Isle of Skye
Friday 28th – Sunday 30th August 2021
The final destination of our Scottish road trip was the Isle of Skye.
Day 5
After a fantastic sunny start to the day at Achmelvich Bay we headed off on the drive to Isle of Skye. First stop the Collieshalloch Gorge, only we got about 10mins from it and discovered the suspension bridge was closed so decided not to bother!
The roads weren’t too bad but we did encounter a couple of absolutely crazy drivers, dangerously overtaking on the single track roads which was a little scary. Steve did a pretty scary manoeuvre himself reversing back up to a lay-by for yet another wee stop and then we made it to Kinlochewe for an absolutely delicious lunch and The Gorse Bush. Shredded beef and posh fish fingers in the most amazing flat breads.
The drive to the Isle of Skye was beautiful, so we got the gimble out and Vikki was in charge of capturing some footage of the amazing scenery…well we won’t make that mistake again as we ended up with about 500photos and no video!
We got to the hotel, after driving past it and turning back, and had a lovely room (albeit with a view of the car park!).
After a late arrival we didn’t have too much time, we got changed and headed down to the lounge area for a quick drink before getting the hotel provided taxi over to the sister hotel for dinner. It was rather posh and whilst waiting for our table we got a selection of hors-d’œuvres – oysters with champagne, cream with pollen, sour dough with pear and cheese chutney, olives and something else I can’t remember.
Steve ‘enjoyed’ all of them so as to not be rude, unlike Vikki who refused to eat them!!
The food was very good, although Steve ate Flopsy the bunny which Vikki wasn’t to pleased about! The service was a bit lax after the food was served but it was nice all the same. We got the taxi back and then ended the day playing a couple of games of quirkle by the piano with gin and a beer.
Day 6
An early start to get up, have breakfast and be at the meeting point for the canyoning on time and for the first time all week we woke to no blues skies, it was overcast, dull and looked like it may rain.
Yummy breakfast, granola and yogurt for Vikki and cooked, including haggis, for Steve and for once decent coffee!!! We were about 10mins into the drive to the canyoning when they called to postpone by an hour due to staff illness – argh that could have been another hour sleep!!
After killing time we headed to the meeting point in the carpark, midgies were rife so we waited mostly in the car (although the pesky little things came back in with us!). After a lot of waiting, multiple phone calls and getting rather annoyed the canyoning adventure finally began – with considerably less people than initially intended to due the late start and lack of customer care!
Despite the ropey start and the dull weather it was fantastic. Loads of fun, not particularly cold, plenty of high jumps (including one of 11m!), picturesque pool, and laughs along the way. Although we did learn that go-pros do not fair well canyoning!
After an awkward change out of the wetsuits in a pub carpark we headed to Portree for food as we were absolutely starving! We had a wander round Portree while waiting for a table, it wasn’t quote what we were expecting and not the best looking beach we’ve ever had a coffee at! (A very west coast Scotland beach, reminding Vikki of the years of holidays at Seil).
Delicious, albeit very very late, lunch before heading to the famous fairy pools. Everyone who we mentioned to that we were going to Skye said we must see the fairy pools, googled them and they looked pretty impressive so we set off with high expectations.
As we drove we lost all phone signal and then realised that we were slightly low on fuel but we carried on anyway as the nearest petrol station wasn’t near! We parked up and headed off on a really long walk, following the signs for the fairy pools.
There were lots of people, both coming and going, so we knew we must be in the right place…however, after a lot of walking and seeing some nice looking water pools and small water falls it turned out that we had slightly higher expectations than the reality!
We ended the day with Steve having serious fuel anxiety and then channeling that into a coasting game to see how far we could go without using any fuel! We made it to the petrol station with more than a few miles in the tank so all ended well.
Due to the incredibly late lunch we picked up some snacks and drinks for in the room and after a long, busy day enjoyed an evening of snacks, beer, gin and Netflix.
Day 7
We woke up to blue skies on our final morning and with rather achy bodies after the canyoning. Another yummy breakfast and we got all packed up to head back to Aberdeen airport.
