Around Skye

After breakfast I headed to a car hire place on the outskirts of Portree, to collect our hire car for the day, picked up Anne, then we set off northwards, past the Old Man of Stor, wreathed mostly in cloud as we drove past. At each of the sights and sites along the coast there was a large tangle of parked cars, motor homes and tour buses, plus crowds of people.

The cloud burned off and the day got warmer, getting up to round 25, which is a veritable heatwave for Skye. A vast improvement on last night where I had 5 layers, a buff and a beanie on, and was still a bit chilly.

On our way we visited the Museum of the Highlands which made an honest attempt at communicating something of the culture and history of the place. Some of the exhibits were a little hokey though. We thought if we stayed here too long we'd wind up looking something like this.

We worked our way up and across to Uig, where we had nice lunch in the Uig hotel (recommend the chowder)with marvellous views across the Sound.

For our last stop we headed over to Point Neist, the most westerly point of the island. To get there required quite a distance along "single track". This is essentially one narrow lane with passing points at irregular intervals, sometimes a couple of hundred metres, sometimes considerably more. It is a system which probably works with little traffic and mostly small vehicles, driven by people with reasonable driving skills and good manners. This afternoon there were way too many cars, motorhomes, vans, and the drive became like a game of chicken.

But the light house and landscape at Point Neist were worth it. 

We drove home again by single track across a wild deserted mountain range, before dropping the car off and heading out for a fantastic dinner of freshly caught scallops, in a restaurant with a wonderful view across the harbour.

Today we drove 114 miles. We feel like we've got a bit of an idea of the island - it certainly is a beautiful diverse place, a geologist's delight. I hope Skye can manage it's increasing popularity, and that some of the money being generated through the booming tourist trade gets put back into improved services and into the community that lives here. We tourists must be a real pain for the locals.

Tomorrow, we are off to Inverness, where the temperature is forecast to reach high twenties.