That's how it looks for much of the ride. The scenery truly is breathtaking, but because the bus ride is making me sick, half the time I'm trying to hold it altogether and not throw up while the other half I'm wondering how much longer it will take to get there.
We take a quick rest stop at Kyle of Lochalsh, a village with a harbour where the currents of the lake come with a refreshing breeze. It is a small, quiet, and peaceful place, a place where upon first sight it is obviously remote, distant from the large, busy cities like Glasgow and Edinburgh. I think to myself that I would like to come here again someday to explore the town.
We all get back on the bus, cross the Skye bridge into Skye, and my friend S and I disembark at the first village, Kyleakin. It's just after 12pm, and we leave our bags at the hostel that is across the bus stop. It's called Skye Backpackers, and its info can be found here. I thought it was a pretty decent place, and I would go back there again for accommodation in Skye, for several reasons: location, tidiness, friendliness, and affordability. As soon as we enter the hostel, I hear French-speaking Quebecois accents from the kitchen. I can recognize these accents anywhere. There are four people from Montreal, probably about my age, and we introduce ourselves. I've only met a handful of Canadians while staying in Manchester (none from Quebec, usually either from Ontario or BC) so to find people from my home city in a place so remote as Skye, I was surprised.
S and I decide to do some exploring after checking out a map in the kitchen so we decide to walk to the next town over: Broadford. We walk along the highway, but the path for pedestrians is so narrow that we're forced to walk in a (2-person) line, one person in front of the other. We feel uneasy about being so close to the road as the cars speed by. To our other side is the wilderness, complete with grass, bushes, nettles, branches, and plants I don't recognize. Farther off beyond we see hills rising in the distance. All I can think about is how I'd like to be more in tact with nature and go up one of those hills, but it seems hardly possible with all those bushes in the way.
After some walking, and seeing that Broadford is still some ways away, it seems my friend has been reading my mind. S points to a hill and says, "Want to go there?"
"What?" I say.
She jerks her head toward the bushes off the road. "Why don't we try and just go up that hill? I don't think we can make it to Broadford in time, before the sun sets." She's serious.
I don't really want to tread through all these unrecognizable plants because it looks like a tough job, but she's right. There's no way we can make it to Broadford in time and I really would like to finally climb one of the many hills that we've passed by in Scotland. We go off the road, fighting through nettles or some type of prickly plants. The thorns sting me slightly and stick to my pants. There's no clear path, so I let S go ahead of me and follow her, knowing that she's got some experience in the wilderness. She has camped in Scotland before and her latest camping venture was in the Alps in Austria. She knows how to listen for water, thus preventing us from stepping into any inconspicuous streams hidden by thin branches and getting our feet wet. But they still get wet. There is only so much you can do to navigate yourself around such a wild, rough area as this. All I can think about through this trek off the path is how useful a scythe would be.
When we finally reach the top of the hill, we sit there for a while enjoying the breezes and the view. We can see more hills in the distance, as well as the town of Broadford. I learned that on Skye, especially via walking, everything looks deceptively close, but when you try and reach the destination, you realize it's actually kind of far away.
The view from the hilltop looks like this:
From up there, we also see a little rocky islet that stretches from the coast into the water. It doesn't look impressive from far, but I'm glad that S suggests to go farther off course down the hill because up close it's gorgeous.
Here's a pic from far:
And from up close:
There are no footprints here, no sign of any human life, only the life of crustaceans and other miniature sea creatures. I wonder if anybody else has ever come this way. I write my name in the sand with the edge of my shoe just to leave behind a mark, a piece of me in this desolate, empty but spectacular part of Skye. We stay there for about an hour or two. Seeing that the sun is about to set, we go through all the bushes and grass again (it feels like twice the effort because we've spent all this energy getting this far off the road) and finally hit the road. We're exhausted, so we stick our thumbs out in an effort to hitchhike but since we're clearly at a point in the road where no cars can stop or even slow down, we don't get any rides and we walk back to the hostel. It's the first time I've ever tried hitchhiking in my life. I would never do it alone and I'm only doing it now because I'm with a friend who's done it before. It's good to take risks sometimes, but it's still important to keep a certain level of precaution when doing so.
On the prowl for supper that evening, there was little selection. There was one Indian restaurant we passed by on our way back on the road, and it seemed to have plenty of customers, but we ended up choosing the pub/restaurant next door (our hostel also gives a discount on it...10% if I remember correctly?). I had the salmon but it wasn't so great. It was dry and I've made better. That's one thing about being in a remote area as opposed to a bustling city...beautiful scenery but horrible food. I think I might try the Indian restaurant next time.
When we got back from supper, we spoke with one of the Montrealers in the kitchen. He told us he and his friends saw us walking along the road as they drove past us that day. After some discussing, and realizing that we were headed for the same destination the next day, he agreed to drive us to The Storr (you'll learn more about this on the next post!).
We slept in a four person dorm and from what I saw, the rooms were quite clean, neat, and tidy, with a carpeted floor, and it was definitely spacious enough for four people. It also had a sink, which was handy. The toilets (and showers) were outside the rooms, and although a bit small, they were clean enough. Fatigued from our venture that day, we went to bed early, and I slept comfortably.
