Jumping the Shark

Yep, that's a shark off the coast of Skye. A basking shark to be exact. Jumping out of the water while feeding. Here's another view. We were at Neist Point, with the point itself basically to ourselves (everyone else seemed to be walking part of the way then think better of the couple of wee hills they'd have to climb to get back to the car ? that combined with the fact we were there a little later in the day meant the earlier visitors were heading home for their tea). Anyway, we were concentrating on the Bonxies which were threatening to dive-bomb, but limiting themselves to fly-be checking out of our threat. And then a splash offshore caught the corner of my eye.

He only jumped out of the water another three times, then we saw him once (or rather his dorsal fin) much closer to shore, before he disappeared altogether. And to think this was the last wee trip of the day.

Earlier we climbed to some cliffs in a little-visited area near the Quiraing, having lunch amongst the rocks with an outstanding view up the Trotternish Ridge, then driven to Fairy Glen. This is an odd place, with strange geological formations, that we last visited a couple of years back. Since then Hollywood has been calling, with a couple of scenes of Stardust filmed here (if you haven't seen it think modern fairytale, and it's superb) involving, amongst others, Michelle Pfeiffer. And it shows in the greater number of tourists checking the place out.

Or maybe it shows that over the years we've been spoiled with getting huge areas of the island virtually to ourselves...

Stonechat
Enjoying the View