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Holy Sheep!

Scotland Day One Part Five

By Tineke Ziemer

May 31^st, 2017

stop the van!

I'm not into the 'touristy' places. The spots I get most excited about are the ones that we see when we're away from the mainstream areas, on some narrow country road: a decrepit farm, or an old, abandoned church, or a little out-of-the-way village. I'm not interested in getting the same photograph that ten thousand other tourists have already captured. I like to spend time exploring the places that most people drive right on by because they aren't listed in the tourism guide. Later in the trip, we often didn't have time to stop when I spotted those places from my backseat view. But on that first day, before our driver realized just how many times we would yell 'Stop!' if he allowed us, he graciously pulled over several times at our whim. Sometimes we only made it 500 feet down the road! Of course, those are my favourite shots of the day because they capture the authenticity of the Scottish countryside.

An interesting hairy-lipped horse we met on the side of the road

We drove over 1000 miles (about 1800km) in the big, red van

"The Church on Chapel Hill" (St James Church at Cruden Bay)

sheep happens

Who would have known the excitement that sheep could cause?! Certainly, our hosts didn't understand what the big deal was. And admittedly, it's not like we've never seen a freakin' sheep before. BUT it's different seeing sheep in Scotland. They are so iconic to the Scottish countryside, that it was an absolute MUST to stop many times and get photos of sheep throughout this trip. The first time, Ron actually had to turn the van around on a narrow little road and backtrack because the light was perfect at THAT exact moment. However, the sheep had other ideas and as soon as we piled out of the van, they turned their backs and took off. A field of sheep butts was not quite what we had in mind.

Later that day, when we stopped at St. James Church, there happened to be a field with four comical sheep beside the church. Quite honestly, I don't think any of us got around to taking photos of the church itself for quite some time. Instead, we were being entertained by these guys. Contrary to the behaviour of their fellow ovines earlier in the day, these fellas took one look at Sherrylynn and ran over to her as fast as their little legs could carry them. I took advantage of the situation by popping on my wide angle lens to capture their curious personalities. One guy kept stomping his foot at me, as if to say "Get outta here!" (you can see his gangster attitude in the black and white photo below) but I found it so endearing that it only made me love him even more.

bullers o' buchan

Our next planned stop was at the "Bullers O' Buchan," which feature the spectacular geological formation known as "The Sea Cauldron." It was once a large cave but the action of the sea caused the roof to collapse, leaving this large open cavity surrounded by 200 foot cliffs. The natural arch in the rocks, through which the sea water flows, and the immense flocks of sea birds diving and nesting on the cliffs, make this a spectacular sight, indeed! The narrow path winds perilously close to the edge, and Ron did not hesitate to relay stories of times he made dives to retrieve bodies from this particular spot during his days as a police officer. The majority of them were tourists who underestimated how slippery the grass was and got too close to the edge. This was very helpful in convincing us to remain cautious while in the area. So thank you, Ron. Thank you.

the end of day one

After this, we made one more stop at another look out, but my ol' body was done. We had a very jam-packed day and there were 14 more to come! We drove back to Aberdeen, where I asked to be dropped off while the rest of the party animals went out to the pub for dinner. Back at the flat, I had a bubble bath, did my workout and had a simple meal of cottage cheese before falling into bed. It was the end of day one.