Skye day 5

The Old Man of Storr, a 3.8km walk lots of uphill, quite muddy in places, 1 hour and 15 minutes with no stops, it took us 2 hours with lots of picture taking and coffee stops

The Old Man of Storr is a single 50m high pinnacle, visible for miles around like a giant finger pointing sky wards. One legend says that the Old Man and his wife (who fell down so is no longer beside him) were turned to stone because they witnessed something that no human being should see.

Steve had set the alarm for 6am so we could get going and get on our way to the walk before the crowds descended. We had some cereal and made a flask of coffee before leaving just to keep us going and were going to have a bacon butty as reward after the walk. We set off about half six, the weather wasn’t too bad, a bit misty and cold but dry. The car park had one car in it when we got there so someone had started even earlier than us. We parked up and got ourselves ready, this time putting our wet walking gear stuff on before we set off. With camera round necks and rucksack on backs (well Steve did) we headed off. We couldn’t actually see the old man himself or the other pinnacles because of the mist.

The path from the car park goes up the hillside, this is the first uppage and quite steep, the path split after a while, but both paths lead to the same place according our instructions. The views are amazing from the off, in front is the mysterious pinnacles and behind overlooking the Sound Of Raasay. We went through a few wooden gates which are quite high and designed to keep deer out.  The path is easy enough to follow and is well worn, steep in places and as we got nearer to the top it got quite muddy, in some places the path is rough and rocky, but the views are well worth the scramble. As we got nearer, the pinnacles became clearer and the mist would clear every now and then. The pinnacles are an amazing site, and with the mist, very haunting.

The Old Man of Storr himself is an impressive sight and well worth the early morning and steep walk up, the sun had started to rise too over the sea behind us which was another amazing sight and made for some great photos. You can climb right up to The Old Man, but it looked like too much like mountaineering for us so we stayed at the bottom just taking it all in. We got our flask out and had a coffee just admiring what was around us, I can’t describe enough how fantastic this walk was, I would say it was up there with climbing Snowdon.

It had started to get busy as we made our way back down even though it was still early, we took the other path to go down once we had carefully managed the rocky, muddy bits, and the gravel path was a welcome sight. As we discussed the walk and still enjoying the views Steve's phone started to ping with loads of notifications, then mine started, it is so strange that through out our stay on Skye so far the phone signal is so hit and miss, more miss than hit, and yet half way down a mountain we both had full signal. My phone rang and it was my eldest son, I couldn’t believe we were up a mountain in the middle of nowhere talking to someone on a mobile phone, funny. By the time we got back down the signal had gone again. Another strange thing is that we saw 2 girls dressed to the nines pulling suitcases up the 1st bit of path which was really steep and if they intended to go all the way to the top they would probably still be doing it now, the things people do.

Evie was a welcome sight after the walk and we were glad to get our stuff off, especially our waterproof trousers as they were caked in mud and our boots were soaked. As it was still quite early we drove back to Kilt Rock before that car park got busy. It had started to get busy there too, but we found a parking space and went to see what the fuss was about, there was a viewing point from where you can see Mealt Falls spill over the cliff onto the shoreline below, well worth a fuss.

Our bacon butty was calling and it was only about tenish ,so we headed towards Staffin again and saw a sign for Staffin Slipway which was mentioned in my book so we headed down that road and omg what a stunning bit of coastline, the road to the slipway wasn’t too long and it was a stunning place, the views off the sea and the Red Cullins were brilliant, not a bad place for a bacon butty, in fact not a bad place to spend the morning and then surprise surprise we ended up staying all day and night, it was one of the best places we stayed and it was free. We had had a good walk, an early morning so it was a good decision made.

It was a lovely day just chilling, I read and Steve went off to take some photos, there were cars coming and going and also motorhomes, some left, but as it got later in the day, quite a few stayed, there was about 6/7 that stayed in the end. We had a lovely evening watching the sun go down and finally after watching a film we made our way up that weary ladder to bed

Skye day 4

Walk today was Scorrybreac, a short walk of 3.1km

We woke up to awful wind again (not us, the weather) 🙂 it was still strong, the rain wasn’t quite as bad, but it was still raining. We had a bit of a decision to make and we weren’t sure what to do, as I have said we had pre booked the sea trip in Elgol for the Thursday (day 5), looking at the weather for the Thursday it was looking bad too, which meant us staying around the same area with the prospect of the trip not going ahead. I went on to their website and could see that the trip was definitely not going ahead today so we couldn’t change the trip for today, I decided to send Misty Isle a message to ask if they thought the trip would go ahead in the morning. While we waited for a reply, I tided and put stuff away ready for the off while Steve did the dreaded toilet empty, unhooked us from the electric and turned the gas off.

We were ready for the off but still hadn’t had a reply, we had two more things to do before leaving the site which was fill up with water and empty the grey water tank, we drove to the point where you do all this, by the time we were ready to leave the site we still had no answer so I decided to send them another message just explain what we had decide to do, I feel as though it only courteous to let someone know your change of plan if you have booked something even though we hadn’t paid so I sent them a quick message just saying that as the weather was going to be bad for the Thursday we had decided to carry on with our journey further up Skye and hopefully we might catch them on the way back down. That put my mind at rest and we had a look at the map to see where we were going to head for next.

