Most of my friends and family already know about my amazing experience visiting the gorgeous Loch Lomond in Scotland. A crazy fortunate adventure that I had along with some new friends met through Couchsurfing. But here goes the tale:
While couchsurfing in Glasgow, I was staying with two girls from Germany. Towards the middle of our stay they suggested that we go to Loch Lomond, and visit a friend of theirs. Sure, says I, always up for meeting new people, especially if they’ve already been vetted by two awesome people. And thus, we went.
The next morning is when things actually got really fun. We took the boat out to the Loch, to go visit wallaby island. Why do I call it wallaby island? Because I don’t know its name, but I’m betting it is the only island in SCOTLAND that boasts a herd (what do you call a group of wallaby?) of wallabies. The four of us piled into the tiny car, with the boat and the equipment. It was a tight squeeze, but so worth it!
I had misgivings at first. Inflatable boat, four people… all I could picture was stepping into the boat, and it sinking. To the point where I almost didn’t go. But, adventure Julie took over, and quickly we were on our way across the calm water of the loch. We reached the island, and set off looking for wallabies. Luckily, they weren’t hard to find. Wait.
Many years ago there was a rich family that wanted to have kangaroos. They lived on a private island on Loch Lomond. They imported a group of wallabies to live on their island. About one hundred years ago, the family left the island, donating it to the national park service, and the wallabies continue to thrive wild on the island. I don’t know how they survived, I just know that they did.
Just a few days before we went to the island, there had been quite a bad storm in the Loch Lomond area. It had actually uprooted and knocked over many trees on the island. While I was sad to see the destruction of trees, they were quite a spectacular sight to behold.
Also, there was one specific tree that I thought was gorgeous. It had apparently been struck by lightning, we think. The edges of its roots had been charred, and they were blackened and crispy.
Now, if anyone told me, going into this trip, that seeing kangaroos wouldn’t be the most spectacular thing I was going to see that day, I would have said, ‘oh, fooey. puh-lease. Seeing a wild kangaroo is ON MY BUCKET LIST. Of course that is the coolest thing I’m going to do today.’ And well, I can’t say either of us would be wrong. But my breath was completely taken away by the gorgeous scenery on our way back to the shore. The wind was calm, and the sun bright, allowing the clouds to reflect beautifully off the water.
