A Table For Two

Wednesday 18th September 2013

Isle of Skye - Day 3

I woke up at 7.30 this morning to the sound of rain beating down on George, and immediately turned both alarm clocks off and went back to sleep. An hour and a half later sunshine was sneaking through a gap in the curtains, so I dragged myself out of bed and forced Claire to do the same. I noticed that a couple of blokes who'd been sleeping in a slightly converted 4x4 had got up at the same time, obviously waiting for a break in the rain. They'd been sleeping on a wooden shelf in the back seat/boot area of the car, on thermarest sleeping mats. Better than a tent but not a patch on George. And I bet it smelt of boys

We managed our bagel breakfast without any injuries today, and arrived at our walk start point late morning. We weren't rushing, as it was only a fairly short walk, and we didn't really want to start it in the pouring rain. The start point was teeming with Japanese tourists, so we left George in their company and set off into the strange landscape of The Quiraing.

The Quiraing and the surrounding area was all caused by a big land slip back when Skye was all new and still made of steaming lava.

We spent ages looking for something called The Table, which is like a raised up bowling green in the middle of all the rock columns. We couldn't find it, and found out later that we'd been looking in completely the wrong place. Well, the wrong side of the path anyway.

The weather was going from throwing it down with rain, to glorious sunshine, and our waterproofs were on and off constantly. We had the option to return the way we came (the easy route), or to make our way back to George on the hill above the path we came on. We decided on the difficult option, more because we wanted to see how cold and windy it was up there, as a sort of test for later in the holiday.

The wind wasn't too bad (good job really, as the path was right on the edge of the cliff!), and the weather was 90% good while we were up there. We also spotted The Table, and realised that we'd got the best view of it from up top, so were we're glad we made the effort. We thought it would be a great place to wild camp in a tent one night, if the resident sheep didn't mind.

We made it down before the rain started again. Most of the route down was through a swamp. I was glad I'd decided to bring my full leather boots instead of my goretex fabric ones, because Claire's goretex fabric ones leaked. Claire has funny feet and can't seem to find any leather waterproof boots that are comfortable, so as a result she has to put up with wet feet. And I have to put up wet socks hanging up in George.

We had a well deserved cup of tea with a packet of mini party rings (not had party rings for years, and never had mini ones before!), and then made our way to Portree where we are staying the night.

The site here is fairly basic but has everything we need - showers, toilets, water to top George up, and sinks to give the dishes a thorough wash. The shower block has nice hot showers but is not heated and the tiled floor is like walking on ice. I can see why the site's closed October - March. There are still quite a few people camping in tents, despite the squelchy pitches and chilly weather and we're rather smug we've got George.

We've treated ourselves to a meal out in Portree tonight. I had haggis and mash and Claire  had a goats cheese vegetarian thing. Both were really nice, as were the cheese boards and 2 pints of Cuillin beer I washed mine down with. I'd even go so far as to say it was the best cheese board I've ever had.
Aside from diesel, today is the first time we have spent any money on this trip!

Tomorrow the weather forecast is similar to today - a mixture of rain and sunshine. We are going to climb The Storr if its not too rainy, and if it is too rainy then we will just do a longer walk below the hill. Then we're off to the western side of Skye for a couple of days of wild camping.