Sometimes you decide to do something and have middle of the road expectations regarding the experience. You don’t know what the outcome will be or whether or not it you’ll find it completely rewarding. Today was one of those days.

We chose to do a hike that’s a circuit of a famous rock formation called the Quiraing. It’s about an hour and fifteen minutes from our house and we knew that we might not be up the earliest today as we are still adjusting to the time. It was marked as a moderate route and we had planned on making a slightly longer go of it than the map indicated. GPS route downloaded, rain gear packed, snacks and water. Ready to go.

The drive there was fun. No really. The last 20 miles were on a single lane road through a really hilly stretch of sheep farm. There were clouds rolling over the mountains and it was quite pretty. Honestly, we decided that if we didn’t know better the area could easily pass for parts of Iceland we visited years ago.

We got the parking lot, “car park,” and went to pay the fee. Just a few pounds, and to leave the ticket on the dash. Stretch took care of it, but the ticket didn’t print. So we saved the screenshot of the transaction and headed for the hills.

There weren’t many people on the trail when we started just after 10am. We had heard that people don’t always start early here, so that was a pleasant surprise.

The trail was amazing. It started off wide and as it approached the rock face got narrower to cut across the dramatic slope. At times it was only wide enough for one foot at a time and the slope we were crossing often exceed 50 degrees with nothing but sheep to slow a tumble down. So being mindful of your feet was important. Which was difficult, because the views were amazing, and the sheep and goats were leaving slippery little treats in the worst of places hoping to thin the human herd.

There were a couple of interesting moments on the hike around the front of the face. For example, not even a quarter mile in there was a spot where the trail jumped over gap that went all the way to the ground and you had sort of hop over while bracing on a rock wall to the your left, but not hard enough to push away from the hillside and speed your descent. Most interesting was, after we took a detour out around the rock formations Prison and Needle on a steeper section of trail, was the bear crawl up a steep muddy hillside back to the main trail. It was a heart pumping scramble due to the terrain and the strong desire not to slip or fall.

From there we walked up and along the ridge line in the opposite direction we needed to go in order to extend the hike and to change the view. We were not disappointed. It was stunning all the way. Looking out over the North Atlantic and seeing the islands lay out before us was awe inspiring.

The walk up and over the ridge line was far more challenging than either of us expected. Plus, it was “boggy.” That’s the term they use here around the land when it is peat filled and wet. It was impressively wet. And slippery and slimy. We spent a lot of time talking before the trip about footwear and fortunately we brought waterproof boots and happened to be wearing them. Most of our descent was a steep rutted muddy mess. It was slippery and required really cautious footwork. There were a number of times that we had to walk back up the slope to escape the wet just so we could find a safer dry path down. We both took great joy in watching the ill prepared try to walk up this way rather than the normal path that is actually scenic. Not a good idea.

After the hike we went back to the house. Showered. Made coffee and sat on our deck to plan for tomorrow. Today set a high bar. This is much better than Norway would’ve been.