Scoraig, Ullapool, and Apple Pear Crisps

July 25, 2010

I’m very partial to breakfast and all the places we stayed started the day off in a divine fashion with sizeable feasts of yogurt, cereal, fruit, eggs, tomatoes, prunes, toast, bacon, OJ, coffee, and pots of tea. This inn was no exception. I knew that I would not starve on this trip.

Fog covered the mountain Angela wanted us to climb today, so we planned to drive along Little Loch Broom today where we would start our hike to the crofting community of Scoraig.

First stop was a beautiful little waterfall at Corrieshalloch Gorge. We crossed a suspension bridge that had a bit of a swing to it, then walked along the path to an observation deck. Then we piled back into the red van, a skill that we continued to hone throughout the trip.

Green heather added a tweedy texture to the rolling hills with their outcroppings of slick black angular rocks as we drove past in the grey weather. It was a mist on and off type of day. Soon we arrived at the car park where we began the hike up a slight incline. It was quite rocky and a little muddy and the path was lined with heather, gorse, peas or possibly scotch broom, and my favorite bog asphodel. The rhododendrons (the Washington state flower, by the way), were done blooming. We became accustomed to seeing white lichen in large blotches on the exposed gneiss as well as yellow and green lichen.

I've never seen moss so intensely dark green that it was almost black while still maintaining a rich deep emerald tone. I found it an incredibly beautiful color. Fog hugged the top of the hills across Little Loch Broom. We could see our destination 4 1/2 miles away and admiring the scenery as we walked by helped that distance seem shorter. We passed by a couple of waterfalls and I found many little flowers to take pictures of. I don't know what this flower is but I thought the details were so pretty!

One of several waterfalls along the way. We stopped for sweeties here on the way back!

A group of cows heralded our arrival at the Scoraig community by nonchalantly watching us go past. I never got the story on this totem pole but coming from the Pacific Northwest I found it an interesting decoration!

Since we still had some distance to go, we stopped at the lighthouse for lunch. It used to be a working lighthouse down on the shore but was moved up and made into a museum of sorts that told some of the history of this crofting community. I loved this lunch - the thickest slab of brie I could dream of with a healthy dollop of Dijon mustard on a roll, potato chips (oops, crisps!), and an apple.

We soon arrived at Kathy and Allen's home. They were originally from Tasmania and are both weavers. Kathy has a garden in the enclosed porch off their front door where she grows stunning bunches of grapes from the rafters. Visiting houseguests from Tasmania warmed us up by their hospitality and steaming cups of tea. Some of their woven goods were for sale, and most of us left with our daypacks a little heavier than when we arrived. I can't wait to wear my new wool hat!

An extremely sturdy loom with heavy weights for the warp. Beautiful!

Socks and sweeties, dark chocolate-covered ginger - all homemade.

Local fishing boat

The hike back allowed us to see the loch from a slightly different angle, and we made it back to Ullapool in time to write a few postcards and walk down to Ladysmith for dinner. Angela couldn't join us because she had to prepare for even more hiking after our trip, so we promised to be on our best behavior. Not sure if we accomplished that particularly well, but our conversations and laughter seemed to entertain the nice Edinburgher couple celebrating their anniversary. The major bonding came when someone 'fessed up to having sore feet and being very tired. There was a collective gasp of "oh, I'm so glad it's not just me!" that flew from our lips like prayers to the god of Ben-Gay.

Our very good-natured host took our bottle of wine to the kitchen to open it but we didn't see it for about 15 minutes. It was funny - food kept coming out from the kitchen, but not wine - and we were just about to ask about it when he returned with our bottle, now quite chilled (thank you!) and ready to open. Ordering dessert was amusing. Jessie asked to have the apple crisp just like she'd had the night before. The host looked blankly at her. She said that she'd really liked the apple crisp last night and was there any left because she'd like it again. And he continued to look at her, finally saying, "we didn't have apple crisp last night, we just had apple pear crisp". Now it was our turn to look puzzled because a couple of us thought he'd said the night before that they had apple crisp as well as apple pear crisp. And no one had detected the pear in the crisp (which was very delicious, by the way!) So Jessie asked if she could have just apple in the crisp and he said yes, as long she had it with pear. The timing of the delivery and glances of faux understanding made this exchange really quite funny and I'm afraid I don't do it justice here. But suffice it to say that with that crisp revelation and the choices of ice cream, ice cream and custard, or just custard, I'm surprised that he could keep our order straight!

And I had the chocolate fudge cake with ice cream. Divine.