Cairns, Lochs and Munros

Here I am again as promised! I didn't like the way that the photos turned out last night, they were so small that I decided to add them to Photobucket today and post them through there as I normally do. Photobucket has got antsy and will only show me every other page, trying to tell me that all the even number pages aren't available! I pay for Photobucket Pro, is it too much to expect to be able to find my photos there?! And now Blogger have decided I can't post any more than fourteen photos per entry! It used to be twenty four. Oh well, I shall just have to do more entries won't I?!
Thanks for your comments on the last post, it's good to see old friends here again! Scotland is a land of grandeur and majesty. There's so much untamed wilderness out there, I loved seeing it! I was talking to somebody at work who said he'd never go to Scotland because he knows he'd love it too much and never want to come home again! It does take you like that, it's incredibly beautiful and you could never tire of the scenery which seems to change as the weather changes.
Anyway, enough of my rambling today and on with the photos. Some may be duplicated from the first entry but they'll be bigger and clearer.... I hope!
The header photo is of a cairn on Rannoch moor. A cairn is a burial tomb and this one was constructed in memory of Sir Hugh Munro and all the other climbers who have lost their lives in the Scottish Highlands. Any mountain over 3,000ft in Scotland is called a Munro after Sir Hugh Munro who made it his mission to climb them all. He completed 283 leaving one unclimbed at his death in 1919.
The first photo is taken where we stopped on Rannoch moor. The sun was trying very hard to put in an appearance!

Looking in the opposite direction on Rannoch moor.

It's like Switzerland without the snow!

It must be idyllic to live in that house in the middle of nowhere!

This was taken from Suidhe View just up the road from Loch Ness. Our driver calls it the Lager Route as it reaches places no other coaches go! Lol! He said if a lot of coaches started going up there the police would stop them as the roads are so narrow in places and there are no lay bys
to let others pass. The view was one of the finest in Scotland and the sun came out for us too!

This last one from Suidhe View looks almost like a painting. I may do another entry tonight just to get some more photos on before I go back to work. I'm not adding signature tags because it means I shan't be able to add all the photos I want. Back later!!



Oops, that wasn't the last one.... this is the last one!!

Bonnie Scotland

Hi everybody! Long time no see! I've been absent from journals for so long now but after a wonderful trip to Scotland last week I wanted to put some photos up here.
The above photo is of Eilean Donan castle which is close to Kyle of Lochalsh. We stayed at Fort William and toured the Western Highlands which includes Glencoe. We also went to Kyle of Lochalsh where the road bridge connects to the Isle Of Skye. I got lots of photos of Skye, it's such a pretty island. We also had a trip up the Great Glen, past Loch Ness to Inverness. We didn't see Nessie, we stopped at St Augustus which is on the shores of Loch Ness.
Scotland is a beautiful country, everywhere was so scenic and colourful with heather growing wild everywhere. The weather was better than forecast. We only had rain at night when we were tucked up in bed, which is as it should be! Lol! During the day we had a couple of showers which only lasted a few minutes and produced quite a few rainbows. I've not added too many photos tonight as it's getting late so I'm going to leave you to look at the photos and I'll be back soon to add more. Those of you on Facebook may have seen these as I put them on there when I came home.

This is the blacksmiths forge at Gretna Green where young couples used to elope to to get married.

This is the harbour we stopped at on our arrival at the Isle of Skye.

This was one of my favourite places, Rannoch Moor. It's the largest peat bogland in Europe and is just so wild and rugged.

Rannoch moor again. The sun's rays really lit it up.

The Great Shepherd of Glencoe, it looks over Glencoe village.

The Three Sisters of Glencoe. It always looks so brooding and atmospheric. The Massacre of Glencoe took place here, the Campbells killing members of the McDonald clan.

One of the many lochs we passed on our way to Glencoe.

I loved this bridge, I could only get a shot of it as we passed on the coach.

There are just so many lochs in Scotland, all of them beautiful, even in the mist!

The Isle of Skye again, such a peaceful place.

Inverness castle, it's in a lovely position on top of a hill looking over the river Ness which runs through the city.


Another pretty river on the Isle of Skye.



This little guy is a Barn Swallow, he came and posed for me on the balcony of our hotel room, even waiting for me to change the lens on my camera!

Isle of Skye again!

I can't remember the name of this loch, it may be Loch Oich or Loch Lochy, I just love the tranquility here!

This is Portree, the capital of the Isle of Skye. We stopped here for dinner.


I hope you liked the photos, there's lots more where those come from! Lol! I'll post them in the next few days. What always put me off before was loading them all onto Photobucket first but Blogger seem to have made adding them straight from the computer much faster now.

I forgot to add a signature, that's what happens when you're away so long!

Jeannette xx

Perth Zoo

On Friday 27Th November it was Andy's birthday so we decided to go somewhere special ~ Perth Zoo. It was a beautiful sunny day (again!!) and we set off for the station to catch the train to Perth. The zoo is on the other side of the Swan river which flows through Perth so we had to get the ferry over the river. It was a ten minute walk along to the zoo.
This is the Swan Bell Tower which I mentioned before, it stands on the north side of the river bank. The bells belonged to St Martin in the Fields church in London and were the bells which rung out when Captain Cook set sail on the voyage to discover Australia. They're one of the few remaining royal bells and the only royal bells to have ever left England. We donated them to Australia as a bicentennial gift in 1988. Personally I would have kept them and had replicas made, these bells were part of our history.

This is the ferry we caught , that's the Perth skyline on the opposite bank.

Just inside of the gates we saw this beautiful little bird, I think he's called a Honey bird, he had a bright yellow breast and very pale eyes.

This is an Australian raven, they were all over the place, looks like he fancied a day at the zoo too! One followed us around, cawing at us all the time! I think it's because Andy had cawed back at him and he took offence!

White ginger plants, I saw a lot of these in Hawaii.

The zoo was well landscaped with lovely foliage and waterfalls.

I love hibiscus flowers, they're so big and bold looking.

I liked the strange trunks on the trees too! The roots on the ground looked like big feet!

These are two Tasmanian devils, think they look to hot to get up to any devilment!

This was a VERY big crocodile! He was around 14ft long!

Even their pigeons are prettily coloured!

I knew there had to be Kangaroos around somewhere!

This is a recreation of the Australian bush, it must look spectacular on a large scale out in the wilds.

Look at those eyelashes! I think they must be to help keep the sand out of their eyes.

More of the bush.

I don't know what this bird was in the tree, Australia is full of birds.

This baby orang utan was up over a hundred feet, climbing to his perch where he could eat his branch!

Watched over by dad!

This parrot had had enough of visitors and just wanted to sleep.


A kookaburra, he was wild, flying around and landing on the big aviaries.

I took many more photos at the zoo but thought I'd just show you my favourites. It was a huge place and we didn't get round to seeing everything but saw most of it.

I hope you liked being transported out of this icy weather into the Australian summer. Maybe one day I'll go back and visit more of this wonderful country.