I'll start where I left off. All those who want a more erudite and fuller description of Skye can find it at TheO's Blog. (There's about 6-7 posts dedicated to it - with piccies.)
13th
Girls came up after we'd had a hard days shopping. Camping is ridiculously expensive when you have to buy the stuff. I now own walking trousers... my only trousers except jeans ... not sure how I feel about this.
14th
Packed KEITH our beloved landrover. Pic from Tiree not Skye but he's a bit shy so can only be shown in profile.
Headed off for the long but pretty drive. Found excellent cake - which is quite frankly the only thing that high-heels needs to be kept in a good mood. Once arrived on the isle we had a lovely short walk to a ruined castle - it was pretty and boggy.
Set up came at Glen Brittle, had the ubiquitous pasta meal, chocolate afters and whiskey chaser - slept fitfully as it was bloody freezing.
15th
We awoke to rain. Lots of rain. Marriedman turned up we drove to Talisker distillery. Left some of us there whilst we sat in The Old Inn: played games, had lunch, played more games. We eventually braved the downpour for a forest walk in the rain for 1h - not bad - not good. Got back to discover all my stuff was pretty sodden - wearing only a few items for the rest of the trip. Mmmm stinky. Bought more sleeping bags from the camp shop where they assured us that it was "dreadful weather" and usually it was "much nicer" - really! SHOCK NEWS: slept well for the first night ever in a tent - BLISSSSS.
16th
Awoke in quite possibly the best mood ever. Had a good 7mile walk; little rivers to ford, lots of bog not too much uphill,enough to be challenging but not too tiring. Lovely chambered cairn at the end. Went to the pub for dinner -ate all 3 courses - stayed late-ish playing cards.
Marriedman was cursed; after so much rain we now had a storm for most of the night - made sleeping hard it was so noisy and freaky. Had to check tent was still attached to terra ferma - bloody un-ferma terra if you ask me.
17th
Walked to the shower block and was greeted by high-heels who said: "Holy Crap"! She then expanded on this comment with the following: "we've all aged 10 years with lack of sleep, I just thought you should have some warning before you looked in the mirror." Nice. She wasn't wrong.
Went to Raasay - bloody brilliant, amazing views of skye - found lunch in wee hotel with v cute puppy - good sarnies and chips. Walked to Hallaig (deserted village) along a lovely cliff path - only 4 mile walk in total - v gentle. Drove all over the island - saw callums road (road made over 10years, by one man, by hand to stop his village being cut off). Made jokes about having a swanky two-island holiday.
Sunshine and showers so rainbows everywhere - the colours were spectacular. Had dinner in the landrover (back at base camp) then a drink at the pub and lots of cards and silly games - loved it. At this point it should be pointed out that it was a 20mile round trip to get from camp to the pub and back! We really loved that pub. Our final night in a tent.
18th
RF made "mess" for brekkie all eggs sausages bacon and ham in a pan and cooked up in one delicious mess. After packing the car again - how did it all ever fit? - we
set off for longest walk yet. 9 miles along cliffs to Macleod's maidens - brilliant lovely walk out but a bit tricky to get a nice rhythm going as we had to keep stopping for slower members. Then we had a 1/2 hour break and saw them (the Maidens, 3 sea stacks) - briefly - as the weather turned and we walked back in the rain for 2 hours - it poured - we were all dripping through when we got back to the car.
Ultimately was seriously pissed off with the walk - it wasn't hard, you didn't need a map and it didn't get the heart rate up, so I didn't get that glow of achievement ... lots of time for little return - nice views though.
Drove to The 3 chimneys, got in they gave us coffee and cake - bless them and we had 2 hours to freshen up and look smart for dinner - we all managed to use as much hot water as we could and returned to dinner much revived. They even put my dress in the drying room for an hour or so - brilliant, didn't have to sit through a soggy dinner. Lived up to every-one of the many thousands of pennies we spent.
