April 3 - Day 3 of Scottish Highlands
In the morning we all woke up disappointed that the rain was not going to leave the forecast and that we were going to have to deal with it on our tour of the Isle of Skye. We did prepare for it in our individual ways. I packed my rain boots and wore my rain jacket. I also wore a nice dressy shirt, which you might be like why? But it actually dries really fast and doesn't stick too much to my body when it does. Sometimes dressy tops can surprise you.
I ate some of the food I'd bought at the grocery store for breakfast and we all took turns using the bathrooms in the hostel. There were quite a few other people there, but we found a spot to place ourselves. I ended up doing my make-up in the kitchen mostly because the lighting was better than the bathroom and so I didn't take-up the bathroom should someone else need it. A lot of people watched me, which was a little uncomfortable, but I had to just deal with it. One of my friends also put her make-up on as well at the table so I wasn't alone. My exchange friends all watched me put on my mascara as they'd never seen anyone use the eyelash curler before. They were also impressed at my ability you use both of my hands as I use my left hand for my left eye and right for my right.
At 9:30 our tour guide arrived and we all got into our private tour car. We'd researched alot of tour companies and this ended up being the best deal for us all as to take a normal 5 hour tour it would've cost us 40 pounds individually, but to take the private 8 hour tour that picked us up and dropped us off at our hostel was just 10 pounds more each. I'm proud to say I found this amazing deal!
Our tour guide began by learning our names, where were from and writing down little notes on how to remember us. I was Keely, blue, CANADA. He then began by telling us about himself as he drove us to our first stop, some waterfall (0ne of many) that I don't remember the name of (I think Eas a' Bhradain).
As you can see from above, we were about to be in for a wet and windy day. The next stop was what I was looking forward to the most: The Fairy Pools (which aren't actually called that, not related to fairies and aren't actually some interesting historic Scottish tale location - some famous guy referred to them as that - the fairy glen too). Nevertheless, they were amazing, but hard to get to.
The driver unloaded us and instructed us where to go and then he went to park and do whatever he does while he waits for us. I'd thought he'd lead us through each location and talk to us the whole time, but I guess we'd really just rented a driver for the day.
One of my friends really had to pee, but there were no bathrooms in sight, so she found a rock and did what one does in nature.
We ended up having to use each other to get across a few of the rock paths. I braved the first one as you can see below, but stopped to help the others get across. I could've easily just walked through the streams as they weren't too deep, but only two of us had rain boots on and the others didn't want to soak their feet right away.
I ended up continuing further on my own after the first pool as it was raining fairly hard and very windy. I enjoyed my moments alone - from where I was standing I could watch the bizarre tourists make their way through. One girl was wearing a light jacket and heeled boots - she looked like she was dressed for London and not the highlands.
I passed one of the others as I was coming back down. She'd been taking her sweet time and ended up going further than me. When I got back to the car, the driver hung my jacket in the back and I started to warm up inside. The others were getting annoyed having to wait so long for the last girl. Part of me was annoyed but I also had been exploring on my own, as I'd paid for this trip to and we'd liked the idea of being able to choose how long we wanted to be at each location. It wasn't my fault if the others just couldn't handle to weather. Although, it did turn into a pattern for the other girl to not be aware of the others not wanting to wait all the time for her as she was obscenely slow at a lot of tasks.
We then drove to the Talisker Distillery to use their bathrooms and try and dry off a bit (not really). I'd left my coat hanging in the car and had to wait for the driver to pull back-up without it. The others had warn multiple coats for the cold so they didn't have to worry about being without one unlike myself who didn't find it cold enough to double-layer.
It was lunch time so we stopped in Portree. We ended up having to split tables with strangers, but we didn't want to spend our precious time eating. I enjoyed a BLT and forced myself to eat it as it was (I've forced myself to eat plenty of tomato here now - maybe I just dislike American tomatoes as they're not as flavourful here so it's easy to forget about them).
We then went to the Fairy Glens where we drove past some sheep and a single lamb. The tour driver said it was the first he'd seen of the season, so it shall be the first lamb of the year here-on. The ground was very wet and slippery and there were no rocks to climb up but wet grass. Upon our first climb one of us fell right down and got her jeans completely muddy on the back. I didn't want to have to deal with mud myself so I avoided venturing too far and instead decided to head back the way we'd drove in to check out the sheep and the first lamb.
