My tour is to Cawdor Castle and Culloden Battlefield

Again it looks like it’s going to be a sunny day, atleast for a while. 

The name Invergorden means …mouth of the river Gorden.

Gaels came from the west and Vikings from the north where they clashed. 

Whiskey means in the Gaelic language  “water of life”….. supposedly was good for headaches and the liver…. 🤣 . It has to be aged in a cask for at least 3 years.  It has to be atleast 35% alcohol by volume…. & no more “the midges teardrop”.  “The finest whiskey is any that is free”. Black on the houses are caused from a fungus. 

 Cromarty Firth…. Deep water ….lots of dolphins and seals (some saw dolphins but I didn’t) . Cromarty Bridge a mile long built in 1979. In 1982 the bridge over mouth of river Ness was when they got rid of all ferries. There was oil discovered in Firth. They used royalties from oil to build bridges and got rid of them. 

Duncan Grant distillery was burnt down in 1689 by Jacobites. 

Scottish Highlands are older mountains than the Himalayas …. and so had more time to erode… hence lower. 

The Frasers, DeBrus, Roses, etc as well as the Grants later, Anglo-Norman knights and nobles from  France…. 7-800 years ago. They were clan chiefs but not “Scottish”. They had been invited by King David and William. 

Battle of Culloden …In 1746

Prince Charles (leading the Jacobites) attempted to  retake Britains government forces led by  Cumberland. 1500-2000 Jacobite to 300 government deaths…. in 1 hour. 

Women didn’t have to take husband name before battle. 

Lazy census takers didn’t want to put in “a” in Mac so in some cases was dropped…to Mc. 

Red door means owned by clan chief. 

Cawdor Castle started to be built in the late 14th century ….4 story tower, 400 years ago. 

Way back in the day, the Scot’s didn’t wear anything on their feet… never til their teens. It made their feet very tough. They could tell  direction from the way the heather was growing. They would wear hose around calves to protect them. If it was terribly cold they might wear moccasins with holes to let water out. 

Kailey means to come together.  Lots of wheat and barley grown. 

Kilt was like blanket… could be used for a. Umber of things such as a tent. 

Unfortunately I have used pretty much all available space with pictures and videos on my blogs. My choice is to delete media from past blogs or pay a whole lot more each year. I have deleted some videos already so have been able to sort of finish this posting. We will see how far I get. If I can’t I guess you’ll have to wait til I get home and I can decide what to do.

Gail

Our tour today is the Isle of Lewis ….a heritage tour. The Outer Hebrides with a population of 19,000, is the largest British island. 

We are doing the west side circular tour… the best Iron Age tour

Lord Leverhulme (founder of Lever Bros. He had also made money in heroin trade.) in 1818, bought the island including Lews Castle, when he was 67 yrs.  for 143,000£.

Peat fields is spagnum moss. A layer of grass is first taken off. The peat is under it. It is cut into 35-36 cm blocks…. up to 2 layers only so that it can regrow. They let it dry for some time. It takes 18,000 peat blocks per year to use in each home. Apparently you have to ask the clerk of grazing for permission to harvest the peat. In some cases you may have to pay to cut. 

Harris is southern part…. Is rocky. 60,000 still speak the Gaelic (said “garlic”) language in the country. Parents have the choice to send their kids to go to Gaelic school.  

5000 +years ago …Neolithic period it was not as wet, they could grow barley and other grains . There were trees. Now the trees are seen along the side of the road, were  planted 25-30 years ago. They are pine ….not native so got invaded by insects. The insecticide they got had instructions in Russian that no one could understand. They mixed them anyway, killing some the trees. Now they only plant native species. 

Callinish Standing Stones from 5000 years ago, 2000-3000 BC, predating Stonehenge. We did not go there but saw some others as we drove by. 

Besides teachers and all hospital employees (doctors and nurses etc) that are employees of the government, the area employs people in fish farms (2nd after Norway), oil rig workers

90 cruise ship/year come so tourism. There is 6% unemployment. 

800-880 BC during the Iron Age, “Dun Charlabhaigh“ was built, probably by a wealthy family because there were wood beams used for inside support as well as the roof, when there were no trees left at the time. It is believed that it was a cattle economy at the time. The structure now stands at 9 metres high but was probably 13 originally with the  roof. 

1600…Morrison clan (stole cows) & hid in the broch in a fight with MacAuley family but they were all killed when they came out or were killed by the fire that was ignited . 