We headed out on the A87 towards Portree which means “Kings Harbour” in Gaelic, it is the biggest town on Skye. There is a walk there that was on our list to do, so Portree it was, we knew we were in for more dramatic scenery as we had heard that the mountains get higher and the lochs get larger, if they can get any larger. For a few miles of the trip we are alongside 2 Lochs, one is Loch na Cairidh and the other is Loch Ainort, I’m not sure what defines the 2 lochs as they are both connected also as they are both sea lochs im not sure what defines the difference between the sea and a loch. I will definitely do some research into that. Both Lochs are surrounded by the Black Cullin mountains.

 The road was getting busier with cars, caravans and motorhomes, it is one of the main roads to Portree, but also some of the popular tourist sites on Skye, The Old Man of Storr, Lealt Falls, Kilt Rock and the Museum of Island Life. As we followed the windy road ahead we could see quite a sharp corner and on that corner was a massive waterfall, it ran down the mountain under the road into Loch Ainort, we could see a layby just up the road from the falls, the trouble was this was a busy road and most people do stop to take the photos, we were so lucky as there was space for Evie. We pulled up, jumped out and walked down to the fall, you cannot get right upto it, and you can cross the road and get nearer to it, but you put your life into your hands as like I said it’s a busy road and on a bend. We stayed on the same side of the layby and behind the barrier to take the photos, it is a very fast flowing waterfall and with all the rain we had had it was a fantastic sight and sound to see and hear. With photos done we jumped back in Evie again and set off.

The weather had started to improve slightly and the sun did try and get through, without loads of success, the wind had dropped a bit, but was still very blowy. We drove a few miles before we came to Sconser, Sconser is a small ferry port where you can get a ferry to Raasey, it is only a small village or croft, it has a nine hole golf course which the holes have been named in Gaelic. We carried on deciding not to stop.

As I have said before Scotland is full of small roads coming off main roads and then roads coming off them, so after passing Loch Sligachan and a sign for Sligachan we came across a road off the A87 we didn’t hesitate to shoot down it. The signpost said Peinchorran so off we went down these narrow lanes with passing places, the road went though some moorland then you could see the coast below the road, we passed though a few lovely crofts, the road was very windy and in places very hilly, all of a sudden the road came to the place that was on the signpost, but the road changed to a rough track which was a bit baffling, but just a couple of 100 yards there was a turning which took us on a road under the road we had come on, so it was closer to the coast in some places very close to the coast, it was a lovely little detour and we were glad we did it, the views were spectacular There was no places to stop and have a coffee so we carried on and eventually it bought us back on to the main road.

As we carried on to Portree I read the print out about parking at the beginning of the walk, it mentioned about the limited parking, it only parked about 2/3 cars at a push so we would definitely be struggling with Evie. As we pulled into Portree we saw a sign for a free car park, we turned in and omg it was a huge car park but absolutely packed, there were cars everywhere looking for a space to park, it looked like we were out of luck, but we went through  a gap in a wall, a biggish gap of course, and there on the right were a lot of motorhomes and just as we thought we were going to have to find somewhere else a motorhome pulled out, phew, so lucky. After parking up we decided to have some dinner before the walk.

Sometimes we can read all about the walk, where it starts, how long it is, etc. etc. but sometimes just sometimes we glance over it and think we know where we are supposed to be starting or just presume this is where we should be. On this occasion it was a presume, we took the paper with the instructions and with cameras round necks but no rucksacks as the walk was classed as short and medium in difficulty we decided to go light, this time we left the car park and virtually straight away we were in the hustle and bustle off Portree, it was really busy.

There was a sign for the pier which was down some steps, when we had had a glance at the instructions there was a mention of a jetty, so we presumed the jetty would be down by the harbour, wrong, as we got to the bottom of the steps, we could see the harbour and the colourful building that Portree is famous for, it’s like Tobermory on Mull, it was a lovely sight so we stopped to take some photos and started walking towards the pier looking for the jetty as we walked, a lot of the colourful buildings are restaurants, cafes and fish and chip shops and they were really busy, a couple of them had queues outside. I noticed that there was a lot of youngsters around and a lot of them queuing outside the cafes, I have read since that Portree has the only Secondary School on the island, it takes from 15 primary schools across Skye and island of Raasay, it has a hostel for some pupils who live in the remotest areas, so that explained all the youngsters.

As we got nearer to the pier we had a look around for the jetty, but just couldn’t see one and the pier came to an end, so we turned round and headed back the way we came, then the rain started and of course we didn’t have our wet walking stuff with us as it was lovely when we left Evie, blue skies and quite warm, still slightly windy but we were in Scotland the weather changes like the weather 🙂 you think we have learnt by now. Steve got the paper out and it said that as you stand by the jetty and look across you can see the colourful buildings so we knew then that we were wrong, we looked across the water and could see the jetty, plus the boat house it mentioned, so we walked around passed the steps and headed in the right direction, well we thought it was the right direction, but we went a few 100 yds and couldn’t get any further, so ended up turning round again, going back up the steps and hopefully heading in the right direction, by this time we were a bit wet and the paper was soggy, but still readable thank goodness, we didn’t stand a chance if we couldn’t read it.

It wasn’t long before we reached the start, yyyaayyyy, at last, there was a signpost for the Scorrybreac Circuit. The road lead passed the boathouse and slipway where there are great views of Portree. It continued along a gravel path, there was a memorial up a grassy bank, but as it looked slippy we didn’t go up to it. The memorial is for the Nicolson Clan. We followed the main path which followed the shore line, the path passed a bench and turned around the headland then started to get quite rocky and narrow and you had to watch your footing.

