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Fairy Pools and JC
Fairy Pools and JCToday is going to be a day on the Isle of Skye, the Misty Isle. We left the hostel around 9am and headed first towards the Coire na Creiche (Fairy Pools for those that don't understand Gaelic), in Glen Brittle. After a good long trip on some more of those tiny one-lane, two-way roads, we reached the parking area for the Fairy Pools. Our driver was a little concerned about how busy it might be, but although the main parking area was pretty full, we were able to park along the side of the road. By the time we returned from our hike, the whole road was full and overflowing! We had to hike down and across a valley to reach the pools on the other side. It was a fairly long hike, but the cold wind made it a lot longer. Manoli noticed how chilled my face and neck were getting, so she loaned me her scarf. I guess I looked a bit silly, but it was a lot warmer. Also, I'd noticed a concession stand in the parking lot, and knowing they had hot coffee and hot chocolate also helped some. The Fairy Pools are a serious of pools
Fairy Pools and caves
Fairy Pools and caves and little waterfalls that run down from the mountains above. They were very pretty, and are supposedly called fairy pools because the green tint you can see in the water.... when there is enough sunlight. After climbing most of the way up, to the upper falls, we scampered back down, crossed the valley and headed to the concession stand for some coffee and cappuccinos.
When we left the Fairy Pools, we headed to the town of Portree, the largest town on Skye, to pick up lunch and do a bit of shopping. The top of my list was some sort of head cover! We stopped briefly along the way at a river that is supposedly magical. Legend says if you submerged your face in the water for 7 seconds, you will look younger. Manoli and I passed on it, since first of all it was so cold and windy that we had no desire to put our faces in the water. Secondly, I'd already figured the reason you looked younger after doing this was due to the tightening of your skin that is caused by hypothermia!
In Portree, I found a knit cap large enough to cover my
Fairy Pools Upper Falls
Fairy Pools Upper Falls ears and fortunately on sale for only 4 Pounds, marked down from 8. We also picked up a couple of very interesting sounding sandwiches at a bakery on the main street. Manoli's was salmon and cream cheese and mine was chicken with onions, grapes and some other good stuff. From there, we headed to our next stop, where we were given 3 choices of what to do. We could hike about an hour and a half through some great scenery along the edge of the mountains, walk along a possibly interesting beach, or stay in a nearby cafe in the town of Staffin. Originally, we'd planned on the hike, but between the fact that was starting to rain and Neil talked about a fairly dangerous part of the hike, we opted to.... stay in the cafe. After about an hour, the three girls that elected the beach returned, wet and fairly miserable, saying it wasn't all that great. A bit after that, the 8 busmates that did the hike returned, looking like wet, scolded dogs. They did say it was very pretty and all, but they were all soaking wet and anxious to have something hot to drink. So, all
Close up of Fairy Pools
Close up of Fairy Pools in all, we probably took the best option.
Around 4pm, we left Staffin to return to the hostel, making two quick stops along the way. First, we pulled into the overview for the Kilt Rock, a really neat waterfall at the very edge of the cliffs of Skye, falling into the ocean. It is called Kilt Rock because the lave formations there resemble the pleats of a kilt, being vertical tubes stuffed together. We also pulled over for photos of the Old Man of Storr, before returning to Kyleakin and our warm hostel. For dinner tonight we headed back to the same restaurant as last night, King of Haakon. Manoli tried my soup from last night and I had pork sausages with mashed potatoes and gravy. Both were quite good. Tomorrow we leave the Isle of Skye and head to Oban where we'll spend our next night. At the moment, I have no idea what we'll see along the way, but I'm sure it will be fun... and cold.
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