Friday - Day Trip to Skye

An early start this morning for the boys.  Us, we are up early every morning.  The ferry left Mallaig at 9:30 so we had to be there by 9am.  We had a good trip over.  Lucca had to stay in the car, the one home is dog friendly though.  It only took around half an hour to get to Armadale.  Very good journey over, the weather is actually quite pleasant today after the winter storm from yesterday!

We drove to Broadford stopping off at a Cafe for coffee and some breakfast.  The first place was served from a Croft and had no loos.  We didn't stop, no loo no service.  We found a brilliant place further on called the Coffee Bothy run by a couple of guys.  One of them was an Aussie who used to be a teach at Kinross where our neighbour's daughter worked - small world.  The staff spoiled Lucca with snacks, we had very good square sausage rolls, and the coffee good too.

Next stop was Sligachan, walked over the old bridge and up t the statue for the two mountaineers in which they stand to look at the mountains beyond.  I can't recall their names but the statue is perfect in that spot.

Next stop was Portree for a wee wander, I wanted a fridge magnet, a coffee and some fudge.  Done!

The main thing we wanted to do today was climb up to the Old Man of Storr.  The weather was perfect for it.  Sunny, with clouds and not too hot.  It was quite a steep climb in bits.  I let them walk on in front of me while I toddled on upwards.  My legs were fine it was the cardio.  Not totally panting just needed to let the heart rate drop a bit at times.  They would wait periodically for me and we made it to the very top together.

I met a mother a daughter from San Francisco on a tour of Scotland.  They were good fun, the daughter made a right fuss of Lucca as she worked in a Vet's Practice.  Lucca has made many new friends this week and we have met so many because of her.  Who doesn't love a cute friendly dog.

What can I say about this magnificent structure.  Absolutely stunning views, we could see over to Big Sand and Gairloch where we were on holiday two years ago.  The Trotternish Ridge is something else.  Also lucky to experience this climb on a day where you could actually see all the landscape around you.  We have been before here and just driven past as it was 'over there' but you could not see it for mist.  We all say at the top soaking in the amazing rock formations, the pinnacles and the views over to Raasay and beyond.

I took a different route down to the rest once past the big rocky section.  Their descent was steeper than mine but my knees were thankfull for the slower less steep hills.

It took us around three hours up and down and we all agreed it was very, very good.

Stopped off in Portree for fish and chips before getting the 6:30 pm ferry back to Mallaig.  Well we would have had them if we had had cash as they didn't take card for takeaways only for sitting in.  Fine.  I don't get the reasoning behind this as surely you would want to have the custom of four fish suppers rather than nothing.

We decided we would get the one in Mallaig as we got back.  We had this during the week and knew it was excellent.

Our last night in the house.  we were exhausted so managed a couple of games of UNO before bed at 10.  Shattered!  

Ps I’ve added some extras of this most special of places.