For our Easter weekend, we took a photographic adventure to the Isle of Skye. I was very excited about this, as the further north I had been in the UK was the area surrounding Ben Nevis. Rob had previously been to the Isle of Skye on an ice climbing trip a few years ago and thought it was beautiful. He had researched some great places for photography and camping, so this was our destination for our Easter weekend trip.
Travel time by car form Manchester to Skye is a little over 8 hours, so we decided we would take it easy and stop at Glen Coe (which is approximately half way) and wild camp on the way up to Skye. We set off on Thursday afternoon after Rob had finished work for the day, he had worked extra hours in the week so we could set off early and put up our tent before it got dark.
After 2 hours of driving Rob got very sleepy so we switched over and once we hit Glasgow, whilst I was driving we got stuck in loads of traffic on the motorway. Typical. What can you expect though when driving round Glasgow at 5 pm on a Thursday. We swapped the driving responsibilities again before reaching Glen Coe and overall we appeared to be making good time and would reach Glen Coe before sunset. Unfortunately, just as we were about to enter area of Glen Coe the road surface of the bridge was being resurfaced and traffic was only allowed to cross every 30 minutes. This ate up some of our time and with the light fading fast we quickly found a place to camp, down a side road in Glen Coe.
Upon driving through Glen Coe, which incidentally is one of my favourite drives in the country, we were surrounded by deer. We must have seen around 50 deer whilst driving to our chosen campsite. I have never seen any deer along this road before but then again I have never driven along this road at dusk. Which it seems is peak deer time in this area. Anyway, I digress, we set up camp close to a stream at the side of the road and ate a quick meal of macaroni cheese before going to bed. That night I found it very hard to sleep and awoke at several points throughout the night, I was freezing! Hopefully, tomorrow will be a little warmer. :(
The next morning we packed the tent away and made our way to Skye. We took the Skye bridge and headed to Elgol, Rob's first photographic location. The views here are supposed to be spectacular with a very picturesque panorama of the Cullins along the shore. Unfortunately, the fog was so bad I didn't even believe Rob that there were mountains across the sea. We couldn't see a thing! We decided we would give the cloud some time to clear so we popped into a nearby cafe for a coffee and a hot chocolate, then took a stroll along the beach to see if the weather would change. This time we were not in luck and decided to call it a day and make way to our campsite at Glen Brittle forest.
Glen Brittle campsite has been voted the best in Britain. I guess this is based on the views and its perfect location at the foot of the Cullin mountains by the side of the sea. However, again the weather was not on our side and the fog prevented us from seeing any evidence of the mountains above us. After setting up camp and eating a small meal we took a walk along the beach. The sand beneath our feet was black, volcanic sand. It was quite different to all the other beaches I had experienced in the UK and brought back fond memories from our resent trip to Bali. Rob explained some of the geology whilst taking a few landscape photographs but I either didn't listen or didn't care, as I couldn't tell you anything of what he told me! Eeeek!
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| Selfie at the fairy pools. |
Before the light faded we made a quick trip to the fairy pool. The pools are a beautiful blue colour and look tempting even on a chilly April evening. It must be wonderful taking a refreshing dip in this pools on a warm summer's afternoon. We spent some time here just taking a series of photographs at different points and in different poses along the river. Many people were doing the same, at one site Rob was even standing at the top of a waterfall, the crazy boy! Even though it was beginning to get dark there were still quite a few people walking around the pools, but anyway we decided to head back to our camp and get some rest.
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| Beautiful blue pool! |
The next day (Saturday) we spent driving around the island to try and visit as many interesting places as we could. Our first stop was Neist Point, a lighthouse which also happens to be a BnB. However, on our way there whilst driving Rob noticed some seals in the water not to far from the shore. So we pulled over and walked along a some seaweed covered rocks to get a closer look. And yes there were in fact a group of seals on a large nearby rock and some swimming in the water. We sat for a while watching the seals and they were very inquisitive; swimming closer and closer to the rocks to see what we were doing. After a while I think they got a little bored with us and they continued with day to day lives and became less interested in us. They were very, very cute and it was fascinated seeing these seals in their natural environment, I did not expect them to come so close to us. It was great and maybe a little scary too! :) So anyway, the lighthouse; the lighthouse itself wasn't that impressive but the surrounding were fantastic. Rob spent ages waiting for the fog to clear so he could get some photos from the top. To his credit his patience paid off and weather got better, I on the other had just wandered round waiting for him to meet me. After we had taken many, many photos we relaxed near the beach watching the clear blue water, it looked so inviting and tropical. It was such a shame it would have been so cold to just jump in!
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| Sandy! |
Our next location was the coral beach, the sand is white and the sea is blue. It was like a little paradise. I could have sat on that beach all day and just chilled out, it was so nice. The beach however is a bit of a walk from the car park, probably about 1.5 miles and at every corner you think you are nearly there but you aren't. Only when you are at the top of a ridge do you see the beach and this is when you know you have arrived.