In the 800’s, Vikings came… brought Norse language and rectangular houses … black houses. Those houses were built on a slope… humans higher up, animals lower. They had thatched roofs. “Gearrannan” was the last of black-houses.  Only old people were left in 1970s. They still milked cows up to 1960s in what is the museum now. 

These were built in 1840-1850….. others were built before. Slope floor for drainage. Bronchitis was prevalent because of the smoke from peat, etc. Government made it that you had to add a centre wall to separate humans from animals . Wells were  outside…. no running water inside. They used paraffin tilley oil lamps. Summer they lived in small buildings like summer camping out on the crofts, looked after animals & cut peat. Last resident of the black houses was in 1974. 

Crofters…. renters worked the strip of land. Crofting is still alive today. 20-30,000 pounds to buy them but our guide rents for 6£ per year…she has 6 sheep and vegetables on hers. …. Now you must be living within so many miles of their Croft to use it. 

There are common grazing grounds for sheep but can only be a certain percentage of what is owned….

Must identify by tag but they also spot colour them with paint. 

Harris tweed…1833 began serious business….must be 100% virgin wool. 

Whale bone at entrance of home… from 80 foot blue whale that washed ashore in 1920

Scotland would prefer to belong to EU. 

First 7 years kids go to primary school then secondary school. There are only 2 secondary schools on the island so means more time travelling to school. 

Social housing -200 new builds rented at a reasonable price. 

Monbretia growing wild as well as heather blooming purple mostly right now.  

Whoohoo!  

Sheep farm also root vegetables

Reindeer are in the north. 

It is not necessarily covered in snow here in this area (Qaqortoq). Greenland is actually further south than Iceland and quite often doesn’t have snow and ice so it was called Greenland by early visitors. 

Only one glacier in this area that provides icebergs….meaning it empties into the ocean. Most come south from the northeastern part. Sometimes polar bears come down on ice flows. 

It’s a fair sized village of approximately 3000 people. We still outnumber them. In a way I feel for them to be inundated with so many at one time.

We are picked up right from the dock from which we tendered in and driven to the airport, the newest one in the world. The road is excellent (and brand new I would say) but very windy over barren lands.

We start our helicopter ride…..

We stop for a dip in a hot springs pool in the barren mountaintop overlooking a bay full of icebergs

Next we land on a glacier.

Landed….

It’s a beautiful day with lots of huge icebergs

And then….., the captain decided to take us through what I believe was Prince Christian Sound. OMG…..Spectacular!

As I mentioned before, the stop in Nanortalik was cancelled with the excuse that it would be too dangerous to safely go. Well now, I question that line because there was barely a cloud in the sky with absolutely zero fog and no wind.

So as a substitution, the ship’s authority decided we would cruise the Arsuk Fjord.

We saw some icebergs before entering the fjord.

While cruising up the fjord we saw muskox …. 3 on the beach at one location and one at an abandoned cryolite mine. Unfortunate they were a little too far away to get any really good pictures.

More icebergs after exiting the fjord

At Nuuk we have a dock…. not tender. 30 Minuite walk into town. Surprising to me, Nuuk is quite large…20,000+ people. There are lots and lots of apartment condos… very basic, institutional with not much of the poor rundown homes that we saw in Paamiut yesterday. There are even malls and coffee places where you can get a cappuccino ….. for almost $11 CAD. OUCH!!!

Expect to be at Cape Farewell, on the southern tip of Greenland at 7-8 am in morning tomorrow so that we  can see to go around icebergs. Actually arrive around 10pm tomorrow night off Paamuit so will not have to deal with fog. 

6C expected. Looks like clear skies expected but always subject to change. Paamuit to Nuuk, then Nanortulik and finally Qaqortoq. 

The east side of Greenland is where icebergs originate… travelling at  2-3 knots southward and then travel up into the west side. Ship will stay a mile away from big ones but the smaller ones can cause big dents in the ship.

No telling if there will cloud for the eclipse but should know better 10 am the day of but ……“it will be dark” according to the captain. Time of eclipse 5:45 -6:49 pm+/-. 

There will be about 20 ships in the North Atlantic area but 4-5 near Iceland where we will be. 2 ice pilots on Board …. have all the latest information. Yes, we have search lights. 

“If you drive your car to all these places, if that was possible, then you would probably be using more fuel than we are doing now on the ship”…. quote from the captain. 

Icebergs can be as big as the ship at 2-300 metres. On Aug 5th, as we were heading to Paamiut, we saw our first icebergs. For the last 24+ hours, the fog horn had been blasting. It was too foggy to see anything but grey. Everyone was excited, going to the starboard side of the ship to take pictures.  The skies were actually clear enough to see mountains in the background. 

