybe this Burns homecoming, for the two hundred and fiftieth anniversary of his birth will bring the celebrity Scots back to the country of their birth. I think the Scottish government is hoping for visitors whose ancestors came from Scotland to return. That way there would be a very welcome boost to the Scots tourist trade. Any foreign currency coming in to our cash strapped nation would be good. As an aside on this, I put on a new shirt this morning, snapped up as a bargain reduction in that hated shop, Tesco. I would usually pay this amount for a charity shop purchase but the shock came when I looked at the original price tag. £15 or €22:50. Less than a year will have passed since the product went into the shop, and now we have parity with the euro! Nellie had none of these worries. Her stamps for the postcards remained at that halfpenny rate for years. The post office then did not have to bother with commemorative stamps. Nor would they dare to force you to buy extra stamps to obtain the Burns commemoratives, illustrated here.

Some ten years ago my daughter lived way up in the very north west corner of Scotland – just outside Durness. There was a local pottery run by a woman called Lotte Glob. Her work was really not like any other pottery I’d ever seen. As well as making cups and utility pottery (but quite exquisite and each piece totally unique), she gathered materials from the ground around where she lived, mixed them into works art and placed the art back into the landscape where she’d gathered the material. The idea completely caught my imagination. Over a few trips we collected a number of cups. I love how underneath each one is just two words “far north”.

Here are some of them -

She has an exhibition currently and she’s published a beautiful book about her “floating stones” project.
I saw her exhibition at the Watermill Bookshop in Aberfeldy last weekend. It was stunning. Look at this simple tile for just one example -

On May of 2008 I went to Scotland just before to leave England and come back to Spain for future plans. This was one of my last chances to visit Scotland. I knew that, this region, this country, wouldn’t disappoint me.

Lost Valley at Glen Coe (Southern Highlands)
This was one of my long up walks in Glen Coe, after a tired walk, you can get a true lost valley between these mountains. No words…

You could see last winter defrosting yet.

It’s amazing the colors and the huge size of these mountains.

Loch Lomond

Some place of loch Lomond, perfect to catch some lazy fish

Horses in sunset

Close to loch Ness, I could enjoy them some evening.

Loch Ness

No Nessie anywhere, but impressive landscapes with true nature.

Urqhart Casttle

One of the most wellknow Casttles in Loch Ness

Break stop

Eilean Donan Casttle

This casttle is one of my favorites thanks to The Highlanders film

The Scotland Colors

Fisherman working one sunset

Crossing main Glen Coe road

Twin peaks? (Glen Coe)

This region is spectacular, the main door to Southern Highlands.

Introducing Scotland Moon

Ursa Major is coming this night

Golden Horse

We stayed a couple of days in a Horse Farm with gorgeous horses

Way to Orkney Islands

Introducing Highland cattle

Their hair is better than mine!

Duncansby Head at John O’Groat

This is the best point I ever seen on the most northen region of England. It remains me The Goonies!

Hundreds of Guillemots

Guillemot’s nesting close to Duncansby head

Sighting first Orkney Island of about 70!

Myst and Fog in Orkney I.

Iceland Gull

West Coast of Marwick head

Kitchener Memorial

Erected in memory of Lord Kitchener

First ground texture (Marvick Head)

Second ground texture (Brough of Birsay)

Cormorant

This bird I guess it’s beautiful!

The Little Prince

Puffin

Look at his sad eyes

Razorbill

Third ground texture (Brough of Birsay)

Brough of Birsay

This is a true mystic place

Isle of Hoy and Graemsay from Stromness

Isle of Hoy

Common Seal

Grey Seals

Discovered beach way to Durness

More impressive landscapes in the Durness road from Gills bay

Lonely Beach close to Durness

Spanish ghost in Durness

Enjoying with waves

Durness coast

Cawdor Casttle in Nairn

Romantically related to Shakespeare with Macbeth.

Old wagon

Scottish wild Deer

Liebe Freunde der Tanzmusik und des Breitensports!

Eigentlich müsste ich mich jetzt ja wieder mal dafür entschuldigen, dass ich hier lange keinen frischen Inhalt gebracht habe. Aber derzeit bin ich halt sehr viel unterwegs (ja, ich wiederhole mich) und so melde ich mich derzeit auch aus der Stadt in der sich der Finanzdistrikt zärtlich an das Sex- und Drogenviertel schmiegt – aus dem Maritim-Hotel in Frankfurt.

Und obwohl deutsche Hotels immer noch völlig utopische Mondpreise für den Internetzugang verlagen (15€ für 24h -aber auch nur von 12h bis 12h- im Zimmer; 30€ pro Stunde sogar im Business Center – unfassbar!), habe ich zufällig gerade etwas Online-Zeit und kann nachdem ich meine beruflichen Emails gecheckt habe, endlich mal die Ergebnisse meiner letztwöchigen Produktivität einer etwas breiteren Öffentlichkeit präsentieren.

Ich habe mich in der vergangenen Woche abends nämlich hauptsächlich damit befasst, unsere Schottlandreise medial aufzubereiten, und zwar in Form von Videos.
Da wir es insgesamt auf knapp 4.000 Bilder und etwa 7,5 Stunden Videomaterial gebracht haben, reichte natürlich ein Youtube-taugliches Video (also bis zu 10 Minuten) nicht wirklich aus. Daher habe ich die ganze Bildgewalt Schottlands in zwei Videos à jeweils knapp 10 Minuten Dauer gepackt.

Der erste Teil ist sogar schon seit ein paar Tagen bei Youtube online zu sehen, daher kann ich dies schon hier im Blog einbinden:

Um den zweiten Teil auf einer Videoplattform hochzuladen fehlte mir bislang die Online-Zeit, allerdings habe ich beide Dateien schon bei Rapidshare hochgeladen, so dass beide etwa 60MB große Videos dort für Euch runterladbar sind:

http://rapidshare.com/files/103980708/Travelling_Scotland_Part_1.avi.html
http://rapidshare.com/files/104420596/Travelling_Scotland_Part_2.avi.html

Das ist zwar grundsätzlich etwas lästiger, zumal man eigentlich nur eine Datei pro Tag dort runterladen kann, wenn man keinen Account dort hat, aber ich kann es dennoch empfehlen, da der Qualitätsunterschied zur Youtube-Variante schon deutlich bemerkbar ist und so ein Video im Vollbildmodus einfach mehr Spaß macht.

Darüberhinaus habe ich auch noch ein paar weitere Videos verwurschtet, von denen eines schon bei youtube hochgeladen ist. Dies ist eine Fahrt auf einer kleinen Straße auf dem Weg zur Fähre in Kennacraig. Dies ist bei youtube allerdings ein einziges Pixel-Massaker und macht keinen wirklichen Spaß, da leider schon die Ausgangsvideos etwas dunkel sind. Zudem gibt es auch noch ein Stück unserer Fahrt mit der Fähre im Zeitraffer, die im Gegensatz zum Fahrtvideo eher “entspannenden” Charakter hat.

http://rapidshare.com/files/104341894/CalMacFerry_Islay.avi.html

http://rapidshare.com/files/104112900/Todesfahrt.avi.html 

Ich würde mich sehr freuen, wenn Ihr Euch die Videos anschaut und anschließend hier ein bisschen Feedback geben könntet!

Wenn es die Zeit erlaubt, hoffe ich, dass ich in der kommenden Woche Euch dann auch mit einem Reisebericht über den Trip beglücken kann.