19th
Drove home in slightly sleepy mood. Delighted to be back.
13th
Girls came up after we'd had a hard days shopping. Camping is ridiculously expensive when you have to buy the stuff. I now own walking trousers... my only trousers except jeans ... not sure how I feel about this.
14th
Packed KEITH our beloved landrover. Pic from Tiree not Skye but he's a bit shy so can only be shown in profile.
Headed off for the long but pretty drive. Found excellent cake - which is quite frankly the only thing that high-heels needs to be kept in a good mood. Once arrived on the isle we had a lovely short walk to a ruined castle - it was pretty and boggy.Set up came at Glen Brittle, had the ubiquitous pasta meal, chocolate afters and whiskey chaser - slept fitfully as it was bloody freezing.
15th
We awoke to rain. Lots of rain. Marriedman turned up we drove to Talisker distillery. Left some of us there whilst we sat in The Old Inn: played games, had lunch, played more games. We eventually braved the downpour for a forest walk in the rain for 1h - not bad - not good. Got back to discover all my stuff was pretty sodden - wearing only a few items for the rest of the trip. Mmmm stinky. Bought more sleeping bags from the camp shop where they assured us that it was "dreadful weather" and usually it was "much nicer" - really! SHOCK NEWS: slept well for the first night ever in a tent - BLISSSSS.
16th
Awoke in quite possibly the best mood ever. Had a good 7mile walk; little rivers to ford, lots of bog not too much uphill,enough to be challenging but not too tiring. Lovely chambered cairn at the end. Went to the pub for dinner -ate all 3 courses - stayed late-ish playing cards.
Marriedman was cursed; after so much rain we now had a storm for most of the night - made sleeping hard it was so noisy and freaky. Had to check tent was still attached to terra ferma - bloody un-ferma terra if you ask me.
17th
Walked to the shower block and was greeted by high-heels who said: "Holy Crap"! She then expanded on this comment with the following: "we've all aged 10 years with lack of sleep, I just thought you should have some warning before you looked in the mirror." Nice. She wasn't wrong.
Went to Raasay - bloody brilliant, amazing views of skye - found lunch in wee hotel with v cute puppy - good sarnies and chips. Walked to Hallaig (deserted village) along a lovely cliff path - only 4 mile walk in total - v gentle. Drove all over the island - saw callums road (road made over 10years, by one man, by hand to stop his village being cut off). Made jokes about having a swanky two-island holiday.
Sunshine and showers so rainbows everywhere - the colours were spectacular. Had dinner in the landrover (back at base camp) then a drink at the pub and lots of cards and silly games - loved it. At this point it should be pointed out that it was a 20mile round trip to get from camp to the pub and back! We really loved that pub. Our final night in a tent.
18th
RF made "mess" for brekkie all eggs sausages bacon and ham in a pan and cooked up in one delicious mess. After packing the car again - how did it all ever fit? - we
set off for longest walk yet. 9 miles along cliffs to Macleod's maidens - brilliant lovely walk out but a bit tricky to get a nice rhythm going as we had to keep stopping for slower members. Then we had a 1/2 hour break and saw them (the Maidens, 3 sea stacks) - briefly - as the weather turned and we walked back in the rain for 2 hours - it poured - we were all dripping through when we got back to the car.
Ultimately was seriously pissed off with the walk - it wasn't hard, you didn't need a map and it didn't get the heart rate up, so I didn't get that glow of achievement ... lots of time for little return - nice views though.
Drove to The 3 chimneys, got in they gave us coffee and cake - bless them and we had 2 hours to freshen up and look smart for dinner - we all managed to use as much hot water as we could and returned to dinner much revived. They even put my dress in the drying room for an hour or so - brilliant, didn't have to sit through a soggy dinner. Lived up to every-one of the many thousands of pennies we spent.
19th
Drove home in slightly sleepy mood. Delighted to be back.
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