On the Isle of Skye

Tuesday started off with rain and stayed with that theme on and off all day.  I had read up on the various hiking options in different areas of the island and narrowed it down to the ones I thought most possible for me and most interesting.  Lovely research, but each time I approached the area of one of the possibilities was when the skies would open up and the sheets of rain would fall. Sadder still was when I would realize that what limited parking was still all taken and it is raining hard.  I don't mind walking in the drizzle but I am not scrambling up and down rocky trails in a hard rain because, well because, I don't have to.  I still got a couple of shorter rambles in but over all my body was thanking me and reminded me that walking up and down stairs in castles count as exercise, too.

Now we get to drive the single track in hilly terrain.  Don't get too comfortable with those nice curbs and well defined road ways. 

Some people even hike up there. Some people do.

Now it's my turn to wait again.

Later in the afternoon, one of the other guests that I had met this morning at breakfast walked by while I was sitting and checking my email out on the porch. I shared that I hadn't made several of the proposed hikes because of the weather when I was driving past.  He admitted that they had made this particular hike and had been caught at the top when the heavens opened up. He went on to say that the rain wasn't the worst part. The hardest part was the wind gusts.  He said 70mph. Even at an exaggeration, I was very happy with my timing and my decisions.  His wife also agreed that the parking even for such difficult weather was non existent.  She made some approximation of how tight the parking was and again my mind thought, "Maybe with my 9 year old Honda Fit I would try something like that but not with a rental car where they are going to measure all the dents with their little "dent measurer".  And yes, that is a real thing.

The walk of the two churches.

The Castle Dunvegan, seat of the Clan MacLeod.  Interesting history. The original chief came from Norway and married into the land.  The fort/castle at that time was still wooden though, so he gets credit for beginning the upgrades.   There are still members of the Clan occupying rooms on the top floors.   There was also some information regarding a conference of the Clan with members coming from all over the world to attend.   That is a family with deep roots.

Current residents live up there somewhere.

And the gardens.

It is one of the pictures that Liz would take for sure.

This is the water rushing down the hillside into the garden but let it represent all the waterfalls cascading down out of the rocks and hills everywhere.  I just can't stop and take pictures.  It has been raining and the water is all making is way to the sea or Loch.  The flows remind me of the waterfalls of Alaska, especially when they are rushing off of the highlands.

And when you get back to your room, you find a neat pile of clean, sorted laundry.  The Hostess said it was just something that she like to offer her guests.....

This is the sign by the front door out on the glassed in porch.  There was a line of boots each evening. I had to add mine today.  I think the three muddiest sets came from the three brothers from Germany.

Tomorrow is Wednesday and, hopefully, I will wander my way around the southwestern part of the island.  I have determined that my driving skills have improved enough that I am not nearly as worried about staying on the left side of the road and not hitting a curb as I am concerned about the mysterious depth of the pot holes on the deteriorating single tracks up by some of the popular hiking areas.  I was warned about potholes and, gee, I live in the midwest where by late Jan or Feb you can lose multiple car parts on the roads, so I knew it to be true.  Under the conditions I found today, driving slow was the only option. On one long section the road had no shoulder or what shoulder  there was appeared to have 10 inch mud ruts. The pavement had both small and large, random areas of standing water which is hiding what???? and it is now your turn to seek the pull off area....  

Not all the highways with three numbers are equal. The one this morning made me quite happy to return to driving on a two lane.  It also made me appreciate I am driving these roads in a shoulder season when the high traffic of summer is past.   

Again, I was having flash backs to when Nan and I drove our rigs over the Top of the World Highway out of Chicken, Alaska - a very narrow road with no shoulders, A wall of rocks on one side and a cliff on the other. When the huge tow truck pulling the large Class A that had gone over the edge the day before was approaching, you just slowly moved over as far as you thought you could, stopped, folded in your mirror, looked straight ahead, kept breathing and hoped the truck driver knew what he was doing.