Location: Carbost, Isle of Skye, Scotland

Sav: WOW did we ever have a huge day planned today! And we managed to get everything done and then some. Buckle up kids cause we went on a road-trip!

We started off the morning with cappuccinos, full Scottish breakfasts, and excitement for the day ahead. Out first order of business was to check out a view of the Cuillin Mountains. How many different ways can I say something is beautiful? Because being in Scotland is really making me run out of ways. These mountains were massive and jutting up and out in every direction. It was hard to know where to look!

After some photos we hopped back in the car to go to Portree, a central city on the Isle of Skye.

Meag: Turns our the Isle of Skye is not very big at all, so we arrived in no time. The drive was again filled with “LOOK AT THAT! NOW LOOK AT THAT!” The twisty one-track road leading into town was surrounded on both sides by huge old trees, and every now and then they would clear so we had a preview of the Loch to come. Once we were in the centre it was full of Scottish fishing village charm. The houses along the water are painted bright colours and the breeze of the sea was so refreshing. We wandered around the town for a bit, ice cream in hand. Portree was postcard perfect.

…as was The Old Man of Storr. As we were leaving the Portree area, The Old Man of Storr started coming into sight. It is a huge rock formation by the ocean near the top of a mountain. We tried to take some photos as we drove across the long valley leading up to it but nothing did it justice. It is absolutely majestic.

We were under the impression that there was a nice viewpoint near the top to check it out. Turns out that you don’t get this view without some hard work! Much to Savanna’s disappointment, we left the car at the bottom of the mountain and made our way up like the little billy goats that we are.

Sav: I don’t even know how to describe my loathing of hiking and yet somehow I always end up doing it. I love what’s at the end of the hike, and 70% of the time it’s worth all the trouble. But Meag knows full well that if she lets me complain the whole way then I’ll do it and be happy about it at the end.

When we finally reached the top we looked up at the Old Man of Storr and I thought two things: 1) holy crap this was worth it it’s amazing and ridiculously tall and 2) screw those people who are hiking up further you people are the worst. Like you’re at the view point already WHY go further.

I sat down right on the ground in front of the Old Man of Storr and caught my breath. We were stuck in this endless loop conversation of how beautiful everything was and how we couldn’t believe we were there. We’d pause and then two minutes later we’d say the same thing: “oh my gosh this is insane.”

Meag: This endless conversation loop continued on our walk down the mountain and as we continued our drive along the coast. Around every single corner there was another vista to take our breaths away. Kilt Rock was particularly striking and reminded me a bit of the Cliffs of Moher. It’s a huge cliff with vertical pleats going down into the ocean.

Sav is a great person to have along on this trip – for many reasons, but in this case – because she knows so much about rocks and soil and plants and all that jazz. When we read about the natural formations at viewpoints I always think to myself “Huh, well that’s some neat stuff,” and Sav always has something cool to add. Yesterday I even got a fun “Soils 210” private lesson with Professor Leary on the road. (S: I don’t know how she thought that was ‘fun’ but I’m glad she did).

We drove and sang our way up to almost the top of the Isle and across through the Quiraing Mountains. At some points there were sheep taking a snooze in the afternoon sun right beside the edge of the road.

Sav: Let me just say we’d be touring around all day and Meaghan has been driving this little car on these single track roads with no complaint. Every now a ‘holy shit’ escapes her about a pothole, another car or a sheep – but all in all she’s been doing a stellar job driving. There’s certainly no one handed lazy back country driving here!

We wound our way on these dirt roads as far back into the north west corner of Skye as we could get, and eventually down into Carbost where we checked into a little B&B. We met a girl named Annie who is on her ‘break-up trip’ and is doing a bunch of scotch tastings all over Scotland for a few weeks. We invited her to dinner and had a lovely time chatting away and learning about the three years she lived in Romania. We even tried Haggis! (Which Ian implored me to try and I have been avoiding.) It actually tastes totally fine, but mentally I couldn’t get past the whole ‘made-in-the-stomach’ bit. I’ll leave the haggis eating to Meag for now.

It was a huge sight-seeing day for us, but we both feel like we’ve really seen the Isle of Skye, not just visited. Every single kilometre travelled was sheer bliss.

S&M

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