Day 10 - Fuelled Entirely by Irn Bru

Wow it has taken ages to sort this out! Google Photos has stopped accepting DNG files (the raw format my camera shoots in) and of course I didn't realise this at first so I'm like "upload my 176 photos", Google skipps them all so I tired again... three times,then again on another PC then eventually had to convert them all to PNG files and they finally finished uploading and being edited earlier.... yes I ahve SERIOUSLY slow internet so 176 photos took about 10 hours to upload :(

Anyways... onto Day 10!!

Skye Landscape

Dunvegan Castle

The aim of today was to get out and experience as much of the tourist crap that Skye had to offer as possible! Being big fans of Peatbog Faeries we were really hoping to visit Dunvegan as they have two songs about it (Welcome To Dun Vegas and the Veganites) as well as Angus MacAskill's house (they also do a song called Angus MacAskill). We saw on Google that Dunvegan had a caslte, and who are we to pass up a trip to a caslte?!
So off we went, the landscape of Skye is odd, The Old Man and The Old Lady really like Skye, but I've got to say it looked a bit bleak and depressing. I'm sure it's different in the sunshine, but by this point in the holiday I'd forgotten what sunshine and being warm and dry were!
Dunvegan Castle was nice. It's home to the seat of the MacLeod of MacLeod, chief of the Clan MacLeod. It was really cool to see so many artifacts from the castle's history in the rooms, some of which dated back to the 15th Century. I really liked the maid's room as there was quite a bit of chipped and decayed looking stuff there... I love a good bit of rust!!

Doggies lording it up at Dunvegan Castle

Only one of us could go in at a time, though, and we couldn't take any pictures so you'll have to suffice seeing pictures of the outside and of my handsome doggy and his best mate Princess! :)


We got to wander around the gardens with the doggies though and they loved it! The castle had the round garden, the water garden and the walled garden. It also backed onto the beach but the weather wasn't really good enough to go paddling!

Garden Waterfall

The walled garden was nice and had a vegetable patch that looked like it was doing better than ours, as well as loads of other plants. The water garden was lovely and had one of Skye's many MANY pretty waterfalls, still not convinced a waterfall can be ugly?

Getting to try out that slow shutter camera technique is good fun. I can honestly say I think I've just about got the hang of this whole small f/stop means more light, slower speed means more light and blurry. Still not sure what ISO is though, even though I've read about it and Wiki'd it... think I need it explaining in simple person's language.

Off we go to the next thing on our list: Angus Macaskill's House. Angus was a 7ft 9in gentle giant born in Scotland who moved to Canada. I'm not entirely sure why there is a museum dedicated to him on Skye, other than one of his distant relatives, Danny MacAskill, is form Skye and is a famous cyclist.

Angus Macaskill's House

 The museum was really nice though and is in one of the traditional black houses, so if anything it was really interesting to see inside one of the traditional dwellings. There were also lots of artefacts from the Victorian era that were out for display. It's great when a museum lets you get up close to things in such a way and doesn't hide them behind cabinets, this is my favourite type of museum, an immersive experience!

A Gentle Giant

 We moved on from the Angus MacAskill museum to find the Skye Museum of Island Life. This looked interesting on Trip Advisor and was again set in a traditonal 'blackhouse'. We had learnt about Blackhouses from our strip around the museum at Bettyhill in the highlands, so it was cool to be able to go in and have a look around

This museum was really small, and the main thing that annoyed me was there was stuff on the walls that were reprints of newspaper clippings, but the edges had faded so badly you couldn't read them, bugged me a lot that did!

Skye Black House

I really found being inside one of the blackhouses quite depressing if I'm honest. Not because it was a rubbish exhibit, far from it, but because it was quite shocking to be up and close to the sights and smells of traditional island life. The house was black on the outside, as well as the inside, from the soot from burning peat. This was evident because the smell was still lingering! Apparently the thatch is redone every year in the traditional way with rushes being hand cut. All in all a very interesting half an hour!

Museum of Island Life

Our busy action-packed day wasn't about to end there and we moved onto the next place on my list to visit: Neist Point.

The End Of Skye

Neist Point is a viewpoint and is located on the most Westernly part of Skye. This was also the most Westernly coast we would get on this trip! The viewpoint was amazing, really rather amazing!! As usual for this trip it was way too windy and rainy to get HARVe up again, so sadly I don't have any really cool aerial shots, but I got plenty of pictures of the rocks and cliffs.

Thistle! When in Scotland...

