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Published: March 20th 2008
Big Eggs go Adventuring by Ninkynonk: Part 2
Hiya. I'm just sitting down to write this blog with Jo Wiley on Radio 1 burbling away in the background. She's having a phone-in about phobias and a guy has rung in to say he is phobic about tomato sauce because when he was little his big brother told him it was made from horses lips. HORSES LIPS for feck sake - Gag me with a spoon!!!!! What a horrible brother. That's a bit like my shark phobia which I have no doubts whatsoever has been caused by MY big brother sneaking me into see Jaws when I was only 4. Bloody brothers. We should sack them all.
I'm actually taking advantage here of the opportunity thats arisen to have an hour or so peace and quiet in the house, while Alan has taken Beth and his mum Sheena into Glasgow to have some photos developed. Its quite funny - his mum was constantly going on that she didn't have
enough photos of little Beth, so Alan got fed up with this and proceeded to dump about 600 or so (no exaggeration) onto a disc and gave it to her with a
view to shutting her up about it. Sheena can't operate the video, telly or microwave, never mind work out what to do with a CD, so he got a bit guilty and yesterday offered to take her into town today and show her how to print some piccies off in Jessops. It really made me laugh when she asked if the disc needed to be thrown away after the photos were printed - like a spool. Haha!! That'll be me in a couple of years though, so I don't know what I'm laughing about - I already have to get Alan to do most of the tecky stuff round the house, like networking the laptop to the Mac, wiring up the sat tv, putting the bins out, hoovering etc.... usual guy stuff.
Anyways ... about this Skye trip.......... Well it nearly didn't happen as Beth was up most of the night before we were due to leave. She's 14 months old now and only has one tooth, consequently she is having a lot of bother with pain and gum inflammation right now. These symptoms lead onto other problems for her too, such as a high temperature and an upset
tummy as she drools so much (saliva is meant to lubricate the gums to help teeth come thru - who knew?!). I ended up not having any sleep until 5am, and even then I was only out for about an hour max. When the wee one woke up properly in the morning she was very cranky and whingy and we thought we'd best just leave the trip to another time. However, in the unpredictable fashion that we are now accustomed to, Beth made a bit of a miraculous recovery by 9:30am, and was running about laughing her head off and jumping on our backs to get a 'horsey' round the lounge. We thought therefore that it would be safe enough to take her over to gran and grampas as planned, and head on up the road. If Beth had been OK, we'd planned to leave first thing, with a view to arriving in Skye early enough to do a whisky distillery tour at 3:30pm. However, we ended up leaving at lunchtime so this was ky-boshed. The good thing though is that by the time we were heading off, the sun was shining in the sky, and we were able to
Eilean Donan Castle, Dornie nr Skye.
The nice lady in the gift shop let us into the loo even though they were closed. This was useful as we wur burstin!!!get the Ninky hood down for the best part of the journey there. It's the first time we have been able to drive with the top down and it was more exciting and invigorating than we anticipated. We thought it would be dead noisy, cold and windy, but it wasn't at all. Ninky has mega heated seats and a little wind deflector thingybob behind the seats, and I don't know how it works but you can talk at normal volume and hear each other perfectly - even at 70mph.
Some folk might say that a drive to Skye for a one night stay is a total waste of time, but that's not the right attitude for the type of trip we were doing. It was really mostly about the journey, and just a little bit about the destination, although don't get us wrong, we have been keen to visit Skye for yonks too. It's so completely gorgeous and stunning heading up the West Highlands especially when the sun is in the sky, and the seasons are blurred with snow on the hills, new buds on the trees, and a lump of smouldering grey cloud constantly threatening, adding that measure
of drama that's an essential part of the Scottish atmosphere. The route we took was up past Stirling (where you can see the castle sitting proudly from the M9 motorway), past Crianlarich at Loch Lomond, onto the A82 through the spectacular ski area of Glencoe and up to Fort William. From there its about another 1.5 hours to reach Skye - totalling in a journey time of about 5 hours if you allow a few photo stops. Glencoe was my personal favourite part of the journey as the mountain range is so magnificent, plus we saw the Mountain Rescue helicopters out doing manouevers - or maybe they were actually saving a numpty who's took a stroll up a Munro in their Adidas and shell suit. Who knows?
