Digg

Now some of you may have thought that ‘quiraing’ was the sound you hear when someone hits their head on a ship’s bulkhead door. Others may think it’s the name of a car - the Nissan Quiraing - but no you’d all be wrong, especially about the car as everyone knows it’s a Nissan Cashcow.

The Quiraing is a stunning area in the north-east of Skye which has been formed by a massive landslip, and truly massive it is too. Visually it’s fantastic and a classic photographic location which is why, even though it was raining heavily and the area was covered in cloud, Rob decided he’d still go and take a look. You can see from the first photo, taken on the way back to the main road from that jetty at Staffin, that it looks pretty miserable. Upon arriving at the small car park at the top it was .... truly miserable. It was raining hard with gusting winds and the landscape was completely soaked with areas of ground glistening wet.

Whilst parked there Rob was impressed to see three walkers on the hillside, about 80 metres from the car, who looked as though they were thinking of wild camping and Rob decided they were either completely mad or truly impressive. At one point one of them waved in the direction if the car then there was what looked like packing up being done and five minutes later they were at the car window ... three girls, Czech students touring Scotland for a month. They looked completely drowned and were soaked through and were asking if there was any chance of a lift off the mountain. They needed to be off the mountain, that was clear enough, then it turned out they wanted to go to the camp site where Rob was staying. Their packs were heavy and also wet, but everything fitted into the car and the four of them had a great journey ‘home’. They all chatted endlessly and it was a great end to the day - apart from the driving rain and gusting winds of course, but who's counting those minor inconveniences?

Rob ate at the now usual place and the weather, if anything, got worse. How the girls pitched their tent and prepared a meal is anyone’s guess but hopefully they’ll have a warm and dry night. Rob spent the evening in the car dealing with emails and uploading photos and writing this blog. Now it’s time to manage getting from the car to the tent whilst staying reasonably dry. As forecast, the winds have calmed and the rain abated so maybe it’s doable.

So, what will tomorrow bring? The weather forecast is better but the way things are it’ll be during breakfast the decision will be made. Oh dear ... it’s raining again.Read more