Coming full circle...

Backblipped

Up at 6am and time for breakfast of tea and toast before saying sad goodbyes to Sharon, Lewa and the girls.  Hoping it won't be too long before they will come and see us and stay for a few days.  Anna's desperate to return.  

Our return route was slightly different as instead of leaving Skye via the bridge and returning past Eilean Donan Castle, we instead headed south to Armadale and got the ferry from Skye to Mallaig. This not only allowed us to take in another lovely part of Scotland, it also allowed me to return to a scene captured in a photograph of my gran and me taken 35 years ago (see extra) at the silver sands of Morar.  

Unfortunately due to the difficulty of the slope from the road to the sands, I wasn't able to get onto the sands myself, but I could see the area where the picture had been taken and was able to direct David to roughly the right place so he could try and recreate the shot.

 I had hoped we could sit on the rocks together (my gran predicted we’d return here at some point as husband and wife) and take a selfie but hey ho, at least I got a shot of the scene.  

As David was away taking the photo, I was left to my memories of the last time I had been at this spot.  It was 1984, I was 17 and I'd just spent a very rainy and miserable weekend in a caravan with my mum and stepdad, Gran and Grandpa.

If it was miserable for me, it must have been just as miserable for them because looking back on it now, through adult eyes (jeez, just realised my mum would have been 9 years younger than I am now when we went there!) I would have come across as a very moody and sullen teenager who was missing her boyfriend terribly and wanted to be with him rather than stuck in a caravan, in the rain, with the oldies!  And that would have been an accurate reflection of my feelings.

And today as I looked onto that very same spot, i would have given anything just to have a few more minutes with those very people whose company I took so much for granted at the time.  Especially my gran who spent the weekend cajoling me, and telling her daft stories to make me smile, and beating me at Gin Rummy, while the rain drummed its incessant beat on the caravan roof the whole time.

The boyfriend I couldn't get out of my head was David and it seemed so right that it was him taking this photo, thirty-five years after I plonked my miserable backside on the rocks (to the right of these ones I think) and thirty years since we got married.  At least the boy I put the family though the misery of me pining for was a keeper.  Makes me feel less guilty :-)))

We carried on our journey but our planned stop at Glenfinnan was aborted as the car park was closed as it was full to over flowing and there were people everywhere.

A quick stop in Fort William for lunch then an attempt to take photos at Glencoe but the weather had deteriorated and it was just as busy so not ideal.  We did take a slight detour along Glen Etive.  Much quieter and absolutely stunning.  One to revisit on a crisp autumnal day.  

Of course we stopped at the iconic bridge to capture the scene from Skyfall and David was quite alarmed very lucky to have me sing the entire song at the pitch of my voice from beginning to end.  Adele can sleep safely in her bed.

Home by 6pm to a lovely welcome from my boy.  I even got kisses and cuddles!  

No Lola till tomorrow morning.  Can't wait to see her as well.

So our Hebridean adventure is over.  I had looked forward to it so much for so long I'd begun to worry that it could never live up to my expectations.  How wrong I was.  It went way beyond them.  We can't wait to return.