Day 11 Amy & Andy’s Excellent Adventure 2023 The Third – British Isles Edition: Ullapool, Scotland (Highlands)

Where We Go On Separate Excursions In This Unbelievably Beautiful Place.

We were scheduled to be in Ullapool only a few hours – we docked at about 11:30 a.m. and all aboard time is 5:00 p.m. We were are on two different excursions: I was signed up for the included walking tour of the town, and Andy signed up for something called “Knocken Crag Hike”.

We went down to Guest Services to hopefully break some larger pound sterling notes and get some more detailed info on my walking tour. Negatory on both questions; the ship only has euros and US dollars, and there was almost no information about the walking tour other than “Walk for an hour. Have a snack”.

Good news! It is spectacularly beautiful!

Bad news! When I found my 6′ tour guide at the pier and I mentioned that I walk slowly, she said, “I’m sorry, but I have to maintain a certain pace to keep the timing with all the groups.” Ok, then. I followed the group for a couple of minutes, and then just stopped. It was ridiculous. She was loping along like a gazelle – I could see that the group was struggling to keep up with her, not just me.

The town of Ullapool is so incredibly tiny, it was super easy even for me to walk around on my own.

I found a little shop and bought some items. I knew the name of the restaurant where the group was supposed to meet to have a snack and some entertainment. Eventually I found my way there and sat on a bench in front by the water, just enjoying the view.

There was no other way in or out of the restaurant other than right in front of where I was sitting. I waited until 2:00 p.m., but I never saw any Viking group go in. I suspect that most people opted to roam the town to shop or just go directly back to the ship. So I went back to the ship and enjoyed some gelato while sitting out on the open terrace on deck 7.

Andy’s excursion was quite a bit different. It was a bit of a drive out into the countryside for a hike categorized as “demanding” called “Knocken Crag”; it was definitely categorized correctly!

The tour guide was a geologist, who explained the different rock formations along the way.

Rock layers of different types of rocks. There’s labels on each layer that we can’t quite make out in the photo.

Lochan An Ais – a pretty lake along the way

The mystery is how the black rock got to this spot – it comes from 50 miles away

Here is a photo of the tour group following the guide down the mountain/hillside. Note the tour guide is a little old lady, who is marching down the trail as if she were walking in her own house. Note how everybody in the group is trailing behind her just a bit more tentative where they put their feet.