Skye on fire

Today we decided to go and see some seals at the beach. This would involve an hours drive, and a two hour walk over a small hill so we decided to make up a packed lunch and get on our way.

The journey there was pretty uneventful, the roads around Skye are excellent so Mark could 'make progress' quite easily. We did see what we think must have been a Scottish bus, it was a  pickup truck with a bench on the back, although no one was on board so he could have just been taking his seat for a ride.

We arrived at the turn to the road that would take us down to the closest point to the seals which would leave us with a two mile walk. However, after going through the gate, it soon became obvious that the Golf wouldn't survive the road so we ditched the car and decided to walk instead. This would add 2.5 miles each way to our walk which wouldn't normally be a problem, but the hill that made up those miles certainly would give a challenge!

Where we climbed today

It was a gentle slope up and we made good time, and after a few stops for photographs, we got to the place where we should have been able to park. Unfortunately the rest of the way was unpaved and the hill we had to climb over was quite mountainous and varied between a 30 and 45 degree climb. We pushed on over this for some time before realising that it had taken us much longer than expected so we stopped for lunch before deciding it was best we turned back before we ran out of daylight. Sammy the seal and friends would have to wait for another day.

Just before we broke for lunch, we noticed some other hitchhikers following us, they were about to cross the river we'd just waded through and we thought nothing of this as we sat and scoffed our sarnies. We never did see them again which posed us with the question of whether to call mountain rescue or if they ever existed at all. We decided that our minds must have been playing tricks on us.

Just then a fighter jet weaver between the mountains and banked just above our heads before heading off to sea, Mark was very pleased that he'd come out with two photographers that always had their cameras to hand, what a good photo that would make. Unfortunately neither had their cameras to hand so you'll just have to take our word for it that it actually happened.

On the way back we were starting to get tired, and we took our time, it was a good job as Stuar...I mean Cederic accidentally slipped down a four foot hole and splashed mud all over himself. However any one who knows Cederic knows that he did this gracefully and without cursing at all ever.

Skye on fire

In the car on the way back, as we got close to the town we were staying in (the largest town on the island), we noticed a rather large fire in the distance. We stopped for petrol at this point, and I'm not saying that petrol here is expensive, but the person filling up next to us spent £408 on diesel! We asked the woman who worked there if the fire was normal. Apparently it's called a Falesh, and it's where there is a controlled burn of the heather to allow the grass underneath to grow for the animals. It's quite normal and common at this time of the year... however this one had got out of hand, it had already jumped a river and the fire brigade had been called.

Fire truck enroute to the farm while some tourist did
inappropriate things to the sandwich board in
the background

There was no choice in our minds, we had to go and investigate the fire, so we headed in the rough direction and soon the sky was red, we couldn't see the hills for smoke and we were on a single track road that lead to a farm. We stopped and took some pics before heading back to town and watching from a distance. As we got to town a fire engine went past us and ended up at the same very farm we were just at, it turns out that we'd beat them there. The fire was pretty impressive, but we decided to get changed and get something to eat in town, priorities.

We found this nice restaurant called The Dining Room. We ordered our starters and Cederic asked the waitress about the fire. She sheepishly said "My dad had nothing to do with it!" and ran off. I think we may have touched a nerve! The food there however was nice, but for some reason they were now a staff member down so we had to wait a little while between courses. We didn't notice however as the same Scottish track kept skipping and was on a 20 second loop so time sort of blended into a Groundhog Day style experience.

Back at the room, we rested a little bit before heading out for some night photography (this didn't involve hanging around nightclubs, but rather of the northern lights). It's not meant to be a great night for it, the smoke from the fire won't have helped and it's a full moon, so the sky is fairly bright but we had to give it a go. We'll let you know how it went next time.