Day 14: Isle Of Skye

YAYAYAYAYAYAYYYYYYYYYYYYYY

*clappy clappy clappy clappy hands*

HOLY SHIT today was so great. THIS is why I fucking love Scotland and the Highlands. Today’s route was just a single drive across Scotland over to the Isle of Skye and I have three more routes planned over the next three days. BUT THERE WAS SO MUCH COOL STUFF JUST TODAY.

I took WAY TOO MANY photos and none of them really do it justice but AH IT WAS SO COOL. I… will not post all the pictures. I’ll try to edit it down.

Wide Open Spaces

So the day started off with a bit of a repeat of yesterday, just in reverse, getting down and away from Inverness. But then I headed down towards Loch Cluanie and it started getting really cool. It was a bit overcast, but the clouds weren’t as low as they have been the past week, so it was still pretty great. Just huge long stretches of a single road winding along through a valley with mountains/hills rising up on either side and a river or lake following along to one side.

And often you could see miles ahead of you and distant peaks and valleys that you were headed towards but were still a ways off. I took a bunch of panoramic photos to try and give a sense of it, but… I don’t know, it doesn’t convey the simultaneous grandeur and openness of the experience.

Be Vewy, Vewy Quiet…

At one point when I got out, the utter silence of the moment was so amazing. There were no other cars on the road, and the only sound was the water rushing through the winding river path and distantly from down the mountainsides. I took a video to capture the sound. It’s so quiet, you can hear the camera lens as it zooms in and out because there are no other ambient noises that are louder than that. I just kinda stood there for a few minutes and reveled in the silence.

Their Commute Must Suck

This cute little house was in the middle of nowhere, dozens of miles from the nearest anything. And the view from the living room window must be AMAZING.

Sunbreak

As I crossed over from mainland Scotland to the Isle of Skye (which… how cool is that name?), the clouds started to lose their week-long battle with the sun. Over the course of just a few minutes from the first photo to the last, the sun burst forth and suddenly the sea was alight with golden reflections and had turned from a dull blue-grey to a stunning cobalt.

Ominous, Much?

Of course, no sooner had the sun come out than I had to turn west back into the clouds and this single-lane road stretching into the cloud-shrouded mountains in the distance.

Look To The Western Skye

Except, no, the clouds were just kidding and quickly moved off as I headed out towards Neist Point and the ocean. I wound through the grazing sheep and rock-strewn hillsides out to the western tip of the Isle of Skye. And with perfect timing, the clouds cleared as I reached the end of the road. Again, I just stood there and soaked it all in. The soaring cliffs plunging into the sea. The sun gleaming off the waves far below. Stunning from cloud to shore.

See The Line Where The Sky Meets The Sea, It Calls Me

Then it was time to head over to the town of Uig and the northeastern peninsula of the isle. I just… I kept pulling over and staring out at the sea. It was so gorgeous. I’m at a loss for words for how cool this portion of the drive was. These pics aren’t color-corrected for sunlight issues. It was just this stunning. So I took a shit ton of pics. Oops.

Tartan Cliffs

Rounding the peninsula to the eastern side, I stopped at Kilt Rock and Mealt Falls. The rocky cliffs have striations and basalt columns that make it look like a tartan kilt. I mean. I suppose? That’s what the sign said and I kinda see it? But again, it was mainly an excuse to ogle the sea and the surrounding islands distantly visible.

The other cool thing was the railings had holes in them and were set up in such a way that they worked like organ pipes and “sang” when the wind gusted through them. I tried to record it, but the wind was whipping at the microphone, so it’s pretty muffled:

What Does That To Rock: An Ongoing Question

Once again, I saw a giant rock formation that I just don’t understand the geology of. There were several parts of this mesa cliff formation that all looked cool. But then two parts on the very northern edge of the range are just baffling. First is this weird indentation bluff. It looks almost like a very shallow meteorite crater? But it’s definitely not. But it’s weird. And second were these weird jagged shards of rock thrust from the ground.

Just How Far IS That Mountain?!

On the drive back, there was a little mountain with some snow on it that was just perpetually in the distance. I kept driving further and further east, and it just kept barely getting bigger the whole time. I don’t know if it was just the winding roads that tricked me into thinking I was making progress or what, but this mountain was in view FOREVER. But it made for some great pics in the afternoon sun.