As I said, the first order of the day was rock climbing! The Torridon is an outdoor lover's dream, There are all kinds of activities from kayaking to hiking. When we arrived we found that we should have booked activities in advance, but they were able to squeeze Josh in for some climbing. Our instructor was Kyle, very friendly and very knowledgeable. Really, he was a lot of fun. I (Karen) even ended up joining in. It worked out perfectly because the others in our group were a dad with two of his three kids - Oscar, age 10 and Eva, age 7. The kids were thick as thieves within minutes. Anyway, the climbing activity had three parts - climbing a fairly small rock face, climbing a 40 foot tree, and abseiling (rappelling) down the rock face. The first climb was a bit rough as it was slick from the rain. It also made our fingers numb! I am not as spry as I used to be but I managed to get to the top with help from Kyle, who was belaying. Josh had no problems at all. The next bit was the tree climb. While it was high, it wasn't that hard. Because of how the trunk was situated, you really couldn't look down and see the ground. The last ten feet or so was a little wobbly, because the wind was blowing the tree, but it still wasn't that bad. The other two kids got a little scared on their first go and didn't make it to the top. Josh blew right up. Then I went and Paul followed. After that, Kyle told Josh that the all time speed record for climbing the tree was 1 minute 40 seconds and that was all the motivation that Josh needed. He was up the tree like a shot and handily beat the record, clocking 1 minute 36 seconds. I reckon he could have even been faster, but he stopped once or twice! The last activity was the abseiling. Surprisingly, Josh was a little tentative about this, but he managed. I, on the other hand, was apparently meant to do this as I sailed down the face quickly. We had such fun! The only downside was an introduction to the scourge of the Highlands - the midge. The Midge is a tiny little insect that basically bites and bothers you until you go insane. Josh and I both have the bites to prove it! Yikes!
As fate would have it - we went to eat lunch at the smaller Inn that is next door to the hotel and our newly made friends were also there to have lunch before heading out on their next adventure. We exchanged e-mail addresses and hopefully we will hear from them in the future!
The early afternoon was spent relaxing in our room while it was raining outside. We had a great view of the lake (loch) and the mountains. After that, we went for a drive to a town (Plockton) that the hotel recommended to visit. It took about an hour or more to get there and we only had about 10-15 minutes to walk around and see it. It was a quaint little village on the water with a dock and lots of B&Bs and a few shops. The road there (and back) was quite an adventure. Yet another single-track road but this road was especially narrow (or seemed to be) due to the large amount of foliage growing right up to the road. It was hard to get any speed up on it as you had to slow down for possible cars coming the other direction at any time.
We got gas (holy cow, 80 pounds for 3/4 of a tank of diesel!) on the way back and then headed back to the hotel in time for dinner. We ate dinner at their high end restaurant at the Torridon Hotel. Josh pre-ordered pasta and tomato sauce along with mango gelato. They took our order earlier in the day and Josh said that he liked mango gelato. They didn't have that flavor so they said they would make it just for him. He was super excited. And Josh was careful throughout the meal not to eat too much because he wanted to have enough room for the mango gelato dessert!
We had a 5-course dinner that was very good. I had the pork (several cuts of pork) and Karen had the fish (Cod). The dessert was a white chocolate with blueberry ice cream dish. It was delicious. And Josh loved his gelato. (it was very good -- we had some too!)
After that it was time for bed.
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| Josh Climbing Tree at Torridon |
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| Cow walking leisurely alongside single-track road |
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| Plockon |
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