Day 5 Old Man of Storr

The weather forecast gave the day a 25% chance of rain. I had been hopeful of a clear day because I wanted to do The Quiraing (Google it- it looks amazing). The day before had been slippery in the rain and that was an easy hike. The Quiraing is a challenging trail and with how miserably wet I had been the day before... Well, we opted to hike the Old Man of Storr. It is also a hard hike, and one we didn't quite finish. But I'm getting ahead of myself.

First breakfast. The sausage was a strange texture and the eggs were as pale as they had been the day before at the bed and breakfast. Except I'm pretty sure these had been powdered eggs. Our hotel was a stopping point for a couple of tour buses (blocking half of the parking, which sparked some creative parking jobs from the rest of us). As we walked into the breakfast room, we were asked which tour bus we were with. "Um, we aren't." Oh ok. We could go eat in the far back of the room.

With our trusty Rick Steves map and tour guide (Note to self- you should laminate maps before going to Scotland. They become very fragile when wet.) we were on our way for a car tour of the Trotternish Peninsula. I don't remember if this falls had a name or not. It was pretty.

We arrived pretty early at the parking lot for the Old Man of Storr. There was still plenty of parking when we arrived.

My watch clocked 1006 feet of elevation gain.

The misty rain and fog lent a mysterious, spooky and otherworldly air.

If you click on the above picture you can zoom in on Ryan's glasses. They are super wet even under his hat. It was exceptionally drippy.

Ryan- who cares if my shoes were still wet this morning? They would be fully saturated again.

Very green, very wet, very spooky. It is the perfect weather for haunting.

Ryan offered to let me borrow the outer part of his winter jacket. My rain jacket had proved itself to be entirely unhelpful and his coat was thicker. I looked a little silly wearing it. But it did better than my rain coat (or at least held out a bit longer) and it covered more of me.

After reaching the Old Man of Storr rocky "thumb," we wandered around a bit before heading back down. We could have gone up another half mile or so, but the views were somewhat lacking due to the rain and fog.

Onwards! Next was the Lealt Gorge.

Waterfall one direction, and the gorge in the other.

Then Kilt Rock (in the distance). The columns of rock are supposed to look like the pleats in a kilt.

Duntulm castle ruins.

And the views from the ruins.

Having soaked through Ryan's outer jacket, I discarded it and found my own winter coat. Was I wearing a winter coat in July? Yes I was. It was not pouring rain, but the precipitation was still happening.

After this, I changed my clothes in the car. We were mostly done with wandering around the great outdoors and I was cold! I had clothes handy, and was not shy about changing my shirt and pants in a car parking lot. It's not like there were a lot of people about, but still. My underwear was still damp and I was sitting on the seat of the car where I had been previously quite wet.... But it was an improvement. As long as I didn't move. :) I wrung a lot of water out of my socks. Dry socks and shoes were wonderful. 

Scotland driving video

We did make a stop at the Skye Museum of Island Life. It was a very educational and interesting museum. Notice the rocks holding down the thatched roofs.

The house closest to the camera (below) had been the home of a family of 12! It made the first home we owned look very spacious and luxurious.

We had been purchasing premade sandwiches from grocery stores, and stocking up on snack foods. We had our picnic lunch in the car here. Can I just say I really like chocolate covered digestive biscuits? They are a little like graham crackers with chocolate on top. Yum. We brought some home. Also, Scotland does not know what bbq should taste like. We tried bbq "crisps" aka potato chips and they were super disappointing. 

It was about 3 hours of driving to Inverness, which was our next evening stop.

Roadside sheep. I think I read there are more sheep on the Isle of Skye than people. We saw a lot of sheep.

A break from driving at a pull off.

We finally made it to Inverness. We drove by Loch Ness on the way, but didn't see any lake monsters. The town there really leans into the Loch Ness Monster folklore with tourist traps galore. We did not stop. Google maps didn't take us as directly to our Airbnb as I might have liked. I had to use the bathroom SO BADLY I just wanted to be there already. Ryan let me out to find the place while he tried to find a place to park. After wandering for a few minutes, I found the flat and adjusted the lockbox dial of numbers so I could get the key and it was not releasing the key. I cursed my inability to use unfamiliar technical equipment and wanted to cry. Ryan came along and it practically spit out the key. I dashed to the bathroom, where I figured out my heightened emotions were probably heavily influenced by hormones. As if the situation needed to get worse. Sigh. 

I showered and Ryan walked to get us McDonalds for dinner. We needed to do laundry and our Airbnb had a dollhouse-sized washing machine. A Google search showed a 24 laundry mat, and Ryan very kindly offered to go do our laundry there- all in one load, wash and dry. Our little apartment did not have a dryer. I stayed behind with a blanket, my Kindle, and ibuprofen. I got this picture of the "24 hour laundry mat" from Ryan. 

It was just in a grocery store parking lot. But sadly, the dryer did not work, so all of that wet laundry came back. We laid all of our wet clothing all over the living room and bedroom. It was good that we were spending two nights in Inverness because clothes take that long to dry.

