Freshly Minted: The Highlands, Day 2

Our final day in Scotland we got up early again in order to do some hiking on Ben Nevis before heading back to Edinburgh. We didn't really have a specific plan (always a bad idea when you're climbing tall mountains--but we were ok) and just set out with the idea that we'd turn around after hiking what we surmised might be halfway. We knew we had to leave by 1:00 to get the car returned in time so we decided we'd just turn around when it got to 10:30-11:00. The beginning of the hike, like yesterday, was ludicrously steep...the steepest of the part we hiked in fact. So after getting to the more switch-back portion of the trail we were able to take it a bit easier. It was Good Friday and we passed a man who was dragging (on a wheel) a cross up to the top of the mountain...it was very cool to see someone doing something like that and we had a very interesting chat with him about it. We could feel the high altitude in our lungs but it was a beautiful clear day so the weather was quite invigorating. We hiked for several hours, soon reaching the snowy/icy part of the mountain. It made it somewhat difficult to hike and we were intimidated because we kept seeing people pass us with ice picks and crampons...we weren't going to push ourselves that much! As we got higher it got colder as well, naturally, and at a certain point (around 10:30) we decided we should turn around and head back. This decision was made largely due to the fact that we saw up ahead a very steep-looking incline completely covered in a few feet of snowy ice, being scaled by men with crampons and ice picks...we decided that was out of our range, as we had only regular hiking shoes. Apparently if we had gone only a little further we would have come to a lovely Loch nestled about halfway to the summit. But we were contended to live and decided climbing almost halfway up the highest peak in the UK was a good enough accomplishment for one morning. So we headed back down, passing a lot of equally ill-prepared people on the way ("Did you make it to the top?" they'd all say..."no, no," we'd reply, "it's icy and snowy and we've got to get back to Newcastle today"...and they'd keep on keeping on, probably not realizing they'd be turning around shortly as well). We arrived back at the hostel around 12:00, had a quick lunch and then set off for Edinburgh (a 3 hour drive). Most of the roads we were on were uncharted territory for us again which made it quite a nice drive. We drove through some super remote areas, past more beautiful lochs and the highest of the highlands...Allison slept through most of it, unfortunately. Arriving back in Edinburgh, we returned the car and took the bus back to the city center, having a few hours to kill until our train back to Newcastle. We grabbed some dinner and did a bit more souvenir shopping before catching our train. Another good trip it was!

Our hike up Ben Nevis