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| Quarang! |
Our day ended by setting camp on a small hill at the bottom of the Quarang close to the sea. It was almost prefect. It could have only been made better if we'd had the spot on the slightly higher mound which had already been taken by some other campers. But other than that it was prefect. We left the car in a lay-by and climbed a small mountain before the daylight faded. We got some great shots of the cliffs above us during sunset. It was a stunning scene and its beauty was reinforced by its reflection in the lake below. This certainly compensated for the effort required to power walk,or perhaps even scramble up the mountain in order to obtain the pictures. And not to mention the possibility of being bitten by ticks after traipsing through the thick ferns and heather in order to reach the top. Before retiring to our tent for the night we ate tinned vegetable ravioli under the stars and a full moon, which was massive. It was so large and bright it almost looked like the sun. I felt at any moment we would hear the howl of a werewolf. It was romantic and creepy all at the same time.
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| Argh! Watch out! |
Sunday - our first stop today for photography was the Quarang, which was convenient as we'd camped just around the corner. We started the day off super earlier today and arrived at top of the Quarang at around 8 am. The view below us was awesome and we looked on in awe as the road snaked through the valley below. We then made our way to Mealt falls at the coast, again Rob stood at the top of the waterfall. This one was even larger than the last and dropped right into the ocean. For photographic purposes it was also pretty pointless him standing on top of the waterfall as he could hardly be seen in the photograph. He was tiny!:) Here, we met a couple of women who were also on holiday in Skye. They had flown up from Kent for the Easter break and were also taking many landscape and wildlife photographs. Rob was a little jealous as they had seen the golden eagle in the mountains the previous day. This was one of the reason we came to Skye and unfortunately we were not as lucky. So, on to the next place.....we decided we would take a walk up the Old Man of Storr, as we hadn't actually done that much walking on this holiday. The walk didn't actually take too long and I think we had reached the top in well under an hour. The initial part of the walk from the car park is very steep and I think this section probably takes the most time, but once you reach the grassy portion of the walk the incline is much shallower and more easy going. So, the walk is not much of a challenge.
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| Cow! |
As it was only earlier afternoon and the weather was great, Rob was dying to get the shot he originally wanted of the Cullins from Elgol. So we headed back that way. When we were almost there a herd of highland cattle had blocked off the road, they were so cute, fluffy and ginger! So we waited for them to pass before moving on. Once, in Elgol we walked along a footpath towards the mountains, now I actually believe Rob. They are in fact there! We took some lovely photos and relaxed in the sun for a while, just watching the little tour boats go back and forth out at sea. It was quite peaceful.
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| I wish I lived here! |
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| Rob chilling in the sun. |
It was still afternoon and as Rob had become obsessed with seals and I loved boats we caught the last tour boat of the day and took a trip towards the Cullins. It was great, albeit being a little cold we had a nice trip on the little boat. Rob got his wish and we saw plenty of seals, although they were too far away for my camera to photgraph them properly. And on the return journey we received a free coffee and hot chocolate to keep us warm, which was nice. :)
Once we got back to shore we decided we would head back to mainland Scotland so the drive back tomorrow wouldn't be as long, as it is no fun being in the car all day! We crossed the Skye bridge and stopped for a short while at Eilean Donan castle before continuing to Ben Nevis to spend the night. We stopped at number of picturesque locations on the way before arriving at Glen Nevis campsite just after dark. We put the tent up and enjoyed at late tea of soup and bread, we've pretty much lived off tinned food this holiday. It's nice and cheap though, which is always a bonus. Before bed we took a drive down the road away from the lights of the town and campsite to try and get some star photographs. We were unsuccessful in that aspect but we did see a barn owl racing our car as we drove down the road and for some reason a flock of sheep seemed to prefer sleeping in the middle of the road rather that the grass at the side of it. Not really the safest of sleeping spots.
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| The Sea. |
The next morning we set off on our journey home feeling a little sad and not ready to leave. We took a short break in Glen Coe to take some more photographs and after wandering around in the marshes Rob decided the best spot was in the river. I like the photo I got anyway.
We were making good time so stopped at our favourite little cafe at the edge of Loch Lomond. When we first arrived we were the only ones there. I guess it was a little early for lunch so it wasn't too busy. We settled for tea and cake and it was even warm enough to sit outside. After a short respite we continued in which I took over the driving and what a mistake that was! We were stuck in traffic going about 10 miles an hour all the way to Glasgow! Damn, bank holiday traffic. Anyway, the traffic was fine by the time we were back on the motorway.
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| Glen Coe! |
Hope you had an awesome Easter and if you want to check out Rob photos his website is www.robgrewphotography.com
Samx
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