By now the weather had started to close in and the wind had started to get worse, the cliffs above were very steep and there is a good chance of seeing sea eagles, we stood and watched for a while but didn’t see any. The path eventually came to an area with large boulders and rocks some partly on the path, as you look up towards the mountain you could see where they had broken away and flattened the shrubs and undergrowth recently on the way down towards the sea.

We decided to carry on despite the weather, the path started to get very narrow and quite muddy, the path started to climb quite steeply after a while and although we hate turning around on a walk we made a decision to head back the way we came, the wind was getting worse and we didn’t fancy getting blown off those cliffs into the sea, well who would. We had walked a fair way so we didn’t feel too bad about turning around.

We got back to Evie, put our stuff in the bathroom to dry off a bit and set off this time on the A855, not long after leaving Portree we noticed a lot of vehicles parked all on the side of the road, cars, motorhomes, coaches, motorbikes and realised it was the Old Man of Storr, as I looked up I saw all these strange rocks that sort of looked they had shot out of the ground, This was a walk on our list, but there was no way we were going to be able to park as there was just no room to park, we carried on and came to another tourist site on our list to see which was Kilt Rock, it is an area of coastline where cliffs of basalt columns give the coastline a pleated kilt like appearance.

We came to the turning into the car park and could see it was really busy again and it was very big, we went in just to see if we could park but no luck. We pulled out of the car park and headed towards Staffin, we didn’t quite get into Staffin when we came across a layby and a very nice layby it was too, we stopped here to discuss the plan and have a coffee. The plan now was to do the Old Man of Storr early the next morning before the crowds, so where to stay the night was the next discussion, we hadn’t really passed anywhere and we had noticed that the Kilt Rock car park was no overnight stopping even if it did empty later on. So what better place to stop was where we were in the layby, the views were nice, not spectacular but ok, the road was fairly busy, but most of the roads tend to quieten down as the evening goes on, so this was our stop for the night.  We still had no signal for the telly, nothing new there then, so we watched the Shape of Water, I can’t name all the films we watched but I remember this one as it was a strange film. Before it started to go dark there were quite a few birds of prey flying above the mountain that we could see, but couldn’t really make out what they were, it seemed to be their territory though as we noticed them around  a lot and also could hear them calling. The evening was peaceful and we had a good night’s sleep.

Skye day 3

The weather on day 3 was sunny and dry, but all that can change within a second, Steve had been checking the weather to see what it was going to be like day to day and he had noticed that the weather that night was for strong winds and rain, we needed to top the water up and empty the loo, so I booked Camping Skye in Broadford for the night and with the weather looking bad it is better to be on a site rather than wild camp, well we think so.

When in Scotland, it’s never just a simple “today we will drive to Broadford”, Scotland has loads of roads/lanes going of the main road, and you can discover the most gorgeous places with every turn of the road.  That’s what happens to us, the place we are headed for can be five minutes down the road,  but it takes us half a day to get there, as I’ve said before Evie is not a massive motorhome so we can get down most lanes and small roads and most of all of the roads in Scotland have passing places.

So this happened to us on the way to Broadford, we left Amardale after breakfast and took a road of the beaten track towards Tarskavaig, it was across moorland, very vast, this is where we would expect to see a deer or other wildlife, but no sign of any deer 🙂 but plenty of buzzards, I missed quite a few opportunities of buzzards sat on fence posts because I didn’t have my camera on my knee, I will never learn until I’ve missed what could have been the best photo of the day.

Anyway with camera on my knee we carried on passing a lovely loch called Loch Dhughaill, eventually we came to Tarskavaig, it was just a very small village right on the coast, from here you get a good view of The Cullins, we didn’t stop here but drove on to Tokavaig, this was another small village or crofts as they are called, it had a lovely shore line and some lovely places to stop and park up for a cuppa,  but we passed them all, then decided to stop, by this time we were going out of the village and this is where we encountered a massively  steep hill directly after a really sharp corner and gravel,  it wasn’t a good combination for Evie and we started to slide back down the hill as Steve braked to try and get into first gear, the corner came on you so quick that there was no time to get into 1st gear

 Luckily there was a house with a drive that we turned into and were able to turn round to take the hill again, but then we had to find another place to turn around again to take the hill, so we end up passing some of those lovely spots again, so we had the chance this time to pull over after we had turned round, so after finding somewhere to turn round we pulled over and had a coffee and a crumpet, the weather was lovely and really warm.

As we were sitting having our cuppa we could see a ruin castle in the distance, it turned out to be the Fort of Gloom the oldest on Skye and it is said that it was built in a single night built by the MacLeod clan, it was taken over by the MacDonald’s, but then taken back in 1495 by the MacLeod’s. You can walk to the ruin but the path was very muddy and I don’t think you can get very close to it as it is in dangerous state of disrepair.  It was time to get back on the road and tackle the hill, Steve did it so easy this time as he knew what to expect this time. We passed through another little croft called Ord, we didn’t stop here, and the views of the Cullins were still amazing from here. The road now lead back onto the main road, we drove to the Isle Ornsay which was once the centre of Skye’s fishing industry, it’s a tiny place and you wouldn’t think it was so busy years ago, it has a few claims to fame, one being the islands first public toilet flushed by the tide and number two (sorry for the pun J, is that Gavin Maxwell who wrote Ring Of Bright Water once lived in one of the cottages there. We called in the small gallery that is there which sells different types of paintings of the surrounding area and wildlife. It also has a small distillery there which wasn’t open while we were there, a couple of hotels and a gift shop that sells Harris Tweed.

