Edinburgh Finale - I Conquered Arthur!!!

There are 2 hills that we could choose to scale, Calton Hill and Arthur's Seat upon the Salisbury Crags. Weisiong, Colin and Guoyuan highly recommended us to go for the latter as they were already there in the morning and they found it very challenging. And with a little twinkle in their eyes, they disappeared, saying they would join us later while hinting to us "good luck for the trek up!" Can't help but suspect that they are up to something....hmmm....Nevertheless our journey began from Edinburgh Castle straight down the Royal Mile and all the way down along High Street and then Cannon Gate to reach a few interesting sights along the way.

The long long road down

The Palace of Holyroodhouse, which is the Queen's official residence here in Scotland


And then there was this strange looking building at the corner of the street...

...which turned out to be the Scottish Parliament building

Have heard that this building was expensive to build and its design did not go too well with the locals

See the hilly region behind the Scottish Parliament building? That's the Salisbury Crags..and our destination...


The Salisbury Crags as viewed from the Scottish Parliament....zhun bo? We are going to scale this?!?


Ok loh....approaching closer to the looming Crags...

And crossing the street...




....to prepare for the climb of a lifetime! Let's go!


Nonono....this is not the top yet.....

Told you it wasn't the top.....liked the blue sky and clouds though...

Our long trek up....


Ben and YS trekked up super fast, leaving me, Sista and JY behind...and we slowly took our time up whilst enjoying the sights (orange guy alert in the distance...aka YS!)

A view of the bottom cityscape...haha truth is...damn shag la...so we slowly took our time up...and at this time my camera battery also died on me...shucks!!!



Scottish Parliament as viewed from above

As we climbed, we noticed that there were lots of these yellow flowers that smelled very much like the fragrance from Banana Boat sun-tan lotion! Maybe they harvest its essence from here!



As we climbed higher, the view got much more exciting, and certainly much more dangerous too cos we were on super high ground






Man....is there no end to this trail?



Finally we reached this area where the ground seemed to even out....is this the top already?

Regardless, we stopped for a moment for pictures and fooling around with shadows!





Argh!!! That place wasn't the top...what greeted us after that pass was a path downwards....and then upwards....I don't even know where we are going!!

And finally a path upwards leading to...?

We reached this high point, a peak that was jutting out, maybe this is the highest point? Took a short break here


So windy until my jacket hood kept getting blown up



Ok....that wasn't the highest point, nor was it Arthur's Seat....there was an even higher peak we could see from the place where we sat to take photos just now...

And higher we go again up a winding path...

...for more fabulous shots and more shag faces






And finally...we have reached the peak!! The view from here...




Oh yeah!


Sista's state of disbelief that we finally made it up so high!




Jump for joy for we have already reached!!

But wait a minute....where or what is Arthur's Seat? And why is there another peak on the other side with more people over there? And is Ben over there? Oh shootz!! Wrong peak! Wrong peak!!!! Argh!!!!!!

Ok.....so we continued scaling....come on.....objective in sight liaoz!!

Much more rocky terrain this time...can't believe I'm sweating like siao while the weather is like...13 deg C and it's close to 8pm le with the sun still shining so brightly!!

No kidding...we had to use our hands too for this final (yes and I really mean final le) climb up!

Grrrr.....and finally!!!! The utmost top le!!


And of course, that block of stone is Arthur's Seat!!! We conquered it!!!

Taking a moment to savour our prize...

Lots of love declaration scribbles as well as love locks on the rock

Took a moment to rest. Oh and Weisiong, Colin and Guoyuan already reached here way way way before us and they certainly did not look as tired as we did. And as they revealed, there's a much more easier, gentler way up!!! OMG!! I knew they were hiding something when we parted....hahaha....anw more photos to capture the moment..and of course the sunset as it was 9 plus liaoz...I tell ya...it was incredibly beautiful to watch the sky as the sun set...

A short video...


JY setting up his tripod for a group pic with a couple vandalising Arthur's Seat in the distance :p

Behold! We survived Arthur's Seat!



And finally the descent down...using the gentler path of course! Shots of the city at night...

In short, one of the craziest and unexpected treks in my life. Certainly loved the sights and of course that sweet satisfaction of reaching the top. It certainly was an intense, packed day for us in Edinburgh! Lovin' it!

For more pics, go http://picasaweb.google.com/eicko2000/Edinburgh4