Today, we were checking out of Ft William and heading to the Isle of Skye which was a 2-hour trip. En route, we were planning to visit the famous Eilean Donan castle, a castle that was mostly in ruins till it was restored in the early 1900s by a local, ex-military person. We were also planning to meet Rashmi.
I got ready and picked up breakfast from a different vegan cafe called Fox William. I got a cardamom bun, banana-chocolate bread and blueberry croissant (croissant with a blueberry jam filling) plus coffee/tea.
After checking out of the hotel, we drove to a ruined castle called Old Inverlochy castle about 5 miles away. It was closed for restoration, so we could only view it from the outside. We went around the castle and took some pics and then went to a store that sells soaps and other scented stuff and nice-smelling thingies. I was mostly a spectator and Sahana did most of the shopping and occasionally asked me for my opinion about a particular scent.
After purchasing a gazillion things, we got into the car and drove to a place called Neptune's Staircase which is a series of locks (not lochs!) used by boats to navigate from one Loch Linnhe to the Caledonian Canal which ultimately leads to the Loch Lochy (I think). The road to the parking lot there goes over the canal/river, so if a boat happens to be crossing under the bridge at any point in time, the bridge has to open and all traffic has to stop. With our luck, two boats happened to be crossing, so the bridge was open and we ended up waiting for almost 10 min and traffic backed up behind us for more than a mile. Finally, the bridge closed and we were able to pull ahead and go to the parking lot. The one good thing that came out of the wait is that we knew that there were some boats waiting to use the locks, so we could actually see them operating. There are a total of 7 or 8 locks that take the boats up about 60ft from Loch Linnhe to the Caledonian canal. Each lock take about 15 min to fill to the next lock's level, so we waited patiently while that happened and the boats could move from one section to the next. And, during that time, we were pestered for the first time by those annoying insects called midges. They are these tiny flying insects that hover near your face and can bite you or just lightly sting you or something. You have to keep brushing them off. We'd bought some midge repellent before we left the US but it was in the car, so we couldn't use it.
Anyway, after that, we headed to Eilean Donan castle just outside a place called Kyle of Lochalsh which was just before the bridge that led to the Isle of Skye. First, we had to go to the railway station in Kyle of Lochalsh to pick up Rashmi and then we had to double back to Eilean Donan castle.
The drive to K of L was smooth and with scenery that changed dramatically from flat to mountainous. Rivers and waterfalls became visible. We took our time and stopped at a few places to take pictures.
We picked up Rashmi from the train station at K of L and drove back to Eilean Donan castle. We took our time to do a slow, unhurried tour because we had time. Then, we crossed over into the Isle of Skye and headed to the small town of Broadford where our Airbnb and Rashmi's hostel was. First, we went to Rashmi's hostel and got her checked in. Then, we drove back to our Airbnb and proceeded to meet our hosts and check in.
After checking in, we drove to a nearby restaurant called Gasta which was supposed to have some vegan items on their menu. But, when we asked them, they said that their pizza dough has eggs in it (but they have vegan cheese!). The only items they had for us were a vegan soup (cauliflower and leek, I think) and salad. We had a soup each (with regular bread) and shared a salad.
After dinner, we dropped Rashmi off in her hostel and returned to our Airbnb. There was no parking there, so we had to use a parking lot across the road from their house.
Next day was going to be a very busy day, so we just relaxed and went to bed early.
No comments:
Post a Comment