Journey to Skye

Day one of my summer break to the Scottish Highlands.

With my annual leave approaching, I was in two minds whether to make my yearly journey to the Highland of Scotland. Too many times I've had to endure rainy days with views blocked out by low cloud. Last year was particularly bad. I'd had thee days on Skye followed by two in the far North West Highlands and the sun never made an appearance until the day when I was coming home!

I bit the bullet though and booked a room for two nights at my favourite Skye Hotel; The Rosedale in Portree (which is right on harbour front) and followed this with three nights at The Loch Maree Hotel, which surprisingly enough sits on the delightful shors of Loch Maree not far from Gairloch.

I had all four seasons on my first day on Skye. I came over from the mainland via the ferry and was greeted with sunshine. Then it was a swift circuit of the Sleat peninsula which is a stunningly beautiful area that I only discovered a couple of years back. Most people head straight for the Black Cuillin Hills when they are on Skye but there is so much more to the place and they miss so much by heading straight to Broadford and then on to Sligachan. Stopping at Tokavaig and Ord for photos took me nicely to nearly teatime. I then headed up to Portree.

I was basically living out of a suitcase so I just dropped my stuff off at the Hotel and headed up to Staffin to hopefully get a sunset. Too many showers and too much cloud soon put paid to the sunset but it did prove good for rainbows, especially over the Sound of Raasay. Each time I decided to call it a day, another shower and another rainbow came across so I ended up getting back to the Hotel about seven o'clock where I had a few beers and a bite to eat whilst reflecting on a great first day.

Sorry that these pictures are all over the place, blame Bolgger for that one and not me! ;)