So, we awoke in the youth hostel run by the crazy Uig lady with another big day of driving, but with some hiking thrown in for good measure.
Even though I had gotten to bed quite late the previous night, I woke up early and decided to get my arse into gear. I didn’t want to use my towel for a shower, as now that we had a car I felt half-way civilised. I opted to rent one from the hostel.
While I was at the counter, I enquired with the nut-bag about one of the signs that I had seen in our bedroom. It stated that you needed to remove all of the blues from your bed before checking out.
Now, the fitted sheet and pillow case was a light blue, but the doona cover was a dark blue colour.
I asked her if that meant both the sheet and doona cover.
She gave me a funny look, cocked her head to the side, blinked her large owl-like eyes and replied “All of the blues.”
I have her a funny look back. “All the blues?”
“Uh huh. Both the sheets and duvet cover.”
“Riiiiiiight. Sooo, that’s a yes?” I asked.
“Uh huh.” She nodded, not quite picking up on my dry tone.
I hurried back to take a shower and pack my bag as quickly as possible.
Post shower, I stripped off all of the blues, dumped them in the washing hamper by the front counter, told the girls I would wait outside for them, grabbed my bag and took it out to the car.
I didn’t go back into the hostel.
Once the car was packed and we were all loaded up, we fled the hostel as quickly as we could.
We drove about half an hour back around the isle of Skye to a town called Port Tree, where we found a lovely little café to have some breakfast. I had been hankering for a bacon and egg roll, which I ordered. The Highland Lass ordered a dish that was basically a couple of sausage rissoles, Shakira ordered poached eggs with some green sides, and Sparkles ordered the pancakes.
We all had a bit of order envy, as these pancakes looked AMAZING.
We all snuck a taste as well, and it tasted as good as it looked.
On the way out, we noticed that the café was located next to a bakery. Mackenzie’s bakery. Looks like the clan is branching out.
Piling back into the car, we drove further along the coast to our first hiking destination.
It was the Old Man of Storr, a truly amazing place. It is where one of the opening scenes of the movie Prometheus is set, where the archaeologists find the cave paintings.
The hike began through a small forest, and I felt very energetic as we walked onwards. The Highland Lass had a backpack, which I took off her as she and Shakira found the going a little bit challenging.
Sparkles and I on the other hand felt extremely energised by this location, and we virtually sprung along the track like little rock monkeys. We would get ahead of the other two girls, then wait for them and take a few photos until the caught up and had a rest. Then we were off again, only to wait and take more photos.
The only problem with this area was the midgies. They are clouds of tiny stinging bugs that will feast on any area of exposed skin.
“What do they eat when they can’t get Hobbit?” I asked the Highland Lass.
We made it through the forested area and before us stood the Old Man.
Imagine a large ridgeline. Then imagine massive teeth-like boulders reaching up towards the sky, appearing to balance precariously in the low lying clouds that constantly blow across them.
And when I say massive, I mean MASSIVE. Some of them would be almost 150 metres tall.
I was astounded by these natural features, and with the clouds blowing through the whole area had a very primeval atmosphere.
Several photos were taken in this area, and then Sparkles and I sprang ahead of the other girls. We reached an area where the path split, and you could head off to several of the different rock features. When Shakira and the Highland Lass reached us, we discussed which one we were going to head to. Once decided, I leapt ahead, basically scaling up a steep embankment to the base of the chosen massive rock feature. I kept looking back over my shoulder to make sure that the girls were fine, and once I reached the rock feature I had a sudden attack of vertigo.
This rock was so MASSIVE that my body lost it’s perception of exactly which way was up and which was down. Not completely, but ‘up’ seemed to go out of kilter by about 22 degrees, and I felt like I was going to tip over and go sliding down the side o the mountain.
Sparkles reached me and gave me a funny look when she saw me sitting down only about 15 metres from the base of the rock feature. I explained the disconcerting feelings I was having, and she nodded sagely, making sure that I was ok before reaching the rock feature. Shakira and the Highland Lass made their way past me and joined Sparkles, and they went exploring up the top while I perched myself on a rock and took in the breathtaking view back the way we had come… well, that is when it wasn’t obscured by clouds.
I decided to head back down to where the paths split and wait for the girls there.