We drove on to Broadford passing more beautiful places, lochs and mountains, Broadford is Skye’s second largest town and is a very busy place, it is a place where most holidaymakers and travellers stop to get provisions and fill up with petrol, motor homers, walkers, hikers, etc. The car park is big and is right next to a large supermarket, so it’s an ideal place to stop. I popped into the co-op for some bits, we had dinner and then had a look around.

I had read in my book that there is a short walk from the car park called a Heritage Trail, a bird hide is in the grounds of a park area which has seating and overlooks the bay of Broadford , sometimes otters are spotted here also spotted here in the winter months are red throated divers, also in the grounds is a monument which commemorates James Ross who was the first man to patent Drambuie.

As we walked through the park and over a lovely bridge were Broadford river flows into the sea, the path took us though a bit of woodland and onto a pier, the fishermen must do a lot of lobster fishing as there were loads of lobster pots all stacked up. After taking some photos of the pier and pots we left the pier to carry on the walk, but there was a sign saying private property and a small sign pointing to a very rocky drop (very small drop) down onto a stony beach, we presumed this was the way so we carried on but then there didn’t seem anyway to go at all, it was all very strange, so we turned round and went back the way we came, but this time walking on the quiet road which ran alongside the woody path. Eventually we arrived back at Evie and discussed what to do next.

A few weeks before the holiday started I had booked a sea cruise with Misty Isle Boat Trips for the Thursday, which is in Elgol, the trip goes to Loch Coruisk, which is Loch you can only get to by boat, it is separated from the sea by narrow band of rock, we were really looking forward to this trip so thought we would take a run there to see what the parking etc. was like. It was about 15 miles away so it wasn’t far, we set off and straight away the views were again amazing, Elgol is on the tip of the Strathaird Peninsula, there is a lot of history on this road, from a deserted village were the occupants were evicted and forced to move to Australia to the remains of church that was washed away by storms in the 1920’s, they used to quarry marble here since 1703 and in one of the 2 quarries here they still do.

We passed an old church and graveyard which we thought we would call on the way back. The road into Elgol was windy and steep and the road to the actual jetty was soooo steep, so steep that I really didn’t want to drive down to it, there was 2 car parks a top car park which had a ticket machine, the one nearer the jetty didn’t have a machine, both car parks had signs for no overnight parking, the café there also had a car park, so there was quite a bit of parking. We drove down to the jetty and I just held my breath and shut my eyes, but Evie did it well, well Steve did it well, then we had to drive back up, phew, we made it.

The old church we stopped at on the way back was Cill Chriosd (christs church), it was the local church up until 1840 when the new church was built in Broadford, the weather was getting windy whilst we were looking round the ruins and it was getting really cold, it was a wind that cut though you, the church was very exposed and you can imagine it must have been so cold in the winter back in its day to attend a funeral there, also it was a good few miles from Broadford and for the people with no horses and carts they would have had to walk, then stand in a freezing cold graveyard, not a nice thought at all. Anyway we jumped back in Evie put the heater on full blast and made our way to the camp site.

Camping Skye is a new site and is a community run site, it was opened in 2018 and is a five minute walk from the centre of Broadford, where there are plenty of places to eat and shops. When I phoned to book the lady I spoke to was very helpful and friendly. We pulled into the site and stopped at the reception, it is not a huge site, but has great views, it has hard standing pitches and the tenting pitches are what they have called tent terraces, these terraces were named in a competition they ran and the new sign, will be ready for the 2020 season. And are closer to the facilities, but they also have wild camping pitches which are quieter and more secluded.  

The motorhome and caravan pitches are all hard standing with 240v 16a electric hook up and individual barbeque/awning pitches .The facilities are top quality and have toilets, showers, wash up/laundry drying room, chemical toilet disposal, grey water disposal, free Wi-Fi and a 24hr warden. I can vouch for the showers, they were lovely and warm and worked on a touch button with a good length of time before you had to touch it again,  most showers on sites are fixed at the same temperature which you can’t change, I like this idea as you’re not fighting getting the water to the right temp, starting of freezing and end up being boiling hot and if it is on a push button method you only have a certain length of time before it stops and you have to push it again, you just get it to the right temperature and it stops and you have to start all over again, you can end up having a freezing cold shower. The toilets and shower area was clean and tidy.

I had a nosy at the washing up area and washing/drying room which were all very tidy even though it was full of tents and clothes drying on racks, the weather had been awful if you were camping. The site has a very good website which tells you a bit more than I have said. It cost us £25 for a one night stay, that is £20.00 for one adult and hook up and £5 for an additional adult. We paid and told which pitch number we were on, parked up, hooked up and settled down for the afternoon. The view we had was of the mountains, not sure the name of it.

The weather had already started to get really rough, so after we had both been for a shower we hunkered down and watched the world go by and the weather get worse, and discussed the next day.  The rain came down like mad and was so heavy, we could see the car parking for the tents from where we were and noticed people getting into their cars, it was obviously getting to bad for them to stay in their tents, Evie was rocking like mad and the rain was very loud on her roof. Despite the weather we slept well, we were shattered.

