HIGHLIGHT OF THE DAY: Arriving into Heaven on Earth
BUMMER OF THE DAY: Can’t think of a single thing
WORD OF THE DAY: Bingo Miningo
DISTANCE TRAVELLED: 146km
We were all packed and on the bus at 8.15am this morning, well if you as Marky Marc who would you believe was on the bus before me this morning, said I was 2 minutes late. Well it depends on whose watch you are looking at and he was that cheeky he took a photo of me getting on the bus with his watch in the foreground. I think we should have synchronized our watches at the start of the tour as they are obviously out by a couple of minutes, either way I may pay this one to Marc out of the 25 million times he has been late I can take one.
We had a ferry to catch at 12.15pm and we were all a little worried after the last crossing what to expect but Alan said it is mostly a sheltered crossing between islands, it was half the time and the weather was picture perfect which is perfect as we were heading to Harris this morning and apparently to some beaches that would rival those in Fiji or even Australia. That is a big call and we will see. After getting a photo stop at a scenic spot of the green mountains we headed to our beachy destination.
Harris is famed for its beaches. A fair part of its highly indented coastline is very rocky. But where the coast of Harris is sandy, it does offer some of the very best beaches you will find anywhere and known to be the best of them all, certainly the largest and the most spectacular of them all, is Luskentyre Beach. Luskentyre Bay bites deeply into the west side of South Harris. As we drove along a small single vehicle road we were lucky that the Haggis bus fit on, we passed a few farms, some rural homes and we got our first glimpses of the coastline as we drove and it was beautiful. The road finishes at small holiday house and a graveyard where we all got off the bus but still we could not see the beach as it was obscured by massive sand dunes. So we had to continue and walk through a small estuary where we were able to kick off our shoes and could finally feel some sand between the toes and then we hit the open beach and it was stunning. We are pretty spoiled in Australia with beaches but this was a world class beach that is for sure. You would think you were somewhere in the Pacific and not on the coast in Scotland. The water was very deceiving as it looked so inviting but the second you dipped a toe in it bought you back to reality that you were on a beach in Scotland and not in the Pacific, the water was freezing!!!!! The beach was a beautiful fine sand beach and the colour of the ocean was a stunning turquoise. We were the only people on the beach and it felt a little surreal as far as the eye could see was a pure whit beach. So we all got our photos and ended up spending 40 minutes here and we couldn’t have asked for a better day. I can see why it was voted one of Britain's best beaches and apparently the beach has been said to be in the top ten beaches in the world. I would believe that after seeing 2 more beaches in that list on the Island of La Digue in the Seychelles and Australia has one on the island of Whitsunday Island.
From here it was a 40 minute drive to Tarbert and the ferry that was going to take us to The Isle of Skye for our last night before heading back to Edinburgh late tomorrow afternoon. It was sad enough as it was that this was our last night, but JemJem would be leaving us in the morning as she has a wedding to attend on the weekend and she needed to be at the venue tomorrow afternoon and would be leaving us a day early. It could be a blessing is a wicked disguise as it will make the goodbye a little bit easier as I am really going to miss her. We had 10 minutes to grab a coffee and then we were able to board the MV Hebrides for the 1 hour and 40 minute journey to Skye. The present MV Hebrides revived a traditional name and is the third vessel of the name in the CalMac fleet over the years. She carries the bell of the first Hebrides (an 1898 steamer) which also graced the second "Heb" (1964). The 1964 ship was MacBrayne's first car ferry and very much a favorite, which for twenty years, also sailed from Uig, Skye. Her service speed is 16.5 knots (30.6 km/h), which cuts the crossing times to around 100 minutes and allows three return trips per day. We had a quick lunch in the cafeteria and then we headed for the outside decks and I know I keep saying it but it really was a stunning day, so much so, that we were able to sit out on the deck for the entire crossing. JemJem and I picked some seats on the side and just chatted the whole trip while Shaz caught some sleep downstairs. Alan was right it was a smooth crossing and we had nothing to worry about.
We arrived onto the Isle of Skye at 1.30pm. Skye or the Isle of Skye is the largest and most northerly island in the Inner Hebrides of Scotland. The island's peninsulas radiate out from a mountainous center dominated by the Cuillin hills. The island has been occupied since the Mesolithic period and has a colorful history including a time of Norse rule and a long period of domination by Clan MacLeod and Clan Donald. The main industries are tourism, agriculture, fishing and whisky-distilling. The largest settlement is Portree, known for its picturesque harbor. We had to zig zag our way up from the port to our first introduction to the island and what an introduction it was. We had a magnificent view of the island from a view point they call the Quiraing. It is a landslip on the eastern face of Meall na Suiramach, the northernmost summit of the Trotternish Ridge on the Isle of Skye and looks like a massive crater, without the other side that finishes into the ocean instead. It was a MASSIVE WOW factor for me and something after getting some photos, where I had to sit down and just soak up that amazing view. It was stunning. The whole of the Trotternish Ridge escarpment was formed by a great series of landslips; the Quiraing is the only part of the slip still moving, the road at its base near Flodigarry requires repairs each year. The Quiraing was awesome. It was a place of wonder and amazement. It is outstanding by any measure. To visit Skye without experiencing the Quiraing seems unthinkable and certainly worth the trip.
