Isle of Skye 2007

Wednesday - Accidents do happen!

Mon - Tue - Wed - Thu - Fri

Gee was talking to the girl on reception after breakfast about the fish & chips from the harbour chip shop last night, she said the chip shop had been voted the worst in Scotland by some newspaper a while back and despite having had a few different owners since was never any the better, great news :-(

09:45 There wasn't much point in rushing to leave Portree... day three and its still raining.

Leaving Portree we headed west for Dunvegan, and rather than disappoint us, the rain picked up in intensity to a good solid downpour. Arriving at Dunvegan and wondering what to do, we pulled over at the tourist information office (map) hoping for inspiration but found it closed. As we stood dripping under the canopy Gee suggested visiting Dunvegan Castle a mile up the road, there was sure to be a cafe... This sounded an excellent plan,  so we remounted to ride up there. Clicking my bike in to gear, I looked over my right shoulder before setting off. At that moment my left foot slipped away on the wet tarmac, I brought it back to support the bike, but slipped again, and again... Down went the bike, with me rolling off on to the road, scrabbling back for the ignition key I turned the bike off. By the time I got up my mates had jumped off there bikes and were pulling my bike back upright again. Neil said, "One second you were there, the next all I could see were legs". Damage was quite light, left rocker cover well scuffed underneath and a really good deep scuff on the painted pannier lid :-(

10:34 It didn't take long to ride the mile up to Dunvegan Castle Cafe. We all piled in and ordered coffee, then a little later more coffee and a bun, and even later, sausage, egg, chips... and coffee. We stayed here well over an hour drying out. before the rain seemed to ease off a little.

N57 26.855 W6 35.153 (map)

11:40 We decided to risk it and take a ride North, which I can only describe as the Little Minch, as soon as we set off, it started to rain again. Oh well... <shrug>

We went up to the top and rode around the loop above Halistra (map) it was pretty wild, then rode back down the way we had come. The picture below is near Lusta showing the foundations of a building in the foreground. If you ever wondered how ruins end up buried under the earth, this is it it in progress.

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Just left of the picture above is this gorgeous thatched cottage, complete with satellite dish and Armco.

13:34 Leaving the Little Minch behind us, we rode back in to Dunvegan and found the tourist information office was now open. Inside we met Mo (Maureen) who couldn't have been more helpful. Finding we were staying in Carbost she suggested we visit the Talisker Distillery in Carbost, do the tour and enjoy a 'wee dram', what an excellent plan! (thanks Mo!).

14:40 After a 20 mile ride we arrived in Carbost and found the Water Front Bunkhouse easily. Behind the bikes is the Old Inn pub with our bunkhouse on the right. We were put in the only upper room called the 'Crows Nest' with great views over Loch Harport and easy access to the adjoining kitchen/sitting room. It was light years ahead of the hostel in Portree and only £15 per night.  

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This is Patto's corner in the 'Crows Nest' our ensuite room for four. Each bunk gets its own name plate above the light, mine was called Albatross???

After we'd all got cleaned up and changed we headed off to the Talisker Distillery 200yds up the road.

N57 18.153 W6 21.295 (map)

Inside, the lads enjoying a 'Wee Dram', you could pick up the peaty flavour right away, nice Whisky. No photography is allowed inside, don't know why, whisky making isn't such a secret is it? One thing that surprised me was that 90% of production went away to be made up into blends!

On the way back we visited the local shop, nice friendly people, and the shop had all we needed, bread jam and milk.

Later in the evening we visited the Inn next door for a meal and refreshments which were as good as had been promised, but by 11pm we were the only customers left in the house, so called it a day. Tomorrow was forecast to be a fine one, just in time to see us off home :-(

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Today's route in yellow, Portree to Carbost with a short detour up the side of the Little Minch, 68 miles in total.

Sorry, no temperature graph today, for what ever reason (drowned probably) nothing was recoded on the GPS :-(

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