Further North

I wake up to the sound of wind and waves, looking out the window seeing the Atlantic and a couple of island in the far distance. After a simple breakfast I take a stroll down the beach to the next village which consists of about 10 houses and a pasture with lots of sheep. I’m in a slightly grey mood which fits the weather quite well. The wind picks up some speed and I walk back to the inn where I find Jamie sitting in front of a full Scottish breakfast. He forgot to be specific about it and is now confronted with black pudding, pork sausages, greasy bacon and two sunny side up soft eggs. That’s a challenge but he manages at least some of it.
After breakfast we leave and drive back over the pass to Plockton


We meet with the director of the “School Of Excellence,” a traditional music school where kids can learn the bag pipes or singing in Gaelic. We were supposed to give a workshop there two days ago but missed it. Dougy, the director who is also a famous piper that used to play with the Battlefield band knows the challenges of tour life and is very forthcoming even recommends a friends B&B close by where we could stay over night but we still need to find out about tomorrows show in Ullapool which is a good two hours further North.
Finally we get through to the organizer and find out that they screwed up and that there is no show in Ullapool. They feel very bad about it and invite us up to stay there for free for the next two days before we have to go to Inverness. We take the offer and get on the road which takes us half the way back to Applecross and than further North. At times the sparse landscape reminds me of Eastern Washington with only a little more green. After a while I realize that we’re low on gas. I had my eyes on this for some time but there was just no gas station anywhere. It’s getting critical and we’re starting to figure out different scenarios where one stays with the car and one hitchhikes or both walk in different directions.
It’s raining again and on top of it there is a windstorm. We come to a T crossing and I have to make a decision to go either towards Ullapool into the Highland nothingness or away from it toward some small villages. I choose the villages which turns out to be the right thing and with the last drop of petrol (that’s what the locals say) we’re rolling into a gas station. After that we turn around and are back on route North. The rain picks up and now it’s a full storm and I still have pictures in my head of being stranded without gas somewhere is the highlands in the twilight of the evening with no car or house for miles and miles. Some time later we reach Ullapool which has a small harbor and is bigger than expected.




After being in remote places for a while this seems to be a bit strange but the hospitality of our hosts and some food with good Scottish ale makes up for everything.
After dinner we go to the bar and just play music all night long being joined for a while by a local fiddler. Ale and whiskey are appearing out of thin air and I’m smart to leave some of it untouched. Late at night I’m asked to sing some songs over in the by now closed restaurant for a staff member that has her last day.
They have a little party for her and we stay until 2 am when we finally go to bed. Instead of staying here for two days we will go to Inverness tomorrow. The organizer of that concert invited us to come a day earlier and meet some musicians. That we do and play about two hours in the kitchen with three fiddles, percussion guitar and bouzouki.