Another long day was had on Friday with us heading closer to the end of our Scottish adventure. We are also heading towards Glasgow, where we fly from on Sunday morning.
We bid goodbye to Portree in the Isle of Skye and headed off to loop our way up the island a little and see some of the sights. I had originally planned for us to do a walk while on Skye. It would have been one of our longer walks, and would have taken us past some wonderful views, but this changed when we ended up with a place to stay the next night much closer to Glasgow than initially intended. It might be just as well, as I suspect more preparation and better equipment might have been required. It is still summer holidays here and we are feeling pretty glad that we didn't leave finding a place to stay to luck when we lobbed each evening. We might have had some nights camping in our car if we did.
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| Our track for the day is in pink. |
The uppermost part of our Skye loop involved some more driving on single lane track with occasional passing places and, as on the previous day, was a bit hairy at times. Trevor once again did a magnificent job of navigating it all with reasonable speed and patience. We met a number of other cars and bikes on the way who appeared very tentative, but Trev just kept on going.
The coast line of Skye has some amazing jagged dark cliffs falling vertically into the grey sea. In places the sea is so clear that you can see the rocks under the water so far below. You feel that you would also see seals etc if they were there.
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| Kilt rock and waterfall next to it. |
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| The coast line looking the other way |
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| Looking out to sea to the distant islands. |
We stopped for delicious wood oven pizza before we left Skye. The fellow,who sold us fish and chips the day before told us about the spot. Great pizza! We sat by a window and admired the mountains-they look as though someone sprinkled fine milo powder over the top, and it tumbled down the sides.
There are two main ways to leave Skye-you catch a ferry or you drive over the bridge. In the end we drove. This meant that we re drove a small portion of the day before, but also that we could deviate to see Loch Ness if we chose to do so... and we did.
As we crossed the bridge we spotted a lookout and we took our chance in the winding streets of the town centre to find the secret (unsigned) way up to the amazing lookout so that we could snap a picture of the bridge.
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| the bridge |
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| I couldn't resist a panoramic shot of the lovely scene spread out before us. |
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| The little village on the Skye side of the bridge. |
As we drove towards Loch Ness we stopped to do a short ramble ( as you do ) and to find a cache. The spot that we found has a story attached. The legend tells that Finlay Munro stood on this spot. Now Finlay Munro was an early evangelist of some repute and strongly believed in miracles apparently. It is said that he gave the good wheat away to the poor and planted chaff, believing that, by a miracle it would grow. When the crops came up, his did not!! (And he was in big trouble with his Boss). It didn't stop him believing, and at a later time he stood on the spot we visited and declared that no grass would grow on that spot ever. And sure enough... there are the footprints still showing!!
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| Can you see the two bare footmarks in the curve of the cairn? |
Trevor skimmed a stone into Loch Ness as we drove past the lower part ( having diverted an extra 20 miles or so for the purpose of seeing this famous place) but we didn't see the monster, and by now the overcast morning with a few patches of sunshine had turned into a more rainy afternoon, so we snatched the small opportunities for breaks in between showers to hop out in various spots.
Our drive took us through Glencoe-an amazing geological formation which gives imposing craggy mountains in a basin like situation as you drive through the midst. Stopped to admire a lovely waterfall on the way. Glencoe is the historic scene for the massacre of many McDonald's by the Jacobites. All over Scotland we have heard of the bloody history and destruction with many historic places ruined to prevent use by one or other side. Such a pity to have lost so much.
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| Trev skimming a stone at Loch Ness |
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| The view through the Glencoe valley |
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| Beautiful imposing mountains |
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| Lovely waterfall |
Anyway... we continued to wend our way south along the winding road, gradually travelling more and more slowly as we were caught in the wet weather on the narrow road behind slow vehicles. Brief glimpses of Loch Lomond showed through the many trees, and we marvelled at the brave souls setting up their tents on the narrow patchesof muddy ground between the roadside and the banks of the Loch.
As 7.30 approached we finally found our home for the night and were welcomed in to our airbnb room by a very chatty and friendly Claudia and her two cute little daughters. Another lovely room -clean and quiet (once we closed the windows). We walked to find some really good Chinese dinner before turning in for the night and sleeping well.
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