Skye day 2

Day 2 We had a good peaceful night and woke up fairly early to rain on the roof, it was a very damp morning, we had breakfast and started to tidy up, put everything away and get ready for our next destination,  this was our first encounter with the midges that you hear about in Scotland, we are usually lucky, but today we weren’t, I went to the loo and to have a wash, I opened the window in the small bathroom and oh my god, before I realised there was a swarm of them in the bathroom, I got bitten to death before shutting the window and had to spray them with air freshener as that’s all we had, they also homed in on Steve when he went to put the gas off and get the wildlife camera in, which disappointingly didn’t have anything on it when we looked, they don’t seem to bite Steve like they do with me, not sure why, but I was covered, it was the best  conditions for the midges to be around, damp and being in a wooded area.  We had had a cup of tea and decided to stop on route for some breakfast.

This was going to be our first walk, it was to The Point of Sleat, it’s the most southern point on Skye with a modern lighthouse and some fantastic views looking out to the small islands of Rum, Canna and Eigg, well that’s how it’s described. On Map my Walk it was 4.63 miles and with stops it took us 3 and a half hours. 🙂 We drove to Amardale which is where the road to the start of the walk went from, Amardale is a small village and a ferry port it has some gift shops, a pottery a campsite, woodland walks that are way marked from the petrol station, a studio/shop, castle gardens and ruins, a museum and various places to eat.

As we still hadn’t had breakfast we decided to get a bacon sandwich from a tiny restaurant / take-away called The Shed, there was no room inside as it is like I said tiny, but popular for the views you can look at, we got our butty’s and sat in Evie to eat them, they were quite expensive for a bacon bap and a hotdog bap, which I was hoping was going to be a proper sausage but sadly was as it said on the tin a hotdog sausage. We had a smooch around the gift shop there and got 2 lovely mug mats as I call them or coasters, plus the all-important fridge magnet.

We had a chat with the shop owner and she was saying that it had been quite a quiet summer, compared to what it usually is, she thought it was something to do with Brexit, she asked us our plans and we told her we were heading to The Point of Sleat, she said the views were amazing,  with that we got back in Evie and headed off.

The car park was about a 10min drive from Amardale at the end of a single track road and it is an extended farm yard, we just had to hope there was room, it was still early so we had a good chance that there was space. We drove along a very narrow road going up above the sea and it was at a very high point on some rocks that’s we saw our very first sea eagle, Steve saw it on some rocks and at first we didn’t know what it was as it wasn’t close, it was massive, Steve said it was the size of a goat, I grabbed the camera (I will never learn to have that camera on my knee at all times when in Scotland), luckily I managed to get some shots of it on the rocks and some more as it flew off, it was amazing to see and it was one of many we saw by the end of our trip.

We carried on to the car park and the beginning of the walk. We got kitted up and with camera in hands and rucksack on back, well Steve had the rucksack as usual, we made some coffee in a flask to have on a stop. The walk started well, it was a rough road though some moorland, it was up and down and quite steep hills at times, we followed this road for a good distance, the last hill we went up was the first sight of a white sandy beach, little did we know the hard work we had to get to it. At the bottom of that hill there was a signpost to the left, it was a steep and rocky and so muddy in places, it soon levelled of along a fence, it was even muddier, you couldn’t avoid the mud at all and it was quite slippery in places, we just had to watch were we were walking and stopping to look at the views.

Surprisingly there were quite a lot of houses around considering it was so remote and out of the way, a little girl had put a freeze box on the path with a sign saying her name and she was collecting money for a yacht trip she was taking ,the sign said to help yourself to butty’s and cold drinks for just a small donation, I opened the box hoping to find a butty we could have, but the box was just full of water, it was obviously there for when it had been busy in the summer, there was still a jar there with some money in, so Steve put a couple of quid in it, hopefully she made enough for her trip.

The path drops into a small valley with the beach now in front of us and close, there is a path down to the beach, it is a gorgeous beach with white sand, blue sea and views to die for, it is called Camas Daraich beach. We stopped and had a coffee here, there was a seal out to sea not to close to the shore but close enough to see him, and he was on his own and stayed bobbing about all the time we were there. It was a lovely break and we enjoyed our coffee, our walking boots were covered in mud by this time and were soaked though, it’s just one of those thinks you have to put up with if there has been a lot of rain, it wasn’t worth changing our socks as they would have got just as wet.

We left the beach, headed back to path  and came back to the point where we had to head up again, this path again is rough and muddy and fairly steep, we were now above the beach, the views again are stunning, the path heading now towards the lighthouse is very muddy and very very wet, at the highest point of this hill we could see the actual point with the lighthouse.

It was at this point we decided not to go any further, the path was a steep down and a rocky climb up the other side to the lighthouse, it was just too wet for us and we had the walk back to do back though all that mud, so we found a small rock to sit on and just enjoyed the peace, the views and another coffee, it was lovely just to sit and enjoy. We headed back after about half an hour or so, it seemed along walk back to Evie for some reason, the path back down to the rough road was hard going and as we were going down it was slippy and we both ended up on our backsides at some point on that walk.

