Skye - practically perfect

Sunday 17th September

Clear blue sky to start the day - have almost forgotten what one looks like! Up early, did our own breakfast in the Youth Hostel - corn flakes, toast and marmalade, none of this cooked full Scottish breakfast rubbish! Headed inland for an hour to reach the top end of a road which ran back down to the coast through the Glencoe Pass. A somewhat grim place where a massacre of the Macdonald clan was carried out by the Campbell clan in the late 1700's. A terrific drive with many high and rugged mountain peaks and because of very little wind, great reflections off the surfaces of the Lochs. The only problem was the traffic - very heavy and fast. Imagine the road through the Gampians with non stop traffic in both directions doing about 110 kph. Once again all of the car parks were full to overflowing (the Scots obviously love climbing mountain peaks on a sunny Sunday), and so we were unable to stop to take photos. However, despite the overabundance of travellers, it was a most enjoyable trip.

 

After lunch and a walk around Fort William we took the Scenic road to Mallaig to catch a ferry to Skye. We stopped to explore the end of the Caledonian Canal which starts at Inverness and goes to Fort William and includes the waters of Loch Ness and Loch Lochy -

quite an engineering  for it's time which saves boats (mainly pleasure craft these days) a lot of time travelling in dangerous seas. At the Fort William end, boats travel through seven locks to come down from the canal to sea level.  The next stop was to climb to a lookout to view a monument to Bonnie Prince Charles which was erected to recognize the support of the Jacobites in the uprising against the British.

 

After leaving the Skye ferry we drove to our accommodation which was at Kyle of Lobasch, which is actually across a Loch from Skye, reachable by an impressive bridge. The B&B is a small, two storey cottage in a group of cottages overlooking a large Loch. Our view from a back bedroom is of a mountain with a paddock of white and black rare breed Hebredian sheep, directly behind us. Guess who loves it! Our dinner in the dining room of a recently refurbished hotel which overlooked the loch was great, particularly the tower pavlova - two meringues high full of cream with fresh berries, mango and passionfruit - guess who loved it!

 

Monday 18th September

 

Another blue sky morning, great for adventuring, but first we had to do the washing! Previously (twice) we had paid someone to do it whilst we kept gallivanting around, but here there was no one available. So to the laundrette we went, but all was not lost. I was able to photograph the bridge linking Skye to the mainland, and then watch the police close down the bridge and the highway through the town, which involved moving most of the traffic into side streets, to enable three trucks carrying massive wind turbine blades pass through the town. It was most entertaining.

 

 

We crossed the bridge to Skye at about 10am and did not cross back again until after 8pm. A wonderful day with highlights around every bend - mountains, picturesque villages, lochs, a waterfall into the sea, and much, much more. Also, we did not put on our coats!  - a first!

A Scottish Busker