Noon announcement: we are now 60+degrees north …..30 kms south of Qaqortoq. It’s 15 C with winds at 20. 

Apparently they will be cancelling our port call into Nanortilik due to fog in 3 days time. I am so disappointed. My one and only excursion was to be there, was by small boat to be up close and personal with icebergs 😩😢.

7:30 tenders tomorrow August 7th. 

Piotr (Peter in Polish) is our guide.  He was atleast 2 feet taller than me…OMG!  Nice guy but we had a lot of difficulty understanding all that he had to say.  

The most famous mountain near Grundarfjörður is Mount Kirkjufell, often called “Church Mountain”. It stands 463 meters (1,519 feet). Volcanos here erupted 12,000 yrs ago but because they were covered by snow, caused them to be flat. This volcano is a pinnacle….. was carved by glaciers. You need a guide now to climb it cuz it’s dangerous…4 Brits fell to their death. 

At the same stop we saw Kirkjufellsfoss…. Same name but with the “foss” (meaning waterfall) added. 

Black sand beach.. is a caldera created by volcanic blast…. Just a drive by. 

Iceland is only 24 million years old…. young by world standards. 

They have 30 active volcanos. 

One in 1783, “Laki”, that spewed for 8 month, decimated the island. Toxic gases and ash killed 50-80% of all livestock, and 20-30% of the population by starvation. Toxic gas and ash are the worst for killing people and livestock . As well, earthquakes and molten lava (they create flat surfaces) kill. That one killed 6 million in the world from famine, crop failures, and respiratory illness and is believed to have been responsible for starting the French Revolution. There is more info on it….. check it out on internet  

When Vikings came to Iceland in 9th century, it was treed. (Sorry if I am repeating myself)

Sheep are free to roam from May to September when all the farmers come together to round them up. They are then distributed to their owners. The grass near the road is tastiest (and get in the way of the traffic) where they get their fix… lol!

Djupalónssandur, the sea-polished beach pebbles-the black lava pearls of Djúpalón-the elf rocks, and the sea

Iceland had the 1st parliament in the world. The Althing (Iceland, 930 AD): Founded by Viking chieftains as an open-air assembly to make laws and settle disputes.   “Human life” is the most important thing for Icelandics.  For example at one point in history when told they had to convert to Catholicism, instead of fighting, they chose to go with it instead of being subjected to death). 

In 1943 they gained independence from Denmark. 

We saw literally hundreds of teepees to the side of road …(“they will all be getting high on mushrooms”….lol) are here to observe the solar eclipse. 

No GMO is used in farming in Iceland. 

If someone is using an umbrella here, they are new to Iceland cuz if you have been here for a while, you know that rain and snow comes down horizontally so an umbrella is useless. 

The volcano when exploded in my 2010, went 8 km into air affected 100,000 people when all air traffic was halted. 

Bridge that “was built by God” at Arnastapi 

OMG it is expensive here….$54CAD for caesar salad ….or fish and chips, or 15$ for small fries. We decided we were not that hungry!! 

Black church, in 1816, a decision was made to rebuilt church. The first church built at Búdir was consecrated in 1703.  The Swedish-born merchant Bent Lauridesen built the church with his own money. The church was a low-rise turf church with a cemetery, and the first burial took place in 1705. Over time, the church fell into disrepair. A royal letter in 1816 made it official that it was no longer to be used as a church.

It was not until the middle of the 18th century that Steinunn Sveinsdottir, a wealthy widow born in 1777, changed that. One spring day, Steinunn was working outside turning peat that had been stacked in the tufts of the old church. Suddenly, she was overcome with fatigue, so she lay down and fell asleep.

Then a man came to her in a dream and asked her to take up the challenge of rebuilding the church at Búir. Steinunn woke up and realized that this man had been Bent, who had established the first church.

Steinunn accepted the challenge and in the same year, 1847, she applied for permission to rebuild the church. However, the church authorities refused. The King of Denmark and Iceland, gave his blessing for the construction of a new church. Steinunn built the church with no support from the spiritual leaders, now stands at Búdir. It was completed in 1848. As pay back to the church, she had it painted black. Steinunn put the door ring from Bent’s original church on the church door. Steinunn died in 1854.

There were 30,000 English and 60,000 American here occupying  Iceland during war.  Icelanders suggested that they say “they were where to protect them so it would be easier to accept”. 

Winds are not a joke here in winter. You are not allowed to drive when it is blowing 40 metres per sec. (I don’t know how you calculate that)

Sunrise 4:19 am tomorrow and 10:30 pm is sunset