It is lovely to see Evie in the distance on a tough but enjoyable walk, everything was muddy, and thank goodness we had our waterproof leggings on. It had taken us a good 3 and a half hours so we were ready for some lunch. On the way into Amardale we had passed some great laybys with some fantastic views over to Mallaig, so we decided to park up in one of these and have lunch, after having lunch and a cuppa we discussed where we were going to stay that night, what better place we said than where we were, so that is what we did. The road again wasn’t too busy and was very quiet after about tea time, it was a lovely stop and the views over the sea changed all the time with the light and the weather.

Skye day 1

 The drive to Skye is a lovely one as you can imagine, it was a good 3hr drive from where we were so the bridge was a welcome site, the bridge was from mainland Scotland was built in 1995, before that the ferries were the only way to get there. Ferries go from different places from the mainland over to Skye and I’m sure all with fantastic views, we haven’t done the ferry over, maybe next time we go we will. The bridge is only 500 metres and goes from Kyle of Lochalsh to Kyleakin, it is a lovely way to enter Skye.

Our first stop was Otter Haven it has a walk and a bird hide where apparently you can see different kinds of wildlife and of course otters. We had hummed and haa’d about going as we had read that the road to Otter Haven was very narrow and not suited for motorhomes, but we had had a look on Google Earth and it didn’t look too bad and had passing places, also Evie is not a massive motorhome so we decided to go.

It was a narrow road and a good few miles to our destination, but it was ok and we hardly met anything on the way, the car park was easy to find and there was plenty of parking. The walk down to the hide wasn’t very long and was though some woodland with views in-between the trees of Loch Alsh, the hide was quite large with a wooden model of an otter and information about what you can expect to see from the hide, we stayed for about an hour but unfortunately we didn’t see anything, only the odd heron, sometimes with the hides you have to go early in the morning or just before dusk. 

As we walked back up to Evie we met a couple who asked us if we had seen anything, they were from Newcastle and it’s the 5th or 6th time they had been, as we carried on talking the man asked Steve if we had ever been to the Ardnamuchan Peninsula as there was a great hide there, of course we had to say we had got married there and been to the hide a good few times, they also asked us if we knew the Resipole campsite which is where we stayed for a night last year, I mentioned about the gorgeous house that was next to the campsite called Rockpool House which is where we had our honeymoon, we couldn’t believe it when they said they were staying there the next week and had been a few times over the last few years, they were staying in the apartment for the first time instead of the house which does B&B, it is such a small world sometimes, we said our goodbyes and set off back to Evie.

It was getting on for dinner time by now, so we thought we would have a look for somewhere to park up and make some lunch. There were a few places to park, but some of them were quite open and if the wind does pick up it can be a bit scary, we were getting nearer to the end of the road and found this little park up in the trees, we made lunch and decided to stay there for the rest of the day and stay the night, I think after the long drive we were ready to chill for a while.

The road wasn’t busy at all, it seemed to be busy in fits and starts, I think it must have been because there was also a small ferry that went from Kylerhea back across the loch back to Glenelg which is back on the mainland, when I say busy its literally 2 to 4 cars every now and then, as the night drew in we hardly saw anything. Steve decided to put the wildlife camera out for the night to see if we could capture anything as we were in a wooded area. We settled down and had a chill, I read the book I had downloaded on my kindle and Steve watched some tutorials, we watched a nice light hearted film later which was The Queens Corgis, it’s a great film. About ten we took that weary ladder up to bed.

Our Journey to Skye

Our trip to Skye had been planned from about the beginning of this year, we had driven onto and around Skye very briefly when we did the NC 500 last October, that’s another story and another blog, and it was our very first big trip in Evie.

As you have read I like to plan, but was not going to do too much planning on this trip, we were going to play a lot by ear, but then I started to look at books about Skye (big mistake), I ended up buying a lovely little book from Amazon called Skye and Lochalsh The Guide Book by Lynne Woods and Doug Vickers it’s a brilliant book and just helps with your visit to Skye and you can see what there is to see and do and things off the beaten track that maybe you wouldn’t necessarily see if you did not  know about them.  So really the planning began when it arrived.

I didn’t spend a lot of time on it,  just marking places and things that I knew we would enjoy, I would put it away then bring it out every now and then, I also bought another book called Isle of Skye Outstanding Circular Walks it’s part of Pathfinder Guide books this is also another good book with a range of different kinds of walks with different levels of mileage and difficulty. Steve had also mapped out a new route to go, rather than go the Loch Lomond way up into Glen Coe he found a route to go towards Dumbarton, it is a longer way but new roads for us, the plan on the first night was to wild camp in Glen Coe and that road does take you into Glen Coe.

So the countdown began, we had quite a few weekends away and Steve’s birthday week away and various family things going on and of course work, the months went by pretty quickly and before we turned round it was the beginning of the summer, the schools broke up and of course it started to rain for a few weeks as it does when the schools are off, we had planned to go after the schools had gone back at the beginning of September on the 7/9, that way we would miss the busy time on Skye or anywhere at that time of year. We had another few weekends away and of course the Evie breakdown to contend with, which was a bit nerve racking to say the least, but she was fixed 2 weeks before the 7th, phew.

We packed her with clothes and snacks (the essentials) the weekend before, so all we had to do was pack last minute bits and fresh foods for the fridge, and so the week countdown began, I needed  some new walking clothes and a coat so did a bit of retail therapy, gave the house a good tidy and clean as us women do before we go away, why I’m not sure, as my youngest son was away the same time as us I had to sort out someone to look after the cat, luckily my middle son said he would pop in every night and sort her out, I worry a bit more about her now she is getting on a bit.