It was a pretty cool place - there are some interesting landscapes and weird rock placements. The hills have these cool paths and look the way they do from the sheep walking on them.
We then waiting in the car again for the same girl. We'd spent a really long time waiting for her at the first location (we'd spent about a half-hour more than most people at the first location according to our driver, so we were worried about missing out on other locations due to time). We then ended up in Uig. During the journey the driver continued to talk to us about the highlands etc. One of the stories I remember is of Flora MacDonald who was known for helping Charles Stewart escape during the Battle of Culloden. She'd gone to live in Nova Scotia for a bit, but ended up being too homesick and went back to the Isle of Skye.
At the previous stop the tour guide had gotten out to let us grab our jackets, but we wrongly assumed he'd do the same when we got to Rah Falls. His remark of the rain finally letting up should have foreshadowed this. I was left jacketless and cameraless at this stop. Instead of letting this ruin my day I laughed about it and used this as an opportunity for us to rush through this waterfall stop. It wasn't as impressive as the other locations anyway. It also wasn't too far from the road and had some trees covering the area.
Well as Scooby-doo would say, Rha-row.
At the next stop, the Quiraing I made sure to get my jacket. This was possibly my second favourite spot - it was easy to walk around and it looked straight out of a Fantasy movie. I even got "The Hobbits are going to Isengard" stuck in the others' heads. They filmed some car commercials there and also it's popular for photoshoots. We also got to witness a tour guide dressed in a kilt lead a group up. Poor guy, I hope he gets paid quite well. The rain had let up, but it wasn't the nicest day to be out and about, especially without pants.
The next stop was Kilt Rock and Mealt Falls. This was possibly the scariest and craziest stop. The wind was very powerful that day and so we got to see a natural phenomenon, a backwards waterfall. We also got hit by the water as we headed to the viewpoint. My camera's screen is ruined from all the water, but I think the videos and pictures were worth it. I can always get a new screen (plus the lens is find so that's all that matters).
The rocks are known at Kilt rock because they look like a pattern in a kilt.
We then went to Lealt Falls, where I ended up venturing alone and nearly getting knocked down by the wind as I went to see what the sign below said. The area was known for finding dinosaur fossils so I thought it might have something to do with that.
We then had plenty of extra time due to our rushing so we ended up getting to see a bonus location. We were supposed to see the Old Man of Stor, but because of the clouds it wasn't visible (guess that'll be for future trips).
The bonus location was in Sligachan where we got to see the Black Cuillin mountains. There are apparently races to climb the mountain which people take part in and finish in remarkable times.
There's also a really old bridge and a broken landmark/statue thing.
We then took our soaking bodies back to the hostel where we took over the caravan hanging our things and drying ourselves off the best one can in a cold and wet environment.
For dinner we walked to a nearby restaurant. I had the Haggis, which came with oatcakes (not as good as Maritimes) and a shot of whiskey. The haggis was very good, the oatcakes were dry and not to my taste. I also ended up eating some of the others food as they got a lot of fries and meat they couldn't finish.
Back at the hostel people had laid down on the couches in the fireplace room and didn't move to make space when we entered so we took a box of Trivial Pursuit back to the caravan to play. It's always interesting playing that game as you never know what others, especially from different countries, may know.
Some new girl walked in and talked to us for a bit and we chatted about what we'd done as she was planning on exploring the Isle the next day. We strongly recommended she rent the wellies the hostel offered. She then asked us to wake her up at 8am the next morning since her phone was broken. We agreed, but in the end didn't have to since she woke up naturally.
She'd found two Canadians from Quebec who invited her to join them while they drove around the isle. She asked for our opinion on whether she should join them or take one of the bus tours. We pushed for joining the Canadians simply because we figured she'd have more freedom that way to explore as the Isle of Skye is better for exploring on ones own.
Also, apologies for the blurry photos, my camera had changed settings during the rain and because I didn't want to hold it out for too long I never noticed it wasn't on the right spot as I was just pointing and clicking. The videos were good though as I have a set setting for those.
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