Old Men And Mountains

Thursday 19th September 2013

Isle of Skye - Day 4

Once again we woke to awful weather, and once again we switched the alarm clock off and went back to sleep. By about 9.30, things still hadn't really improved, so we got up anyway and had some porridge (less dangerous than bagels), and 2 cups of tea back to back. Then we washed the dishes, faffed around a bit more, drove into town and got some diesel for George and some provisions for us, by which time it was looking slightly better outside.

By the time we got to the start point for our walk, it was noon, and we were hungry and had to have one of the just-bought scones before we even started. The first part of the walk was a bit of a slog. Partly because it was quite steep uphill, up sort of uneven steps (which are one of our least favourite sorts of uphill), and partly because we'd spent the morning doing nothing, and were full of scone and low on enthusiasm. But the weather had sorted itself out, and we had a lovely lunch break sitting below the Old Man Of Storr. The sun had come out, it wasn't windy, and it wasn't raining, or even looking like it might rain. After that we felt a lot better and the rest of the walk from then on was much easier.

The Storr is a mountain (well, at 719m, mountain pedants would argue that actually it's a hill) with a load of spiky bits of rock below it a bit like The Quiraing. The biggest and most famous bit is called The Old Man of Storr, and the Storr and the Old Man can be seen and recognised from miles away. (I have to confess that I've borrowed the photo from Google, as despite having 4 cameras between us, neither of us got a photo of the Storr and the Old Man)

There are signs of recent rockfalls everywhere, and also some signs warning you about the rockfalls. We ignored them all and carried on below the mountain cliffs, along a lovely little path on a gentle uphill slope with amazing views round every corner (this is our preferred type of uphill). The last part of the ascent was along the grassy shoulder of the mountain (as it said in the route instructions), with views right along the Trotternish Ridge and out as far as the Outer Hebrides.

When we reached the summit, we had it to ourselves (apart from a pair of Ravens), and struggled to decide where to sit and eat our belgian buns because the scenery in every direction was so breathtaking. Once again we had a nice break without the weather cutting it short.

Just from looking at our route down, it was obviously going to be quite steep. We bought some walking poles last week for this very purpose. As you may recall from previous blogs, my dad kindly passed on his dodgy knee genes to me, so I am willing to try anything to make going downhill easier.
Further testing is required, but my knees weren't hurting coming down and they're still not hurting now, which is a good sign.

Part of the route down seemed very steep, and a bit awkward as it involved climbing down a waterfall, and over a very recent rockfall of very big rocks, some of which were split in half from the impact. But we soon passed that bit and after a mile or so of sloshing around in swamps again we were back at George with the kettle on. When we looked back on our route, we were quite taken aback by what looked like sheer cliffs with no obvious way down at all.

We decided that The Storr has all the required ingredients a mountain should have, and that in our eyes it is most definitely a mountain. So far, it is also our favourite mountain walk ever. The walk we did is highly recommended if you come to Skye - and thanks to Trail magazine for publishing it in the only edition I've ever bought which happened to be last week!

We've found ourselves a nice little spot for our overnight stop near to a village called Bracadale on the west coast. We've had meatballs and mash for dinner and a glass of wine whilst watching the sun set over the sea, and the clouds lift from over the Cuillins. The sunset was red, which is supposed to mean a nice day tomorrow!

The actual weather forecast for tomorrow is excellent to OK, depending on which weather app we use. We are planning a coastal walk of about 10 miles to see Macloud's Maidens, which are some sea stacks just off the coast not too far from here, and then another night camping somewhere random before we need to check in at a site to get clean again.