THOSE INITIALLY PRESENT: Janet, David W., Me (Phil), Ian H., Sarah, Amanda, Andrea, Jane and Archibald. We let lan drive again having recovered from last time. Thankfully there were no rocks in the road. (Sorry Ian). When we got to Kyle of Lochalsh Janet led a shopping expedition while me and Ian loped off to a cafe for tea. Sod’s law was shown to be true when we missed the ferry by five minutes. Half an hour later when the ferry came back we drove to the front and lan pretended to steer while singing Cliff Richard
The A roads we were on turned from double track to single track with passing places. were several battles of nerves between lan and angry local lorry drivers. However it was soon time to drop Janet and David W. off (see later for their account (don’t even try, ed.)) and at Elgol we dropped beauties, Andrea, Amanda, and Archie (a bit doubtful!). (See later for their account.) The three heroes, Me (hairy hero, lan (small hero) and Sarah (funny hero) went back to the starting point of their walk (see below).
BLA BHEINN
Ian parked the minibus next to a stream and everybody went off to the loo. I wandered down the road and Ian walked round the open door to call me but instead fell down a chasm and sat in a stream. HO! HO! HO! I sussed the path and said that we should walk for half an hour non-stop. Lunch soon arrived but Sarah (funny hero) walked on in front, only for me and lan to catch up later. We saw footprints in the snow and I said it was really good. The slope got steeper, snowier and rockier; however they strode boldly on. Sometimes they would knock great rocks and boulders from their perch to doom below. Sarah eventually made the summit ridge and I followed. The drop the other side was sheer; the ridge afforded a good view off the Cullins. The summit ridge was all of similar height, however we were unable to reach the actual summit”.
The climb to it got just a little too scary. Any mistake ice-axe I think I would have done it; anyhow that’s something for next year.
We picked our way down “slowly” until we got to the end of the steep bit and from there we raced to try and meet our 5.30 rendezvous deadline.
We actually made it at 5.50 (not too bad!) at Elgol PO where we met the others minus Janet and David. We headed towards the beach and I made friends with a cow. The fishing boat came in as we watched and a truck sped past, amid clouds of dust, to pick up the catch. On the beach we bounced stones on the sea (well, me and lan did and the girls tried). We all sat under an overhanging, honey-combed cliff and watched the sun go down (very romantic). Me and Archie wanted to see it actually set but the others reached a consensus to go and look for Janet and David. We found them and headed off to Kyleakin to catch the ferry. Phil.
ONE OF THE SKYE COAST TO COAST WALKS
All these mountains were beginning to get too much for some of us – especially those with injuries(!). Thursday dawned bright and early and several hours later we partook of our breakfast having been summoned by David Gilmore.
The Skye party left the lodge at 9.00 and comprised of Amanda, Andrea, Archie, lan, Jane, Janet, Phil, Sarah and David (oops, alphabetical order cocked up a bit here) and we drove down to Kyle of Lochalsh and did the shopping and waited for the ferry, passing the time taking lots of photies. Ian drove the bus onto the ferry. We all admired the views and looked forward to setting foot on and exploring the island further. Some sang the “Skye Boat Song”. We drove to Elgol a small settlement by the coast. Andrea said it wasn’t like Mull and we all agreed we liked the island better since there were less people about.
At about 12 noon we dropped David W. and Janet off to do their walk and arranged where to meet. Then we drove on to Elgol Post Office and Amanda, Andrea, Archie and I disembarked.
There we were joined by a dog that looked like it had some sheep genes somewhere. And so the nearly famous five set off down the hill towards the sea doing their Japanese tourist impersonations.
After discovering that the tea shop where we’d arranged to meet was closed we set off along the road to Glasnakille. We had lunch by the trig point (118m!) en route, took yet photographs, wrote postcards and listened to Archies work ethics.
Then off we trogged to the other side of the peninsula. At Glesnakille we found a post-box, and posted our cards.
Our concern about when the cards would be sent away. was undone when the post van/bus passed us once again (as it did about six times that day) and collected our cards.
We ambled along the coast line our minds boggling at the weather and views, stopping occasionally to let it all sink in, and discuss/debate some issues further. we arrived back in Elgol about 4.30, bought ice-creams and wrote more postcards and sat on a wall awaiting the arrival of the others.
The minibus arrived about 6.00 and we drove down to the closed tea-shop. We waited a while to see if Janet and David would arrive and then decided that they were actually doing guite a long walk and so went down to the beach (after Phil had made friends with a cow). Some of us showed our expertise at skimming stones on the water, others (esp. me), our lack.
Then we found the amazing cliff with holes “bored” in it by the sea water, so that it appeared honey-combed. It was perfect for everyone to sit in and will appear on many group photies.
We returned to the minibus and when Janet and David arrived we set off for the ferry. En route we picked up two Spanish hitchhikers who were amazed when Amanda struck up in their mother-tongue.
We just missed the ferry but this gave everybody the chance to record a “sunset over Skye” on film. Back on the mainland we drove back to the lodge; if there’s any plan to bring out an “Images of the Highlands” series of postcards, then the sunset that evening over lochs and mountains could’ve provided many a product.
Definitely lots of room for further exploration.
Jane.