Day 11
The Full Scottish Breakfast at our airbnb was very delicious. We both tried blood pudding and it was very tasty. We ate with the other guests: a French couple and an English guy. It was nice to chat to other travelers, so I'm glad we did this once on our trip (however, my introverted-self is fine with just doing this once...).
After breakfast, it was off to the magical Isle of Skye for a few days. After researching for our Scotland trip, we read plenty of accounts about how beautiful Skye is, but we also read that it's known to be very very rainy there. So we booked a place in Skye for 3 nights in the hopes that by staying there for multiple days, we would get lucky and get some good weather at least once.
The drive to the Isle of Skye (there is a bridge to the island, which I'm sure the Skye residents regret building since now their island is super busy with tourists during the summer) was beautiful....and rainy. Through the thick and low clouds, we could still tell that this place is stunning.
Our first stop was a place called the Fairy Pools. I had scratched it off the list because reviews said it was always busy with tourists. But Paul was insistent that we go, and I'm glad we went because it was beautiful. It's basically a waterfall-filled stream through a beautiful valley. The farther you walk on the path, the less tourists you see (because they are lazy), so I enjoyed the views as we got farther from the crowds.
After that, we headed for Talisker Beach, which is supposed to be very pretty. However, when we arrived at the place to park our car and walk, there were TONS of signs by locals about 'no parking' and 'don't trespass' and it was very clear that locals are quite disgruntled with all of the people walking around their homes to get to the beach. We found an alternate place to park farther up the road, but I felt bad for the locals and their privacy (and it was starting to rain again) so we decided to respect the locals and left. Hopefully in the future, locals can figure out a good compromise so that folks can enjoy the beach without too much bother.
Next, we headed to Dun Beag Broch, ruins of an Iron Age stone tower built 2,500-ish years ago. There were beautiful views of the area from the tower ruins, and I always love some old ruins that you can reverently touch and adore.
Finally, we went to Dunvegan Castle & Gardens. The castle was the ancestral home for the chiefs of the MacLeod clan. It was beautiful, and you could see where the original medieval tower was and all of the additions they made throughout time. We toured the castle and saw many MacLeod artifacts, including the drinking horn that the chiefs had to drink from without stopping to prove that they were worthy to be chief and also the remnants of their magical good-luck flag, rumored to be given to them by a Fairy, of course.
Then...we walked the gardens. And Paul had to listen to me 'ooh' and 'ahh' and talk nonstop about all of the incredible gardens and plants. It was one of the most amazing gardens I have ever toured. I could live the rest of my life in those gardens (as I told Paul repeatedly). Every plant in all of the gardens was labelled! So I now have a long list of new plants to research to see if I can plant them at home. These gardens are my version of heaven. Sigh....if you love plants, you should visit the Dunvegan gardens.
After that, we grabbed some groceries so that we could cook dinner at our place instead of eating out. Our next place was a trailer that reminded us of the rv-trailer we lived in for a few years when we first moved to South Carolina. We had a kitchen and TWO bathrooms (foreshadowing: this comes in handy on Day 12...).
It was super nice to have some privacy and space again. We ate home-cooked lamb (delicious) and decided to eat an old bag of freezer veggies & rice that had been in our cooler for a few days. It tasted a bit tangy, but what could possibly go wrong?!?
Day 12: FOOD POISONING!
It turns out that it's not a good idea to eat old veggies/rice. We spent the morning in agony with food poisoning. Fortunately, it was raining hard all day, so it was the best day on the trip to be unwell.
At 4pm, we started feeling slightly better and forced ourselves to go out and try to see some things (it's hard being sick on vacation in another country because you feel guilty about resting/stopping).
We went to Skyeskyns, a tannery, to do a tour of them making things out of wool, but sadly, we missed the last tour of the day. So we strolled their shop and sipped some coffee at their Yurt and then left for Neist Lighthouse.
Neist Lighthouse is constantly brought up in suggestions for things to do on Skye, but all of the reviews stated it was super busy, so we weren't really planning on going. BUT since it was pouring sheets of rain and super windy and past 6pm, we really hoped it would be deserted. Nope, still busy!
And the one road to it is steep and one lane, full of pot-holes, along the edge of a cliff in parts, and has very few passing places. It was our least favorite drive and I cannot believe that crazy tourist buses and caravans go all the way up there. The path to the Lighthouse was pretty steep and 5 minutes out of the car had us soaked through (even while wearing our raincoats), so we just admired the area from the parking lot and left.
We went home, passed out, and we were ready to try our Skye adventures again the next day. Sometimes, little hiccups happen in vacation, but it's important to not let them get you down. We remained in high spirits and enjoyed each other's company (as always). 😍
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