Skye - Day 1

It started snowing after breakfast, so it was a new experience for me to drag my suitcase on wheels through snow to our appointed meeting place. There are 6 of us in our group - one Italian currently living in London, one German currently living in London, one Scotsman currently living in Manchester, a couple from San Francisco and me - so quite an international group! I am the only woman in the group, not that it makes any difference.

We set off for Skye through very snowy conditions, and at one point after the vehicle skidded on the snowy, icy road our workshop leader Glen did wonder if we would reach our destination on such icy roads. Travelling at 25 miles per hour the roads finally improved where a snow plough had just cleared them and we reached Eileen Donan Castle without any problems. We took a few photos and had a coffee, and then as it started snowing again we set off for Skye. We went straight to our first stop which was a lovely ruined chapel in the Torrin area. We took some photos before scrambling back into the car as another snow shower started again. 

It was extremely cold, about -2C rising to 1C. It was fine being outside taking photos until you reached a point where you could no longer feel your fingers. This image was taken near Loch Slappin, and the blue sky is not a true reflection of the day's weather. We had momentary blue sky so took advantage of it for more photos. I liked the reeds poking through the frozen loch with snow lying on top of the ice. These mountains are part of the Red Cullins.

We had two more photo stops before reaching the Black Cullins at Elgol. I cannot remember the names or the proper Scottish pronunciations! We walked across some slippery rocks to photograph the mountains from across the beach. The weather here was very cold and windy and in one hour we had two hail storms! I never realised how painful it is for hail to hit you in your face! We were here until after sunset before we finally packed up and headed to Portree to check in to our hotel. 

We had time to dump our bags in the room before meeting for supper. I then spent some time looking at my photos and editing some of them - if you are interested you can see them here.

It's an early start tomorrow to photograph the sunrise, if there is one. Then back to the hotel for breakfast before we set off to climb The Old Man of Storr. We hope to make it to the top but if it is too icy and snowy we may not succeed.