They climbed down about 15 minutes later, and I heard them all laugh quite loudly at something. Sparkles rushed off ahead of the others and stopped about 5 metres away from me. She turned around and called out “Scoota!” back towards where I had been sitting.
I laughed, and said “Here I am.”
She jumped, and turned around, not having seen me as she approached. She told me “That’s why you didn’t hear us before!”
Apparently the laughter before was due to the Highland Lass calling out my name, and a sheep bleated in reply.
A little bit shocked, she said to the other girls “Well, Scoota did say that he felt a primal attachment to this place.”
At this point, rather than climbing up to one of the massive features, we opted to follow one of the tracks that led up to a ridgeline. Standing on the ridge, we had an amazing view back over the rock formations, and also out for aaaaaaages over the Scottish country side.
My Farcebook profile picture is the view out over the countryside.
We didn’t want to leave, but since we had a long drive into central Scotland, we decided it was time to head back down to the car. Walking down is always easier; after all, Gravity is the law: obey it.
We drove around the Isle of Skye, from the northeast to the southeast, where we came to the town of Armadale, home of the Donald Clan castle. This site was put on our tour because Shakira is a Donaldson, and the Highland Lass is a MacDonald.
We pulled into the carpark and headed into a building by the gates, where we bought tickets for the museum.
As we walked through the gates into an immaculately curated ground and up the paved road, we heard the sound of bagpipes and saw a horse-drawn carriage coming down the road, with a newly married couple sitting in the back.
The girls squealed in excitement and started taking photos, until I pointed out that there was a photographer further up the road who was taking wedding photos.
Once the carriage had passed us, we ran across the road and out of the shot, but I think the opportunity to take sweet shots had passed, as the photographer seemed to have wandered off.
We trundled up the road a little bit further and came to Castle Donald. Well, what was left of it. It had been a large manor house that had a section resembling a castle built at one end, but a fire ripped through the middle of it. The burnt area wasn’t repaired, and so it was just a shell with stone walls and bushes growing on the inside.
After a further wander around the beautiful gardens, we came to the museum, which went through the history of the Scottish people, the decline of the Clans and of their domination by the English. Quite a sad story.
With the museum tour over, we were deciding whether to have something to eat at the restaurant or push on until we reached our final destination. The decision to push on was reached, and we jumped back in the car and headed over the bridge leading from the Isle of Skye. There was a café there that we stopped at and grabbed a light repast before moving on.
During the drive, the radio (BBC Scotland) kept on dropping in and out, so the game of I-Spy was brought out.
The Highland Lass started, I-Spying something starting with CE. Sparkles piped up with several amusing answers.
“Chocolate Elves.”
“Christmas Eve.”
“Cartoon Elephants.”
The other two girls and myself start to worry for her sake, because if she could see these then we might have to find her a padded cell.
The game continued until we reached Loch Ness. Wow – this was a MASSIVE loch. No wonder nobody has been able to find Nessy! She could be hiding ANYWHERE!
The drive continued onwards to Inverness, through that city and on to Aviemore, where we were going to stay for the evening.
We entered the hostel we were going to be staying in, and enquired about whether we could get some dinner at the pub next door. It was shortly before 9.30 by this time, and the guy in the hostel called through and told us “If you can order within 10 minutes, you will be ok.”
Right!
We put our bags into our room (with a bit of difficulty at first – the locks on the doors were those ones where you press the silver buttons, and then turn the handle. The girls kept turning the handle the wrong way, so it wasn’t unlocking. Sigh), and raced over to the pub.
We checked out the menu, and Shakira and the Highland Lass only ordered small meals, while Sparkles ordered a particular type of fish that she loved (and couldn’t find in very many places around the world) and I ordered the steak.
I also tried a local single malt whiskey, which was very tasty, but then moved onto the local ciders.
Our meals arrived, and I only made a half-hearted effort as lunch had been late, I was tired, and in one of those moods you get in while travelling when you want to spend a bit of time on your own.
Fortunately, Sparkles was voracious, and she assisted me in polishing off my steak.
The local ciders that I tried were like rocket fuel – 7.2% and 8%.
Wow – by the end of the night I was feeling pretty stonkered, and I’d only had the two ciders and the scotch!
As we were leaving I asked the barman to thank the barmaid that had served me the ciders for poisoning me and introducing me to the local brews.
He laughed and promised he would.
We staggered (well, I staggered) to our room, and had lights out pretty shortly after that.
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