Bye Bye Skye

We cancelled our tour yesterday that was scheduled for today because there were a couple of things on the island we couldn't do yesterday because of the weather. The main thing was a 2 hour hike of the Quiraing about 45 minutes north east of our B&B. Given that we did the hike out to the lighthouse yesterday in less than half the time the guidebook mentioned, I asked Marie, the owner of the B&B, about the Quiraing hike. She said the initial hike was about 2.5 hours, but there was also a summit loop you could do adding Meall-Na-Suiramach to make it 4 hours.  As we looked at the map and the hikes we decided we would book the 4pm ferry off the island, and on the way to the Quiraing we would stop at a place called Faerie Glen where I wanted to take some pictures for the girls of where the Fairies in Scotland live. 

A very cool place, and the fairies stayed hidden very well. I had heard they were shy, and it was a little chilly and windy for their tiny wings, so we didn't get to meet any today. 

From Faerie Glen we drove to the Quiraing. Wow!  This is the view from the parking area. 

And it only gets more epic from there.  We still hadn't decided if we would do the 2 or 4 hour hike, it would all depend on how quickly we could get to the crossroads point, where we either had to turn back or climb. We had snacks and water and lots of layers just in case. 

So we started on our trek to the 3 features of this hike, the prison, the needle and the table. 

There is the prison, in the distance, center of the photo below. 

See that small line off the back of Jay's elbow?  That's the path :). The prison is off to the right center. Below is a photo of the needle, which is just beyond the prison. You can hike up here to the 3rd feature, the table by 'threading the needle'. But, we didn't realize that was the way and continued up the path until we got to the turnaround point. 

At this point, which should take about 2 hours we had only been hiking for an hour, so we decided to climb and do the 4 hour loop since the weather was cooperating and it was so beautiful.  This is a look backward to where we came from. 

So up, up, up we went to climb up to the ridge overlooking the Quiraing called Meall-Na-Suiramach. Remember this photo?

See the ridge on the far left?  So now we are beyond the prison and around a bend to the left.  We walked/climbed up to get along the edge of the ridge for a few Kms and then scrambled down the hill at the end to meet up with this path again near where we started!  Here are some photos from above.

This is what the path was like a lot, a wash out where you kept your footing.  

This is the 'table', feature from the top of the ridge, on the right through that gap you can see a little bit of the top of the 'needle'.  We're actually quite a bit higher here. 

This hill is what the last of our downward trek looked like back down to the parking area. In total the hike took us 2 hours and 10 minutes. I was very proud of myself!  I felt bad when Jay had to wait for me while I kept my breath, but still we did the hike in just a little over half the time, so it was really good!  (I love my sheep photos!)

Here I am near the bottom.   This is actually a huge hill!

After the Quiraing we headed down to the ferry, about an hour and forty minute drive. When we were about 20 minutes into our drive we picked up 2 hitch hikers from Switzerland on their way to Portree, which was on our way. Since we were dropping them off at the town center we decided to just grab lunch in Portree before heading down to catch the ferry. 

After lunch we were on our way again!  We got to the ferry with about 35 minutes to spare before it shoved off (25 mins until boarding) and so did a little shopping in the gift store and waited for our 30 minute crossing. 

The ferry ride was uneventful, the drive from there to Fort William was nice. The train bridge from Harry Potter is along that stretch of road but neither of us saw it!!  We got to the B&B and checked in, had showers, chilled out and then went and had Thai for dinner. I loved the Thai restaurant, but Jay wasn't a fan. Though he said this is the first not so great meal he's had here so that's pretty good!

Now we're back in the room. Hoping to FaceTime with the girls before we go to bed. It's 11:11pm here - 6:11pm there...we'll see. 

Oh, and today is our 10 year anniversary!