So it came to the Friday before the 7th, now usually in the past we have left after work on the Friday and done a BritStop on the way up, but this time we decided to go on the Saturday, but leave about 3am (which we have also done before), that way you miss the traffic, especially by Glasgow, so I finished work, Steve was already off, we picked Evie up in the morning, packed the last minute bits and so we were all ready for the early start, we had a takeaway and decided on an early night. Maybe a bit too early as we both couldn’t sleep so instead of reading or watching the telly we decided to set off it was 10pm.

The traffic couldn’t have been better, yes there are the lorries and maybe a few more cars than there would have been at 3am, but all in all it was a good run, we didn’t stop at Tebay this time which is a popular stop on the M6, we stopped for diesel just before Glasgow and all was going well until we got nearer to Glasgow and the satnav decided to go into silent mode, if we think back it hadn’t said very much on the journey, but Steve knows where he is going upto Glasgow which is where we need it the most, so we got into the wrong lane which took us into the outskirts of Glasgow, the sat nav did recalculate, but still didn’t say anything, so of course Steve is concentrating on his driving and I’m rubbish at reading what’s on the screen, so we got into another wrong lane which started to take us into the centre of Glasgow (yikes), our stress levels were getting higher, it’s at this point we rediscovered signs 🙂 so we followed the signs to Dumbarton which is the route we were taking, we eventually got on the road we wanted.

Phew, our stress levels went down and we both breathed a sigh of relieve, not after calling the satnav all the names under the sun. We went through Dumbarton and headed towards Helensburgh were we had a look on park4night for a spot to stop, recharge our batteries and wait for light as if we had carried on in the dark we would have missed all the scenery on these new roads, it was now 4am, we found a huge car park in Helensburgh which caters for motorhomes with no charge, we decided to have a well-earned cuppa and try and get a few hours sleep, then set of when it became light.

We did get an hour or so sleep believe it or not, there was the odd car or motorhome coming into the car park, but apart from that it was quiet and good for a stopover. We got up about 7.30ish and looked out of the window, the view was amazing, I think we had an idea it was going to be good as although we arrived in the dark, the lights lit the sea up and the town across the water, but it was even better in the light of day, the contrast of the sea and the mountains were classic of Scotland, we had a cuppa and took a walk along a small pier to enjoy the rest of the view, it was cold but dry and the sun just started to come over the mountains, it was very quiet too considering we were in a large town, but it was early on a Saturday morning. Steve got the satnav talking again and we set off.

There was quite a way to go before getting to Skye, we were heading for Oban, the route took us though some spectacular scenery, the scenery is a lot gentler than the Scotland we know. There were lots of lovely villages and large Lochs and also some lochans, you can never do it justice in a photo I don’t think.  The weather was amazing, warm and sunny which makes everything look even the more spectacular. We arrived at Oban , found the parking virtually straight away and parked up, it was a short walk to the harbour, it was busy with people doing the same thing as we were,  taking photos and just enjoying the hot weather (by now it was hot), Steve spotted a fish and chip van, well it was a posh fish and chip van, we decided to get fish and chips after we had had a walk around, there are a lot of fish restaurants and gift shops in the town, it’s a nice place to have a mooch about and the view from the harbour is lovely.

We headed back to where the fish and chip van was and without even looking at the price I ordered 2 lots of fish and chips, it was £18, that’s why I said a posh van, we sat down and waited, it didn’t take long at all, we put our salt and vinegar on and made our way back to Evie, rather than eat while walking round we would rather sit in Evie and eat, the beauty of motor homing. It wasn’t the best of fish and chips, the fish was breaded and there wasn’t many chips, there was peas and coleslaw, but not mushy, but it was nice enough and we were ready for it after our early start and early breakfast.

We set off for Glen Coe where we were hoping to spend a night before moving onto Skye. We again passed some gorgeous scenery and had only driven about forty five minutes when we passed a gorgeous loch (which turned out to be Loch Linnhe) with a  huge layby by the side of it, we decided to park up and stay there the night instead of going to Glen Coe, I think we were both just knackered after the start on the Friday and virtually driving through the night, so we pulled in, made a cuppa and just chilled for a while. 

It was a busy layby, with cars and motorhomes in and out, as it was such a lovely view people were stopping to take photos, the road was a busy one too and we did wonder weather to move on or not, but we decided to stay put. There was a small marina a short walk away so after we had rested for a bit we took a walk towards that, it was really hot by this time, we didn’t walk to far before going back to Evie, there were a few more motorhomes parked up when we got back, it is nice in one way, it’s like safety in numbers, not that I’m saying for one moment stopping in a layby is unsafe just that you feel a bit more relaxed.

We had a bit of tea, just a snack after the big dinner, then we took a quick walk down the side of the loch, the views again were amazing and there were a few people kayaking on it, it was getting late so we settled down to watch a film, the road was still quite busy with a lot of motorbikes and still people coming in and out of the layby, also a couple of cars looked like they were staying too. After the film we went up the weary ladder to bed, it was a bit of a noisy night, the road had calmed down but we still had the odd car going past, what more do you expect being parked in a layby I know, there was one plonker who kept his hand on the horn as he drove past, I won’t repeat Steve’s words and then to top it off I had a nightmare, I have never had a nightmare as far as I remember and it’s not the best place to have one as Steve thought I was going to jump out of the bed, bit of a height to drop from a bed above the cab. Not sure what bought it on, it must have been the Winnie The Pooh filmed we watched, 🙂 not really we watched a film called Arrived, it was an alien film and wasn’t even scary, as people who know me I don’t do scary, all I can put it down to is being really tired, hopefully it won’t happen again. So after a bit of a restless night we set of early this time heading for Skye.