About ten miles short of reaching the Sky Bridge at Kyle of Lochalsh, there's a splendid castle at Dornie called
Eilean Donan. You can check the link yourself for all the gen about it - it was closed for the last out of season day as we passed by, but we'd have missed it anyway as we were so late. We'll def go next time as it's a 'must see' so doesn't matter.
Tom Weir sitting on the wall at the sea front, Plockton.
We had just had magic scones, gingerbread and coffees in the Plockton shores bistro. Again, the folk were dead friendly in there and we had a smashing break. Just a point about the old 'Out Of Season' thing....... Scotland's a bit of a bugger for shutting down between the end of October and Easter times outside of main towns. If come here between those months you'll find a few places open, but heaps more closed down. It happened to us last week too when we went to the Falls of Dochart at Killin - there's a visitor centre there and that didn't open until Easter weekend either. There were loads of tourists too so we think they are missing a trick. Alan and I personally think that Scotlands tourist industry - in the main- needs a bit of a rocket up its bum on this front. Its like if you don't ski then you're not catered for a lot of the time. While I'm having a rant about this - here's an absolute nugget of ridiculousness from our very own Scottish National party (SNP) They have recently spent a staggering £125, 000 on a new slogan for Scottish Tourism, to be displayed at airports throughout the country. Guess what that slogan is???? Wait for it.........
'Welcome to Scotland' Honestly, our wee Beth could come up with that for the price of
a chocolate button. I hate that cavalier attitude towards spending public money on stupid things like this that could be drummed up in a heartbeat by school kids on an interschool competition. OK rant over. But it is a farce isnt it.
I just did a text review and it seems I have been rambling. If any of you are still reading I must apologise, but I'm running out of steam to write much more here, but I've put plenty of captions on the photos to compensate... here's just a couple of more thingy's then I'm away...
1) Skye is bigger than you think. Its about 70 miles long top to bottom, and the roads are winding and dramatic, mostly passing through glens, little villages or are set loch side.
Skye Official Web Page 2) We stayed in Portree which is the main town, and its very pretty with a colourful harbour front similar to Tobermory on Mull. This time we stayed in a hotel called the Bosville, and it was dear, so next time we'll stay at a B&B, of which there are plenty including many which overlook the water. The hotel was good, and our price included dinner and
Skye Bridge
This bridge has become quite famous for the outrageous toll system that was placed on it when it opened, including a charge for locals. Every time anyone in a car crosssed the bridge they had to pay over £5. Disgraceful isnt it. Anyway - it was scrapped recently - justly so. Here's a web link though which is dedicated to showing what the fees were originally. http://www.notolls.org.uk/skat/prices.htm breakfast. Food was magic and there was a local folky band playing in the bar. later on. We were too tired though to have a drink after dinner and headed directly to bed, falling asleep by 10pm!
3) On the way back we did a slight detour to a brilliant teeny little coastal village called Plockton on the shores of Loch Carron. Plockton is away from the prevailing winds which together with the North Atlantic drift gives it a mild climate allowing palm trees and cabbage plants native to New Zealand to grow!
4) What else.....?? Oh aye...Vik N Bob - Sorry we didn't end up stopping in Fort William so we couldnt take you that lovely sounding picture you wanted.
Righto - can't think of owt else so am off to have another coffee. Don't know where we are off to next, but there's talk of another London trip with a detour to Brighton shortly, and I fancy a bod to Rothesay & Dunoon in the West again with Beth this time. Whatever, we'll surely see you there.
Bye for now,
Shaz, Al & Bethpops. xx
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The Scoatlinds
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Watch out for them there locals
That yin sittin oan the wa' looks a bit dodgy likes, when he's no interfering with skate he makes tourists drop their pants and "squeeeeel like a pig"!