Wandering through the Isle of Skye

Dare I say it was yet another day of contrasts...???
The sun was up when I got up this morning... actually I was probably awoken earlier than I might have been as we had a bus full of Japanese tourists here last night and they all spoke very loudly in the corridor before that went to bed, then this morning when they woke up!!!! The joys of hotel living!!!

But the weather deteriorated rapidly as the day went along, with it teeming down rain by 11am, then more or less fining up for the afternoon.... Sounds a bit like Melbourne! 😏

Excuse me diverging into a bit of self-indulgence here,but the definite highlight of the day was that I got my washing done!!! (Shows how exciting today was!!)

But, as always, it was never smooth. I got myself all organised last night and had all my washing ready in my big washing bag that I kept from my London laundromat. The plan was to walk down (about 5 mins) and put it on while I had my breakfast, then go back and put it in the dryer and have a coffee whilst it dried. But unfortunately that didn't allow for the plans of other people 😞

The laundromat is a public one that is attached to the public toilets and it opened at 8am. There are 2 washers and 2 dryers...
 I got there at 8.10am and both machines were full!!! Well, that was disappointing! Cheek of someone else interfering with my well thought out plans.... Anyway, nothing to do for it, but to go back and have breakfast and return later. Which I did, and the first load was just finishing and the gentleman put it in the drier. Impeccable timing!!! So, I came back to the hotel and did some stuff, then returned just as it finished.... but now, both driers were full.... This was not going to plan. So I had to take my wet clothes out and put them again in my big washing bag and thought I would go and have a cup of coffee while I waited. Again, timing was of the essence so I arrived when one of the driers just finished, but nobody came to claim them. I couldn't just dump them on the floor, so I had to wait until the other gentleman added his extra 15 mins to get into his drier (so to speak!!)
Eventually it all worked out, but by this time it was after 11am.

So the sorry saga of Wattle's washing continues!!!
But at least now I have everything clean again, even the jeans!!! What a nice feeling!

Here's a few pics I took while I was walking around waiting!!!

Kyle of Lochalsh

The clouds were just starting to come down and cover the mountain

Kyle of Lochalsh station

Kyle of Lochalsh station

Anyway, it gave me a good chance to walk around the town (which  isn't very big!) and look in the shops etc...

And, to be quite honest, I was glad to have a bit of an easier day today. I've had a lot of driving in the last few days and I have another biggie tomorrow, so it was nice just to meander.

So, after all that excitement, I set off for the Isle of Skye. I had a chat with the locals at Reception and they suggested the best thing to see was the Old Man of Storr

I was agreeable to this until I saw the weather changing - and also the fact that I was having a later start than anticipated. So I thought I would just go to Portree (the capital of the Isle of Skye) and see what happens from there.

Joourney through the Isle of Skye

This map is not strictly accurate, because I ended up not going to the Old Man of Storr (just put it in to show you where it was). By the time I arrived at Portree it was bucketing down and I couldn't get a park anywhere near the town. And, of course, everything is out in the open and I would've been soaked, even with my jacket....

So it was time for plan B yet again.

The Old Man of Storr was eliminated because that involved a 2 hour round walking trip and that wasn't going to happen in pouring rain.

So I set off for Dunvegan on the west coast, with a vague plan of seeing the Castle there. But when I got there, the car park was again full and there were millions of people. I thought at least I would buy my lunch in the coffee shop, but that was absolutely chockers too.

Today was not going according to plan!!!

I also took one look at the queue for the Castle and thought "Do I really want to see another castle???"
And the answer was No! I'm a bit castled-out!!!

So I drove back into the village and found a cafe there where I could sit down and yet again had  a ham and cheese toastie!

The cafe had a lovely view..

View from cafe window

So, after that I just decided to meander back to my hotel at Kyle of Lochalsh and take a few pics along the road...  But, as always, they can never really capture the grandeur of the scenery. It's a shame so much of the journey was covered in mist and fog this morning as Skye is truly a beautiful place (I've been here before on a bus tour!)

And I can't really complain about the weather - I've had it so good for so long.... in fact, I was just thanking God that the mist and the rain and the fog were not part of yesterday's journey over that hair-raising pass!

Here's some pics from the journey...

Isle of Skye

Isle of Skye

Isle of Skye

Isle of Skye

Isle of Skye

Isle of Skye

Isle of Skye

Isle of Skye

Isle of Skye

So that was the story of today -  nice and quiet basically. It was the story of the two "Ws"  - the Washing and the Weather.... neither of which were predictable in Wattle's Wanderings!