We went through some lovely little villages and towns, lovely lochs and large mountains on our way, it was a lovely journey and we reached Fort William about breakfast time, we decided not to stop in Fort William this time, as we have been a few times, it is well worth a visit though. We thought we would find somewhere nice to pull over to make some brecky on the road, it wasn’t long before we got to the Commando Memorial, for some reason we had never stopped before, the car park was empty so we pulled in. The monument is very large its 17ft and is 3 bronze commandos dressed in world war two uniforms, they are looking south towards Ben Nevis and the detail is unbelievable, on the plinth is written ” United We Conquer” In memory of the officers and men of the commandos who died in the Second World War 1939 -1945. The country was their training ground.

There is also a remembrance Area, many of the commandos who served in World War Two have their ashes placed here, it is also in memory of more recent conflicts with photos of men that have died and cards and letters from loved ones, Steve and I found this very emotional and we didn’t feel as though we wanted to take photos of this area, it makes you realise that there are still men and women risking their lives on our behalf. We were going to have breakfast there, but it just didn’t feel right for some reason so we jumped in Evie and set off again. We found a layby with great views to have some breakfast, then hit the road again on our last leg to Skye.

Scale Force Waterfall Walk

 4.5 miles from the walks to waterfalls book, Mapmywalk shows 4.6 miles

I’m going to be truthful about this walk, I’ll call it the unmissable waterfall that we missed 🙂 We have a book called Walks to Waterfalls, its walks to 10 waterfalls in the lakes; we choose this walk, as it was not too far from Dalebottom. We put the postcode of The Bridge Inn, in the satnav which was where the walk started from, one of the roads we came across on the way had a width restriction on it, but Evie was just under, the road was narrow, but there wasn’t many cars on the road and we flew though, it was alongside Crummock Water.

The carpark was a national trust carpark and wasn’t huge, so we were glad we got there early as it’s not that easy to park Evie in a smallish carpark. So with rucksack on back and book in hand, (well Steve did again) we set off. We read the 1st part of the instructions and turned out of the carpark, and were supposed to turn immediately to the right, to us it just looked like it went into a farm yard, so we thought it must be wrong, we should know by now to go and have a good look instead of thinking it’s not the right way straight away. We decided to head for what looked like the hub of the village and found a sign pointing to Scale Force Falls so off we went, great we thought a well sign posted walk, the views again were lovely, we eventually came to a stream and a stone bridge which when you went over it was like a T junction, there was no signs saying which way at all, so much for the well sign posted route, so we looked at the book according to that it said to head right, bearing in mind that we had missed most of the other instructions in the book as we didn’t find the turning that we should have taken in the beginning, however according to the small map in the book, we needed to be heading to the right

We headed off again, there was a clear stony path, it opened up to a view of Crummock Water and some glorious mountains on both sides of the water. Now on the only sign we saw it said the waterfall was a mile and a quarter from that point, we came across some wooden bridges and some very boggy ground which were mentioned in the book, we couldn’t see that there could be a waterfall anywhere and we had already gone more than a mile and a quarter, so of course the only logical thing would be starting to head up, we saw a man heading up on a path so presumed we must be right, so off we went again, it was not an easy trek up as some fences had fallen down and it was quite a scramble, we watched where the man went and headed that way, we lost site of the man as we stopped to take photos.

We came across another thin wooden bridge that looked like if you crossed it, it would take you in a wooded area which didn’t look like waterfall friendly at all, the book mentioned loads of names, none of which were backed up by any signs along the routes (we now know that hidden amongst those few sparse trees was Scale Force Falls with no clear path leading to them, duh). We carried on heading up and up and up, the weather by this time was turning really warm, we eventually came to a small gate with a path leading into the hills, but also a path leading up before the gate, so now we had no idea which way to head, Steve sprinted up the path to see what he could see, he also sprinted back down, he looked like a fell runner and sounded like one too with his huffing and puffing, he can’t remember the last time he ran anywhere 🙂 the only thing he could see was more hills.

We decided to have a sit, have a drink and enjoy the views and decide what to do, I didn’t want to carry on as we had no idea how long we would have to walk for and even if we could find the waterfall, we had another look at the book and couldn’t figure out where we were, we set off back down and just enjoyed the views again, don’t get me wrong we enjoyed the walk, but it would have been better to find the falls. As we walked along we had a right old moan about the lack of sign posts, moaning about how wrong the book was, a man and a dog followed us down so we asked him about the falls, at first he said that we were in completely the wrong area, well we knew we weren’t that wrong, he then went on to say that it was the other way and that we couldn’t miss it!!.We carried on back towards the stone bridge and thought we should have turned left there; we decided that we would do it again another time and write it off as a bad job or walk L. By this time it was getting really busy and there were cars parked everywhere, there was a nice looking pub in the village, but we decided to get back to Evie and get to the campsite, rather than stop and have a well-earned lager. We got back to Evie and set off once again to the campsite.