Category: Scotland

Off the Beaten Coastal Path

The Fife coastal path in Scotland!  Our bit: Kirkcaldy to Crail. 37 miles. Picturesque most of the time, sometimes industrial. Rural and urban, but mostly rural. And the Firth of Forth and the North Sea on our right. Uncrowded.  A few other hikers but mostly local dog walkers and joggers.  We went through fields with Highland cows and sheep, green rye fields, bright yellow rape fields, quaint coastal fishing villages with their lobster pots stacked everywhere. 

Then there were the golf courses where we literally walked through the fairways, keeping an eye on the golfers teeing off.

We trekked through suburban communities, past giant wind turbines, grain elevators, WWII bunkers, castles, caves and huge mobile vacation home parks.  

The path was flat, marshy, hilly, rocky, beachy, with cliffs and drop offs, and several stretches along roads—both country and major A roads.  Up stone stairs, down steep paths, over stone fences, through animal gates.  Past playgrounds and cemeteries.

In many places coastal erosion caused the path to be diverted away from the coast.  Lots of “Path closed, danger!” signs. It’s an ongoing serious problem that will continue to alter the path. 

The most infamous part of our hike was the Elie Chain Walk.  It a series of nine chains bolted into coastal cliffs with narrow rocky ledges to walk on just above the crashing waves of the North Sea—a 1/2 mile of terror.  Fortunately for us, the coastal authority lists the safe times to walk it based on the tides.  We were a “red no-go” because of high tides when we reached the chain walk.  The safe alternative path took us high up to the cliff above the chain walk.  Scary enough in its own way.  Looking down, we breathed a sigh of relief.  The chain walk would have been terrifying.  

Walking the safer path instead of the chain walk thru the rocks

We had incredible luck with the weather.  Two days of partly sunny and on the last day when the weather reports said rain and wind all day, doom and gloom, we got one brief shower.  A strong wind off the North Sea was chilly, but we did get some sun and a real sense of what living on the North Sea coast might be like. And this was May.  The locals kept saying “It’s Scotland after all.”

It wasn’t really a strenuous hike like a Cascade mountain trail—the most elevation gain in any one day was about 300 ft. But we were leg weary, exhausted by the end of each day!  14 miles the first day and nearly as much the last day! 12 mile average per day. Some small aches and pains. Nothing that two Ibuprofen couldn’t relieve. While there were small towns and villages along the way, there were significant stretches with nothing but path, coast and us.  

Through all of the twists, turns, and detours, the path was clearly — crystal clearly marked — with Fife Coastal Paths medallions and arrows pointing the right direction.  

With that and the app provided for our cell phones we never once got lost. Not even close!  Of course, every fork in the path triggered a conference with our hiking partners. 

It was a very pleasant contrast with our Minister Way hike  in York several years ago where we got lost every day and rarely saw another human.

We had arranged the hike through a company, MACAdventures which provided luggage transfers and accommodations along the way — three charming hotels and one B&B.  The Ship Inn https://shipinn.scot/ in Elie was the favorite.  It’s an old inn on the waterfront with a restaurant and a lively bar filled with locals and dogs. Lots of dogs. 

Breakfasts were always included which meant you could start the day on a full Scottish—toast, eggs, fried tomato, baked beans, hash browns, oat pancake, sausage, bacon, black pudding, and, yes, haggis — and skip lunch all together! 

The evening meal was usually in the hotel pub or dining room which also provided the evening’s entertainment — chatting with a fellow hiker or to the locals who often seemed surprised we had chosen their corner of Scotland for our hike, and us loving the sound of the Scottish brogue with its “ayes, nayes, youses”.  

And a wee dram of whisky to top off the evening. “Slainte mhash!”

Would we do it again?  Aye, in a heart beat.  

Back to the Future

Well, this spring we are shaking it up a bit.  For the last few years we have followed our preferred pattern for traveling. Find a home base and from there explore.  Valencia, Spain last year. Ontiente, Spain the year before.  The Dordogne or Occitaine, France and years ago Umbria, Italy. All were explored from a place we called home for two or three weeks, or in the case of Valencia, two months.

Years ago we used to travel a bit like the bad movie, “If It’s Tuesday, It Must Be Belgium.”  (Don’t know it? Don’t bother looking for it. As you might guess it’s about traveling through Europe with a different hotel room every night).  Our version wasn’t quite that hectic or silly, and certainly more interesting, but we did cover a lot of ground in a relatively short period of time when that’s all the time we had. It suited our circumstances then just fine. Can we still manage that? Or have those travel muscles atrophied?  

This year our primary travel focus is the Highlands of Scotland with a week in the Fife region, a few days near Edinburgh, a week in Somerset, and a couple nights in both London and Paris.  Not quite a different hotel room every night, but definitely more movement than we’ve been used to.  The closest we’ve been to near constant movement was four years ago in Spain, mainly in Andalusia, and then we relied upon a nearly full-service travel company to manage all the different hotels, train trips and tours. It was a breeze! Can we do it by ourselves this time?

Glencoe

Well, we aren’t totally on our own.  We’ve shared the planning for the core 21 days with our travel companions and then tacked on 14 additional days on our own.  Even so, the trip involves more than 10 different plane, train and car rentals reservations and 15 different hotels, B&B’s, and vacation rental stays. Lots of planning went into each step.  Lots!  Some pieces of the trip our friends planned.  Some we did. Many we planned together.  We talked, discussed and debated options, texted and emailed ideas and then reservations back and forth.  Some parts of the trip are planned in great detail (dinner reservations on our walk along the Fife Coastal Walk where a hiking service carries our bags from inn to inn as we carry a light rucksack) and others left open (a couple nights in London with only a vacation rental booked).

Making all these arrangements wasn’t the only challenge.  In addition to the four day hike along the Fife coastal path, we also want to do some hiking in Glencoe, around Ullapool and Wester Ross, and near Fort William.  That meant packing bulky hiking gear and enough clothes for those stretches when we wouldn’t have access to washer/dryers.  Weather in Scotland is unpredictable, especially in May.  Sun, rain, wind or even snow at higher elevations? So we also have to pack rain gear and warm layers. Then there’s London and Paris where those hiking shoes will never be seen!  And by the end of the trip the weather in London and Paris could be quite warm.  Short sleeves?  Shorts?  Sandals? Not enough room. Didn’t take long for us to realize our usual carry-on roll-aboards wouldn’t hold it all.

We purchased every book we saw on Scotland over the last year and then had to pare down to just two (plus the one Mary smuggled in when Peter wasn’t looking). Camera?  Bring the big, good camera or rely upon our iPhones?  Big camera won.  Binoculars?  Just one pair. We’ll have to share. And so it went. One large suitcase, one roll-aboard and two backpacks later we were packed.

So how will it go?  Will we survive packing and repacking our bags every second or third day?  Will it get old fast trying to find a decent espresso in each new location or even worse, not finding any at all. Will we miss having our boulangerie, our patio, our market, our neighborhood or will the variety and parade of new vistas more than compensate?  

“Our” patio, home, espresso, and market in previous slow trips to France and Spain

Stay tuned.  The adventure has just begun. Oh, and our first hotel was the lovely Holiday Inn at the Newark Airport—a transit stop on our way to Paris.