We managed to get a spot on the Glenmorangie Distillery Tour- only £5 per person! Our group was very international, had some Aussies, Canadians, a huge throng of Czech Republicans and some Italians. The Czechs had their own translator and was having a ball with the smell of whisky all around the place.
Learned a lot about the whisky process, smelled some drums and got our respiratory pipes/sinuses blasted clear by the carbon dioxide from the fermenting barley beans! Unfortunately, couldn't capture the hilarious expressions of the entire group when catching a sharp, stinging whiff from the boilers. No photographs allowed as the tiniest spark could set the whole place on fire. Handphones had to be turned off as well.
A chart of how whisky is sourced. :) I personally love how it says 'Water MEANDERS down...' Haha!
I looked at the pamphlets we nicked from the distillery and saw a homegrown beer brewery offering free tours and tasting! It was off to the Black Isle Brewery.
Hubby bought one for ourselves and another as a souvenir for a friend.
More Heeland Coos.
The next activity of the day was driving along an EXTREMELY bumpy forest track (note how the directions in our research only mentioned bumpy haha) and a 20 minute walk down to view Plodda Falls. The lovely poem below depicts it perfectly. We had a reading of it before we got out from the car and began our descent. :D This is why I love literature. Helps provide a context and much enjoyed anticipation! :)
Thanks to the poem above, I knew the first bit of tumbling torrents was NOT the falls itself. One could be easily fooled!
Finally we heard the loud gushing falls. There was a sharp viewing wooden platform protruding from the edge of the ground where we were. We had no idea it was actually over a very steep cliff which was basically constructed over the main fall. I started walking on the planks. Hubby went forward first and looked over the side and yelled back to me quite urgently, "DON'T COME HERE!!!!" I stopped dead in my tracks quite astonishedly and asked why. He said, "It's very high and quite scary." I didn't really think it would have been much of a problem despite my fear of heights at that point until he came back and showed me this picture. Haha! Good call. As you can see he was standing right above the fall. Look at the tall pine trees down there for comparison of how high up we were.
We continued our descent in the forest until we heard the falls quite loudly again. But we couldn't see it. We continued walking and very fine mists of water were clouding my spectacles. I wondered if it was raining haha but soon, the mist turned into sprays of water. We walked up to a wooden barrier and looked around the corner. We were officially in front of the falls! It was impossible to stand there for more than 2 seconds without getting blinded by water. We each took turns running up to the barrier and taking quick glimpses of the majestic falls. During one of the turns, we managed to get this photo. Does no justice to the actual height of the falls. :(
After the eventful day, we were famished and decided to stop at Oakwood restaurant off the highway which serves "Scotland's Real Food". :) TripAdvisor rated it very well. This would be hubby's second, more official birthday dinner!
The interesting interior with mugs hanging from the ceiling.
Forgot what this starter was but it had some seafood and bacon in it.
Because the next table of tourists had booked ahead for langoustines (apparently very popular) which were fished out of the Isle of Skye earlier that day...when we ordered it, we could only get the last 3 eventhough we were first to place the order. In place of the fourth langoustine, he apologetically asked us if we would have some salmon instead. Had we known how good the langoustines were, we wouldn't have agreed! :D It was our first taste of langoustines and it was superb. Clawing its way to the top of my seafood list.
Our second dish was warm and comforting beef stewed in red wine. Complemented the seafood immensely well.
The generous side of yummy buttered vegetables.
And of course, to end the beautiful night, we picked up strawberry cheesecake from Asda. Although we had no candles, thanks to technology and a certain iPhone App, the hubby was able to blow out a candle in the dark!
No comments:
Post a Comment