Isle of Skye

Well, well, well. I had intended to write daily or at least every other day but as they say “The road to hell is paved with good intentions”. And I don’t even have a good excuse!
At any rate, this is our third night on the Isle of Skye and it appears to be a beautiful place with beautiful scenery. However…
We left the Isle of Eriska on Thursday after hiking around the island on Tuesday and exploring the Glencoe area on Wednesday. Glencoe is an area rich in history- again I really couldn’t be more specific (but you can ask Cynthia) other than to say that there was a very bloody massacre there. (Seems these Scottish clans are very bloodthirsty. Think Braveheart, although I’ve been told it is a very fictionalized account of William Wallace.)
It was Wednesday night when we were told that Scotland was gonna be hit by a hurricane on the weekend. Wha????? Who even knew Scotland HAD hurricanes? We were scheduled to be on a boat the next day and were assured that the weather would still be ok for that.
On Thursday we met our Scottish boat captain, Cameron, an engaging lad- (and very easy on the eyes!) who took us over to the Isle of Mull to tour the Tobermory Whiskry distillery and browse the little town- very cute, although it was pouring cats and dogs. While in town I mentioned to one of the shopkeepers that we were headed to Skye that afternoon. She looked me in the eye and said “Yer not goin’ ta Skye today. The fearies are all cancelled.” Huh.
As it turned out, that was incorrect so we boarded our little boat with Cap’n Cameron and went back to the mainland where we were met by Ray in the van who drove us about an hour to the ferry terminal to go over to Skye.
Although we had been getting pre hurricane rain…(at this point I need to clarify. It wasn’t a hurricane exactly. It was a weather bomb with torrential rain and hurricane force winds.), the actual high winds were due in at 3;00 Friday afternoon. We had time to get in a hike before the fun started. We hiked the Quiraing Trail, which was a little over 4 miles and absolutely gorgeous and challenging enough. The rain was increasing steadily as we climbed and by the time we got near the summit the winds had picked up and it became a little…scary? For me anyway. Felt like I might get blown off the mountain. Once we turned around I was like a horse heading back to the barn. Do not pass Go do not collect $200. After a little drive about we went back to the hotel to watch for the coming storm.
And yeah- it was pretty crazy, but like most of these things it was a little overblown, (get it??). But strong enough to take out power through a large portion of Scotland. Needless to say, the planned boat trip for today was not running so Ray needed to pivot and we went to Dunegin Castle instead. Then we had him drop us off in town to do a little shopping. We were on our own for dinner so Cynthia and I ate in town and walked back to the hotel. We did a lovely but muddy trail right from the hotel. Then had a drink (Cynthia) and dessert, (me) before heading back to our room. Cynthia and I have an arrangement . She eschews “processed” sugar but loves her wine, so she drinks her sugar and I eat mine and she gives me all her desserts. It works out well!!
So the winds are still blowing hard and a lot of power is out in the country so tomorrow we have already had to change some plans. One thing that hasn’t changed? We are headed to Inverness which is on the shores of Loch Ness. I may not give a rat’s behind about warring clans, but dang if I’m not gonna score a picture with Nessie!Les mer