The Old Man of Storr and Other Wanderings

For the fuller version with photos and videos go to: http://www.travelblog.org/fred.php?id=516415

Got up at 7 and was down for breakfast by 8. I got coffee, orange juice, porridge and some toast. I put some sugar into my porridge. I’ve never had it before, but I did like it. It reminded me of a Hungarian dish called “tejbegríz”, which is essentially very similar, it’s grain mixed into milk and cooked as well. However, we put cocoa powder on it and the grain is finer as we use grits and porridge uses oats. Good all the same.

I also talked with John and told him where I was going. I planned to go to the Old Man of Storr, which is one of the walks I had planned. He told me to note his phone number in case I got stranded somewhere.

So I got ready and went to the town center as my bus would leave from there. On the but I go a dayrider. A couple I saw on the bus coming here was also headed to the Storr. I took notice of them as the guy reminded me of a colleague I had, just blonder and taller.

On the way I was introduced to the wonderful concept of “Single Track”. At first I didn’t get it. I thought “Seriously, one lane and two ways? How would that work???” So the way it works is that you can go both ways on one track of road. There are places where the road widens and there you, or the incoming vehicle is supposed to stop. The vehicle that stops is the one on whose side the road is wider. Great fun. At the correct speed quite scary.

The bus driver was going quite carefully and I could gaze at the landscape in a relaxed manner.

We got off the Storr and started the journey up. Everyone kept passing me by, but I refused to hurry. I enjoyed staring at the trees, flowers, cones, ferns. As I was going up, the trees - mostly pines - started to thin out. As I looked back, I could see a great landscape.There was one opening where I could go and the wind was so strong, it almost blew me away. I sat down, entwined the wrist strap of my camera around my hand and made a video.  The wind got stronger and stronger and when I got the bare area, it was really strong. Otherwise, there was a path and it had sort of steps made from rocks. It was still some climb. I did rest occasionally. When I got to the top, I collapsed on a large rock. I could lie down on it on my stomach and see over the landscape. I made more pictures and took some videos. I also managed to put up my camera and make some pics of myself.

I could have gone around the top of the mountain, but decided no to as the weather was getting worse. Though the influx of people coming didn’t abate. So I made my way down. It was much more faster and easier.

When I got down I saw an elderly Japanese couple, but they didn’t go up. I did see a lot of older people going up the mountain. The I checked the bus times and realised that I screwed up. It was 13:35 and the next bus was not due until 16:07. I decided to start walking towards the next town. The rain picked up and even with my raincoat it was harsh.

I came across a guy in a big machine. He was preparing some ground as later they were going to cut down some tree. He said they would plant new ones. The also told me that the next town was Staffin, 14km away. It was pouring, but I still walked. I was on the side of the road, but it wasn’t very busy. John told me during breakfast that Skye is really low on crime, so I wasn’t worried. I stopped when I heard a car and stepped more in, off the road. Luckily it was a regular road with tracks going both ways.

The rain was strong and I managed to step into some water, so my shoe got wet on the inside. I was thinking that no wonder people around there drank whiskey, I could have used a couple of shots myself. After about 30 minutes the rain stopped and the sun came out. I took pictures. There were two sheep that stopped eating and stared at me, probably wondering what the world I was doing walking in the middle of nowhere. I took several pictures of them. Another 30 minutes later I got tired of walking and decided to give hitching a shot. After 10-15 minutes I was picked up by a nice middle-aged couple. They were on Skye to celebrate their 37th anniversary. They took me into the town and dropped me off at the cafe. I spent an hour there and ate a bowl of tomato soup and drank a coffee. My shoe managed to dry a bit, though it still felt damp.

I got on the bus and had it drop me off at the Skye Museum of Island Life. The couple got on as I got off. Only afterwards did I realise that I haven’t checked the open times. Of course, they were closing in 15 minutes. I should have gone back to Portree with the bus, but I forgot to use my brain apparently. I did have wonderful notes, but like a blonde, I totally forgot to check them. I was cursing myself as I started walking and taking pictures again. Of course, the weather soon turned bad again. However, I found a designated bus stop with a shelter and some chairs in it, so I holed up in there. The space was made up of iron and plastic, but was rather strong. The wind shook and rattled it, the water pounding on it from all sides. It was getting colder and colder. I tried to ignore it and drank some water and ate some cookies that were put in my room for tea. I also wrote my notes.

The bus came a few hours later. Now the thing with the bus route on which I was is that it’s circular. It’s supposed to go from Portree to Portree, while making a circle on the Northern part of Skye. 57A is going clockwise and 57C anti-clockwise. No B. However, they don’t always go all the way around.

As it turned out, that bus didn’t go back all the way to Portree then, only the one going the other way would, that arrived 30 minutes later. I was rather cold and mentioned that to the woman driver.

Another thing about buses in Skye is that if you see a bus, you wave at it and it will stop. It will also stop for you at any part of its route. It’s not uncommon to have the bus stop in the middle of nowhere to drop someone off at their house. In fact, on my way to the museum, the bus stopped at a scenic place and the driver got out to have a fag (cigarette - UK slang).

So the bus was about to leave, when she opened the doors again and told me that she would signal the bus going the other way and I would change buses. That way I would not have to be out in the cold. By that time the rain was pouring down and the wind was blowing harder than ever. I had been a bit scared in the plastic box as it was rattling really hard. So I got on the bus and I was really happy about that. Though I do have to remark that the woman was driving rather fast, especially on the single tracks.

I did get on the bus going the other way and that was going even faster. The driver was an older guy, all limbs attached, no big scars. I checked. He could have made a religious person out of anyone as a few minutes of his driving gets you praying for your life.

There was a Chinese girl on the bus. She got on in Portree and wanted to check out the castle ruins on the North point of the island. The bus did stop, but it was the middle of nowhere. The storm had gotten even worse since the time I got on. Usually it was still practically daylight at that hour, but the clouds were so dark, they gave off the illusion of the night sky. The rain was so heavy, you could hardly see out the side windows and the wind even shook the bus a little as it stopped for the girl. The driver saw that the girl didn’t have any waterproofs and knew that the next bus would not be around for 4 hours. So he asked her if she was sure she wanted to get off. She would have been soaked within seconds outside. After some persuasion she stayed on the bus. I felt a sense of relief myself as I would have been worried for her.

Miracle of miracles I made it back in Portree in one piece. I had the guy drop me off at the Co-Op as he was passing it. I did go in and buy a few more things there, then it was back to the B&B. The weather actually got a bit better, but it could have been only that we passed the main storm zone.

As I was going to the B&B from the Co-Op, I realised that the crossing there was not a regular crossing, but a roundabout! The interesting thing about this is that Szeged is the city of roundabouts as it has more than I can count with new ones popping up all over the place. So I made a not to take a photo of that as my mom would surely get a good laugh out of it.