Highland Wildlife Park, Folk Museum & Waltzing Waters
SATURDAY: DAY 16: Up at 8am for breakfast which included fried egg, milk, toast & bacon ( which is like a Canadian bacon). Got petrol for 36 pounds then got on the B9152 to KINGUSSIE to the HIGHLAND WILDLIFE PARK that had animals such as Polecats, Red Deer, Mouflon, Przewalski's Horse, Soay Sheep, Highland Cattle, Pine Marten, Capercaillie, Red Grouse, Artic Fox, Snowy Owl, Red Fox, European Elk and Bison and many others. First was a dive thru the park with an audio CD they give you at the gate and return when done. This was the part you see the Deer, Sheep, Cattle, Elk & Bison. Then we got a guided tour for the Forest Habitat where the guide was feeding a Pine Marten. Then the guide went into a big cage to feed the Wildcats & Polecats.
We took the A86 to the HIGHLAND FOLK MUSEUM which has 2 sites: one in Kingussie and one in Newtonmore. We toured the one in Kingussie first. This one opened in 1944 by Dr Isabel Grant and had indoor collections like old furniture (chairs and beds that were very small), household items, tools and buildings including a Smokehouse, Clack Mill and Blackhouse. There was a Farm Museum, Farming Annex and Museum's Store and the remains of a Cottage.
We then went to see the WALTZING WATERS for the 4pm show. This was a colorful water show with music that was in an auditorium and lasted 40 minutes. I love watching these. They are so amazing! I bought a Shell necklace with different colors & I now wish I would have bought the matching earrings with it! lol This place was beside our hotel at BALAVIL SPORTS HOTEL.
We started in the Hotel bar for our evening entertainment but only 3 people were there so we went downstairs to the other hotel bar & people looked at us strangely & we felt weird like we didn't belong. This was the 1st time we ever felt like this in a Scottish or Irish bar so we left & walked down the road to the GLEN HOTEL where there was a man playing the Accordian. It was packed & we met this guy named Duncan and talked to him til the bar closed. There was a guy who would keep chugging his beer so we convieniently called him "Chugger" lol. There was another guy who we swear went to the bar every 5 minutes and for our entertainment we ended up counting how many times he did this & was 15 times in 1 & half hours! lol The silly things we do to amuse ourselves! It was another one of those things that "you had to be there" moments.
It also seemed that if you were using vouchers to pay for the hotel, the view out your window wasn't very nice. See voucher view picture below. lol
|
|
