The sun rose and shone brightly right in through the window this morning, so I was up and out the door by 6:00. Buddy and I drove a little south, then on a single track (one lane road with pullouts every once in a while) straight into the heart of the island. The light breaking over the shoulders of the mountains, the tall grass, big rivers flowing lazily through the wide open valleys dotted with sheep, fir trees in neat little clumps on the hillsides... two big, red deer jumped out of the road and over a fence, later I saw a baby deer running over the ridge crest. I got about 25 miles into this valley and found a waterfall, but I was running out of time to hike up the river. Maybe later. I turned back for breakfast.
Our guesthouse is run by a nice older lady, and she let me try some Scottish Porridge and also kippers, besides the regular eggs and bacon. Porridge tastes like oatmeal, but richer, and the texture is fine like cream of wheat, but thicker. The kipper tasted like smoked trout to me, and not too salty. I was surprised. We were talking to the young couple next to us. They are on a whirlwind tour: couple days in London, couple in Edinburgh, here for two days then shoot back to Edinburgh and fly home. They were really interested in my morning drive, where we were going hiking, what we planned to see... I encouraged them to set out on their own next time, not be tied to a tour. They are from Kentucky. When I said we were from California, she mentioned her new step-father was from Redding, works for the newspaper in Kentucky. "Really," I said. "We're from Redding... what's his name?"
Tom King. Our old newspaper editor. I just laughed; it is such a small world, isn't it?
We set out to drive and explore the island, but didn't make it far because the only gas station on this side of the island didn't open until 9:30. So we wasted a little time, then filled up and set off again. It was funny, at 9:30 exactly there was a line of cars backed up out on the road, waiting to get gas. We spent a lovely few hours driving the Trotternish Peninsula, looking at a lot of rock formations like the Old Man of Storr (pointed rock sticking up) and Kilt Rock (columnar basalt on the edge of the ocean, with a spectacular waterfall in the foreground.). Now, they say "Dinosaur" tracks and bones are found in the sedimentary layers here, and I was able to compare my foot to a "dinosaur" print. If you look closely at the photo, you should be able to notice what I did, the so called dinosaur prints are really dragon prints (three toes... come on) and the little prints next to those are from Nessie, back when they were all over Scotland. I mean, it is nice these few, so-called "scientists" want to go with this dinosaur stuff, but I BELIEVE in dragons (Do you really think Wales would put one on its flag, and build statues of them everywhere if they hadn't existed? Hummm?) and now I also believe in unicorns (England and Scotland. Everywhere, I tell you) and Nessie. As a good American, I stand firm on my right to have my belief trump rational science!
Dinosaurs my ass.
Next they will be talking about "global warming" and this has been the coldest, wettest summer I have ever had. Sheesh.
We drove up a pass out of Staffin, up and up, waiting for sheep to clear the road. What a great view back out to the ocean. There were old houses with thatch roofs held down by big rocks, and the ruins of Duntulm Castle. We got to the port town of Uig, then wound our way back to Portree.
We continued south to Sligachan and up into the Cuillin Hills, and took the road towards Talisker. We turned off south on a one track towards Eynort, looking for a trail to the Fairy Pools. I found a description of this area on the internet, and it sounded great, so we followed the directions back, back and up to the trailhead. We hiked up and up past waterfall, deep black narrow canyon and more waterfalls, up and up, two miles into a bowl surrounded by the high peaks, and...
We were in the wrong place! I talked to a couple local people hiking, got new directions, headed back down, got Buddy and drove to a new trailhead. I would be mad about the bogus directions I got off the web site, but it was a spectacular hike, so no harm done. Besides, it was sunny and warm, a great day to be outside. This time we hiked a half mile downhill and hit the first of the Fairy Pools. waterfalls dropping in the narrow slots, carving out perfectly round little pools Lined with multi-colored rocks. We wandered up canyon another half mile marveling at the falls and pools, and we even saw a pretty young fairy in a bikini swimming in one! The reason I know she was not just a hearty Scottish girl is because her bikini was not made of wool tartan. Gail noticed a healthy, studly male fairy swimming too. Such a peaceful area, we just hiked and stared, sat snd enjoyed the sun. A helicopter circled overhead a couple times, then landed on the highest peak in the range to rescue a climber. Watching that reminded me of the beautiful September day about five years ago, when I was on Lassen Peak with my class of third graders, and we came across a hiker suffering a heart attack. I ran on ahead to get cell service and call 911, but it was too late; we watched the CHP helicopter recover the body later that afternoon.
It was still light, but getting late, so we hiked back out, headed back to the room and then went out to another non-memorable dinner; the only blemish on a beautiful day.