We then descended the escarpment and headed to the edge of the island and to Kilt Rock. The famous Kilt Rock is a sea cliff in the north east of the island. It is said to resemble a kilt, with vertical basalt columns to form the pleats and intruded sills of dolerite forming the pattern. I can sort of see the resemblance, just. Either way it was an impressive piece of rock for sure. There was also a waterfall right near the viewing platform, the Mealt Waterfall, which free falls off the cliff for 170ft into the Sound of Raasay below. There were also some recreated dinosaur prints (the real ones can be found on the other side of the island) which was pretty cool to see. Apparently the dinosaurs that passed here were Ornithopods, herbivorous creatures who walked on two legs. They, along with the carnivorous Megalosaurus and the omnivorous Cetiosaurus and Stegosaurus, contribute to Skye's reputation as the 'dinosaur isle'. We didn’t get a chance to visit it, but there is a museum in Staffin where they have lots of stuff there, including more dinosaur footprints, the world's smallest dinosaur footprint, a dinosaur leg bone and various other fossils. I would never have through that dinosaurs would have roamed here-who would have thought?
Our next stop was at a secret (apparently) place called Fairy Falls. There was a lead up story that Alan told us about a couple that grew old together and they used to climb the mountain every day to enjoy the view and tell each other stories. As they got older and the years passed they were talking on the mountain that they were too old to keep coming up and that this could be the last time that they were going to come. Well out popped some fairy’s and said that they have to keep coming as they will miss all the stories that they have heard over the years. They were asked if they could would they stay up there forever to which they answered yes and the fairies turned them into rock, which is one of the pinnacles that you can see today jutting out of the landscape. The story went something like that; I think I am pretty close. I scoured the web for the exact story, but everyone seems to respect some form of ‘fairy’ code and just tell you it is a magical place to be seen for one’s self. There also seemed to be other folklore stories floating around so we were told only one of what many are circulating. Alan did also mention that there is a waterfall here. You need to climb the slight hill, fill your mouth from the waterfall and come back down to the bus, touching it, and spitting out the water making a wish, it will come true. Marc and a few other people did it, so I guess only time will tell if the fairies will work their magic. Climbing the slight hill was easier said than done. The ground underneath was wet and muddy and also there was muddy peat, my Crocs were not quite up to the mud, I was slipping inside my shoes so I took them off and felt the mud squelch between my toes and walking on the peat was surprisingly soft. I didn’t get to the top, the path, or lack of, was too steep for me, instead Marc and I got photos with the waterfall instead where we had to go a little cross country through ankle deep muddy water to get there but it was worth it.
We stopped in Portree for 45 minutes for people to get something to eat, toilets and to buy alcohol. Portree is the largest town on Skye. JemJem and I used the opportunity to buy some alcohol for our last night drinks tonight and we decided that we deserved something special so we went halves in a bottle of Moet to celebrate the tour and new friends made, along with a bottle of vodka (of course) and some Irn Bru (of course) and coke for mixers. We were all set for tonight. We had one more photo opportunity once we left Portree of what is known as some of the oldest mountains in the world called the Cuillin. The Cuillin are properly and locally known as The Cuillins in the plural, are a range of rocky mountains. The highest point of the Cuillins, and of the Isle of Skye, is Sgùrr Alasdair in the Black Cuillins at 992 m The Cuillin Hills is one of 40 National Scenic Areas in Scotland. It was an amazing view and with the purple flowering heather as a front drop it was a great way to end a pretty spectacular day in the scenery department and anything we saw in the previous 9 days seem to pale in comparison-this really is a slice of Heaven on Earth.
