Friday 21 September 2012

Fri 21: Trotternish

I was kind of dreading today - the first ride on Skye and the threat of proper hills and all starting with an early call, little breakfast and a ferry ride.

We made a bit of a faux-pas to begin with - after the relaxed attitudes of the Western Isles we turned up at the ferry terminal 20mins before sailing without having bought our tickets, so a disgruntled CalMac ferryman sent us off to the ticket office to purchase tickets.  We got the tickets and boarded without a fuss but it was a bit of a change to the previous few ferry rides where it was just turn up, get on, buy ticket.

Coming in to Uig we could see the hills surrounding the village, but in the end the climb didn't seem that bad just a steady plod with a couple of switchbacks.  Once over the brow there was a fantastic view of the coastline of the northern end of the peninsula backed by the hazy sight of the Harris hills across the water. I hadn't been this far up the Trotternish before and it was stunning. It helped that the weather was pretty good as well!

Of course with the weather it meant that we had to keep stopping to take pictures (Morag insisted) - the hills were still a bit hazy but it was definitely the best weather we'd had all holiday.  The coastline is ace - lots of cliffs and bays, and granite columns - of course that meant we were constantly descending into bays and climbing out over the cliffs.  But it really didn't feel that bad.  I think I'd been conditioned by the days in the Western Isles and then the rest day yesterday.  The remembered climb up to the Storr was all I recalled...


After the Storr (why is there no visitor centre/cafe at The Storr?? Least it looks like they're building a car park....) there was another short climb before the view of Portree was laid out before us, along with an ominous looking cloud hanging over it! Cracking descent and then into Portree where there was traffic - that was a bit of a shock!! Not used to having to concentrate on the cars around us, trying to squeeze past at traffic islands, general impatient-ness.....


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