Ears Flapping In The Wind

There was even a couple getting married near the point (which we didn't climb, Teapot couldn't be bothered!) which was lovely. Good on them... poor sods must have been freezing!!! I did hold Prince up for a show of love and affection, his little ears were flapping in the wind... I still don't think he's forgiven me completely yet!!

Someone is unimpressed with Neist Point

Next stop: The Fairy Pools. Now I'll admit my little post card addiction had lead me here because I picked up a Fairy Pools post card and it looked stunning!! It looked like a set of pools with almost coloured water in them making them appear magical, so we were hopeful for this one!!

The Fairy Pools

Sadly, what we got was much less "enchanting and magical" and more "encouraging pneumonia".

The Fairy Pools are located along the road to Glen Brittle and is apparently a 30-odd mile walk into the Glen. Along the way there are hundreds of little waterfalls and pools that ahve been created naturally that I'm sure the less cynical of you readers will think is really cute and magical.

"I'll fill up our water-to-go bottles" she said
"It's good fresh water" she said
"It will taste NICE" she said.
Horrible.

Please don't get me wrong, I enjoyed the walk and it WAS very pretty... but this is Scotland. Moreover, this is The Isle of Skye, to say a waterfall is a rare thing is to tell a big fat lie. There's loads of them ll over the island and I'm sure they're all jsut as pretty.

Actually, if I'm honest, I probably would have enjoyed the Fairy Pools a lot more if it wasn't RAINING YET AGAIN!! Really bored of rain and being cold and being damp right now. Oh and did I mention that "headache" I was suffering from a few days ago has turned into a huge lovely cold. Chesty phlegmy cough mixed with the shivers and snotty nose. Just what you want when you're camping in SCOTLAND which is COLD and DAMP!!! Also didn't help that the water we filled up our water-to-go bottles with from the Fairy Pools tasted disgusting. Wouldn't recommend it.

Hundreds of Waterfalls

Dinner time looms and we've got a few choices, wither go into Portree again and try to find a cafe with a seating area outside, get something to cook from the Co-Op in Portree, or forget Portree all together and drive a stupid amount of time in the wrong direction away from our campsite in search of something that resembles Scottish seafood. Guess what one we picked?

We stopped off in a place called Cafesia, hoping for atleast a vaguely filling dinner. So far I've not managed to sample much famous Scottish seafood and have been disappointed with bloody Bookers Basics scampi from the "famous" Portree fish & chips shop, so something filling was all I was hoping for.

Wow did I underestimate this place!! I'm pleased too, this was one of the highlights of my trip!! I went into the little coffee shop to order while Teapot was outside with Prince and Princess, it was really packed (AND WARM!!!!) but the staff were SO nice and friendly. I ordered the sides (Sweet Potato Chips, Haggis Balls with Spicy Mango Dip & Doughballs) and our pizza (local Scottish Seafood Pizza!) and she said it would be a 45 minute wait for the pizza so they would send our sides out as starters.

Sweet Potato chips, Doughballs,
Haggis Balls with Spicey Mango Dip

Am I glad they did, the sides were literally to die for and the pizza was well worth the wait. Honestly, it was the best damn dinner i had for the whole journey and I'd go back to Skye just for that cafe, despite the fact that it was about 15 miles away from our campsite in the wrong direction!!!

As much as I'm moaning a bit today, and that's mainly down to the fact that I felt like shit all day and was really REALLY fed up with being cold and damp, I did enjoy the whistle stop tour of The Island, I just felt that it seemed like Blackpool end of season. Kind of like it needed a good lick of paint and some maintenance, everything looked a bit tired and half arsed. I know it was raining and cold, but  even Portree and Dunvegan looked like they were about to fall down.

Delicious Seafood Pizza

I guess I'm not not a natural lover of The Isle of Skye to be honest and I probably wont bother coming back in a hurry. There were nice bits, just not enough to make me fall in love with it.

Tomorrow's plan: Leave Skye (can't say I'm overly upset about that) and travel down to Loch Lomond via Glencoe,

Day 9 - Loading, Loading, Loading

Seriously getting fed up with this lack of connectivity. I pay for unlimited data... so far I've had unlimited sod all for the past 3 days. I am irritated and annoyed. That and I've managed to pick up a cold so I feel like shit too, just to add insult to injury.


Anyway... on a more positive note we have taken today as a pure rest day so Prince and I are hanging out in our tent drinking Irn Bru and eating chocolate.

The view from our campsite is lovely, a valley between two mountains/hills (we've been having the hill vs. mountain debate all journey), but sadly it keeps raining :(

There was a break in the rain long enough for me to go and grab a shower (lovely, warm shower!) and do some washing, strung the washing line up between the two tents and happily hung it all out... for about fifteen minutes before it started raining again. I'm really over rain now!