Day 4 Castles and Isle of Skye

We had a two course breakfast at our fancy bed and breakfast place. The first course Ryan had prepared grapefruit with brown sugar and mint, and I had this fruit and yogurt parfait. For the second course Ryan had soft boiled eggs and toast soldiers, while mine was (very blonde) scrambled eggs and smoked salmon (it was less smoked and more smoke flavored, mostly raw) salmon. Upon request of what our breakfast beverage choice would be, we said water would be fine. Our hostess took our teacups away though. Water isn't good enough for them? It made me laugh.

We were on the road again to the Isle of Skye. On the way we passed by the famous Eilean Donan castle. We didn't really have time to explore, and we didn't want to pay to park, so we did a quick drive through the parking lot for a glimpse and a couple photos from the car. 

What we did want to see was the the ruined Castle Moil. We found the beginning of the path that lead to the ruins but we couldn't park there so we had to drive back the way we came along a very narrow road until there was a spot we could kinda sorta pull off to the side to park and walk back.

The beginning of the path.

Voila! A view of the dilapidated castle and the sunken boat.

View from the window.

View of the bridge onto the Isle of Skye.

                                                       

One last look before being on our way again. We were there at low tide.

They grow extra large fuchsia in Scotland.
 

Ryan has the very male ability to empty his bladder in any secluded outdoor space. I have not cultivated that skill. I found a public restroom that had "touchless payment" for 50 pence. I needed a credit card to pass the gate so I could use the toilet. At least the facilities were clean. The teeny hand washing station was kind of ingenious. It did have picture instructions so even someone like me with no previous experience can work it. The first time you put your hands in, soap dispenses. The second time you wave your hands under the sensor, you get water for washing. The third time the hot air blows to dry your hands. It was nifty.

Our hike of the day was the Fairy Pools on the Isle of Skye. We felt like we geared up for this hike. Ryan wore his quick dry pants from Trek. I wore my merino wool shirt, leggings, and socks along with my hiking shoes. We both had our rain jackets and hiking poles and we were off! After, of course, navigating some crazy narrow Scottish roads.

We had heard that midges can be a problem in Scotland. They are non-biting, swarming insects. The internet said that they aren't very active while it was raining and I foolishly believed that. We hadn't been pestered by the midges on the Lost Valley hike, and there was solid drizzle happening. Those bugs were everywhere. Annoying swarms while you are walking, and so much worse when you stop to admire the view. Also- that fog? It's mostly rain.

You can see the rain in the video.

About 20 minutes into the hike I realized that my rain jacket was merely kinda sorta rain resistant, maybe. I was getting very soggy. My merino wool leggings lasted longer, but eventually became saturated. My coat was so wet that it kept trying to do things on my Apple watch. My watch wasn't really responding to my fingers- but my coat? It got my phone to play music in my pocket. It was disconcerting to say the least.

Ryan wanted to check out the river temperature. We saw people jumping in the pools in the river, and he was curious if it was doable.

It was not Washington state mountain spring cold, and he was already wet.

Once his shoes, socks, and coat were back on, we began the hike back to the parking lot. There had been so much rain by this point that the trail looked almost like the river with all of the standing water.

Ryan took a rough spill, but was able to catch himself with his hiking poles. The one on the left (above) took the brunt and became bent. Ryan did not get hurt, which was a blessing!

Once back in the car, I took off my coat and changed my shirt. It was very wet. There was one small dry spot. And I had left my coat on the entire time! I didn't change the rest of my clothes. I figured my wool leggings would dry and all would be hunky dory. Wrong. While Ryan was happy to turn on the heat full blast for the first 10 minutes-ish, then while he was still damp- he complained that is felt like a sauna in the car. He opened the window. I shivered. He closed the window. I started to thaw and the window opened again. The whole way to our hotel. 

Here's the state of my shirt. I had one dry spot somehow. 

We checked into our hotel in Broadford. It had the air and smell of an older, damp hotel. I didn't care too much. I wanted to take a shower and warm up. I don't remember there being temperature controls in our tiny basement room, but there was a portable fan. We drip dried all of our wet clothes and shoes, and pointed the fan at them to aid the drying process. The high humidity in Scotland doesn't lend itself to quick drying clothes. Even when you buy clothing that is labeled as "quick drying." After dinner I went so far as to use my hairdryer on my shoes because they were not drying fast enough. Ryan didn't seem to care and had wet shoes the next day. Which ultimately didn't matter much because we soon got wet on our adventures. But my shoes were at least dry when I put them on the next morning. It matters. To me, anyway.

We went to dinner nearby at the Cafe Sia. They had incredibly fast service, and our vegetarian pizza was on our table before we knew it. They did have these tippy half plate, half bowl things that we balanced our pizza slices on.

                                        

One more thing about bathrooms. The showers in Scotland are almost invariably partially open, just like what we experienced in Ireland. Water shoots out all over the bathroom, so you have to be careful where you leave the clothes you want to change into after the shower. A shower curtain would not go amiss, but I've not seen one there. Also, this place had an all-in-one shampoo and body wash that left my hair feeling like I'd used dish soap on it. It was the other extreme from the night before that left my hair feeling gross and unclean after two washes. (And yes I can read labels- it definitely said shampoo.) We took more pictures of toilets than we ever do in the states. This one was very deep and rectangular. 

Picture taken by Ryan and sent to our family.