We made the hostel around 5.00pm. It looked like it should have been in one of those teenage horror movies with it tucked 10 minutes out of town down a dark tree covered road surround by what looked like pine trees. The front looked like a shop had shut down and was all boarded up with the hostel entrance on the side further towards the back of the building. We were in a room of 6-where there were 2 sets of bunks and 2 single ensembles. For once Shaz and I were first and bagged the single ensembles. This was one of the few hostels that would let you into your rooms first and then come back and pay rather than make everyone wait for us all to pay and then check-in. I think this is the answer to that dreadful system, but I guess each hostel has its own rules and has nothing to do with Haggis. Stornoway was another that did the later process and I think there was one more which I can’t remember. Shaz and I bought in all our gear and our 25 bags (well maybe 11) to repack as once we were back in Edinburgh tomorrow we would be getting taxi to our hostel and then we both leave the following day, so we thought it best to get a little organized and condense all our crap that we had spread over the bus for the last 9 days. It didn’t take us too long and thankfully JemJem and I had done our grog shopping as the others now had to walk to the local supermarket and then carry all theirs back home, where we could just chill out and rest up for tonight’s drinking session with a dinner date at 6.30pm to the pub across the road to anyone who wanted to join us. The Wi-Fi was free here at the horror house and as we were looking for bus times for JemJem in the common room when one of the guys that worked there came up to say hello, which was nice to start with but then he asked about us joining the bon fire that they were going to put in for us. We said it would probably be too cold and the midgies seemed to be a problem to which he explained away both excuses and offered to be our date. This guy looked like he had been smoking pot for the last 15 years and with his dreads down his back he probably had been, so we declined his very generous offer, to which he asked why? JemJem and I looked at each other and said well how about we just see (trying that tact) to which Marijuana Mike (now his name) would not take no for an answer and it got a little awkward. I am sure I heard the twilight tune play right at that moment…………. And we escaped out of there to get ready for dinner. When I say get ready, I mean pop on our jackets, possibly run a comb through the hair and we were ready. The guys had just returned from the supermarket and we headed to the pub for dinner.
Once we got to the pub it was busy and they didn’t have enough seats for the 12 of us that just walked in the door. Apparently this wasn’t going to be an issue as the restaurant attached to a hotel would have no problems serving us and all the food came from the same kitchen anyways. So we headed next door to be the only diners in the place and they readily pushed some tables together for us to all eat. For a hotel restaurant I didn’t think the prices were too bad so over a few beers and a good meal we had our last supper. This was also our last opportunity to say Grace and with everyone all chickening out it was up to me to thanks everyone for a great trip, hopefully no headaches tomorrow after tonight and that we all keep in touch and also for the good food-Amen. I have never said Grace before this trip and even though we have done it in a comedy style, I think I like it as there are people all over this world that would be thankful to have a plate of food in front of them and don’t and I think people lose site if that sometimes in just how different the world is and it doesn’t always revolve around our own small lives. In saying that I have always said that people in Africa for instance, look happy. They may want more money to buy food rather than toil 13 hours a day in their fields or money to send their kids to school-but they look happy. They don’t have a mortgage, they don’t have phone plans or fancy gadgets that suck electricity-but they look happy. Do they know what they are missing not having a Western life? They may or may not see TV shows-but what they don’t know doesn’t worry them. The reverse could be said for us. There are people in the Western world that have never been on a plane before, they will never travel overseas. There is a stat something like 15% of Americans have a passport. So the same rule applies-what they don’t know doesn’t worry them. So I shouldn’t be too harsh on people, but I hope with my move to Ethiopia I can make people aware and hopefully they will be able to help in whatever field I choose to work over there in-if I need help, this could be some small way in which they could contribute. I hope.
So we were back to the hotel just before 8pm and the night had started to close in and the temperate had really dropped. The bon fire had been started and I really couldn’t be bothered to go outside, but I felt bad for the hostel guys that had gone out of their way to get it ready, stoke it and now it was a burning ball of warmth. So JemJem and I did the right thing. We cracked open the Moet, and with 4 glasses we carefully chose our recipients of our 35GBP bottle and gave a glass to A-Dog and Marky Marc. A-Dog was very grateful and understood the cost of the glass he held, Marky Marc was a little how dee doo dee not really comprehending the glass he held was around 9GBP. But we cheers-ed to a great trip to new friends made and then before we knew it, we had the vodka bottle outside, the mixer and we spent the rest of the night by the bonfire with people coming and going but Anne, Marc, JemJem and I the main stayers next to the warmth. It was actually very cold and thankfully Marc knew how to keep stoking the fire and rekindle with what wood we could find around us. I lasted till 4am and then decided it was time to hit the hay and was one of the final people to bed that night, leaving 2 people huddled next to the fire. It was a great night of chats by the firelight and once getting accosted by Marijuana Mike to come and see the full moon from somewhere beyond they hostel of horror-but we declined nicely again and he left us alone for the rest of the night.
So that was our last night of my Haggis tour of Scotland. We have a full day of sightseeing tomorrow together and then we all say goodbye in Edinburgh tomorrow afternoon. I feel asleep to some very poignant words that Marc had said while JemJem, he and I were by the camp fire, and even through my vodka haze they just made sense and made me re-think my whole move to Ethiopia and I just know that it is the right thing to do and the sooner I get there the sooner I can start my life with the one person I think I can say I truly love.
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