We decided to actually do SOMETHING with our day so headed into Portree again for fish and chips by the seafront. One thing that has seriously pissed me off so far is so many places near the coast (and, lets be honest, we've been near the coast quite a bit) that don't sell fresh fish? Just crap from bookers out of a bag?! The fish and chip shop we went into has been frequented by Hugh Fearnley-Whittingstall, who featured it and cooked in it for River Cottage: Gone Fishing where he did beer-battered pollock as an eco-friendly alternative to haddock.

Sad to say that Hugh Fluffy-Lovelystall must not have had that much of an impact and pollock wasn't on the menu, just normal fish and chip shop stuff, and my scampi was out of a bookers bag yet again. The chips were a bit crap too. Doggies enjoyed it as we took their food and bows with us so we could all have dinner together!

I'm not impressed with Skye so far, perhaps it's the weather I don't know... it just hasn't grown on me yet?

Tomorrow's plan: all the tourist crap around Skye!

Day 8 - Over the Sea to Skye

Today has been mostly driving... we had some bits planned (like Strome Castle, which we couldn't find) but mostly just spent our day driving through some more lovely scenery on our way to Skye.

We left Gairloch/Strath and travelled West towards the Kyle of Lochalsh, through Kinlochewe, Stromeferry, Torridon, Shieldaig, Lochcarron (Which was lovely). We stopped in Ben Eigh for a spot of breakfast, we thought the large mountain looking thing might be Ben Nevis but apparently it wasn't. We were trying to check Google to find out, but as usual no bloody phone signal... (yes I have tweeted EE!).

The Whistle Stop Cafe in Ben Eigh is quite nice and worth a visit. They were kind enough to let us have breakfast outside with the kids (dogs) and provided tables etc. I would say, however, that the price you paid was definitely a captive market price! Nearly £8 for very small smoked salmon with creamy scrambled eggs & toast and £8 for a tiny "Full English" with no toast. The smoked salmon was good and the black pudding was nice though and tasted vaguely haggisy?!

Onwards and upwards, we were really looking forward to going to Skye as The Old Man and The Old Lady have holidayed there a few times and say it's beautiful. We shall see!

I have to share the pictures from the "petrol station" though as this is becoming amusing. Where I am from, when you think of 'petrol station' you think of Esso or Texaco or a supermarket like Tesco or Morrissons. Here it's just a tiny pump from the 1950s and a few days ago I actually had a serviced pump... I didn't even know they existed any more?! Anyway....

We arrived at the Kyle of Lochalsh and crossed the bridge into Skye just before it began to tip it down with rain. As promised The Peatbog Faeries were bellowing out nice and loud with The Folk Police as we crossed over and prepated for the hour's journey to our campsite in Torvaig. We had e-mailed them and had no reply for a booking so we really were working on luck!

We drove through civilisation then back out through more mountains and hills and rocks. Skye has some beautiful waterfalls, but then again I can't say I've ever seen an ugly waterfall! They all seem to have a mysterious look to them that makes them magical.

We arrived at Torvaig fairly early, having still not got a reply from their email. Pulling into the carpark it was still raining and I was desperate for a pee. We noticed that, yet again, there was no phone signal and the campsite was charging £3 PER HOUR for WiFi. Seriously. £3 PER HOUR. After using the facilities (and finding them seriously lacking in cleanliness) we decided that actually, Torvaig campsite is a bit of a dump... That it it seemed that none of the tents had electric hook up, and by this point my phone and tablets were running out of charge (my phone drains VERY quickly when searching for data unfortunatly).

We left Torvaig and went back through Portree (the main port, apparently) to Sligachan where we noticed a campsite on the way past. This was great! £20 per night is a bit steep, but it seems normal for Skye (welcome to tourist heaven...) but we have electric hook up and phone signal, albeit slow phone signal. The Toilets and showers are kept pretty clean too so no complaints. The chap who runs it seems a bit standoffish but I am sure he's cool (UPDATE: he's actually really nice!).

Got the tents up in daylight again (thankfully...) and headed into Portree with the doggies to pick up supplies for dinner (chicken tortellini with a pesto sauce! mm!). I reserve judgement on Portree, but it seems very touristy. Quite pretty but very touristy...

Into bed and the pub across the road were having some live music we could hear, I love the fact that they finished with "I will walk 500 miles..." I suppose it's like us finishing with something proper British like BohRap!

Tomorrow's plan: Nothing, quite literally!