As we sit writing this post, we are looking out over Loch Bay near the northern end of the Isle of Skye. We are right on the water and have an incredible view of the other side of Skye and on our nearby drives you can actually look out towards the Outer Hebrides islands in the great distance. We feel like we are right at the tip of the world actually. The weather here changes instantly from rain to brilliant sunshine, to sleet, to hail, and back to sunshine again. And then the largest rainbow we have ever seen came fully into our view.
It was a very beautiful drive up from Loch Ness. This is one of the most popular driving routes in all of Britain and being a holiday weekend it was also very busy. The start of the drive seemed much like you would see in British Columbia going through the mountains, but it is a lot of scrub on the hills, then all of a sudden you would encounter a large patch of evergreens or fir trees. There was snow on the tops of the mountains that we could see but we never got up that high while driving. Lots of switchback-like roads so Meg was not at her most relaxed, but she coped, just straining the right braking foot a little more than usual from her front seat location. We were a little concerned that due to the remoteness of our location it might be difficult to find Stein but our organizers gave us very good directions and the Sat Nav seemed to comply as well. As we got closer to our day's destination we started to see a lot more road signs warning us of sheep on the roads. Then we got to experience the Feral Goats, I kid you not (pardon the pun). There was a sign on the road warning us they might be ahead, and sure enough, there they were, a whole tribe of goats but they stayed off the road and out of our way, just a couple of feet off the side of the road.
On the way we checked out the Eileen Donan Castle which is a very romantic castle. It has a lovely bridge out in front and the castle itself is located where three bays intersect. Much of the castle is actually a reproduction that was completed in the early 1930s by some dedicated souls.
Of course when we started the car up this morning we kept getting continual warnings that the coolant levels were low so being the mechanical geniuses that we aren't we finally found a mechanic at a garage in Portree who very kindly filled it up for us at no charge. People are really so very kind here.
We landed at our lovely little B & B in Stein and our hosts are such truly lovely people who made us feel very welcome. We sat and visited with a cup of tea and coffee and little cakes and cookies and then they let us settle in and off we went to Dunvegan for dinner. The Old School was our chosen location for dinner. One could just imagine all the former students in this mostly one room school house now decorated complete with white twinkly lights.
After supper we managed to get the car backed up into the parking space of the B & B, a bit of a feat, and then walked down into town to check that out for possibilities for dinner tomorrow night. There is a Michelin chef at one of the restaurants which is very popular but not sure they have any openings left at this late time, being so near to Easter. One gets the sense that fishing is a large part of the economy around here, as well as lots of sheep farms and tourism. Sir IF was quite taken with the lobster fisherman bringing in his boat right outside our window.
There are tourists everywhere. We've been told you pretty much have to make dinner reservations on the island as there aren't really enough spots for all of the people who love to come visiting here. Evidently some British television shows have really been hyping the loveliness of Skye and the tourists have since been arriving in droves.
Photos are really taking a long time to download so sorry there aren't any in these posts. Stay tuned when we will catch you up with a nice gallery, likely back in London.
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