Nick Devine vs. Nessie

Waking up the next day we were to get ready by nine o'clock in order to make it to the bus area so we could continue our trip around Skye. The hostel was deserted by the time we needed to get up so we were able to talk and wander about the room without any issue or concern with making the others in the room wake up. After moving about and getting ready we went down stairs to the kitchen to get some toast before heading back onto the bus once again. We got on the bus and headed for the small town of Harport, with the Loch Harport right next to the Talisker Distillery.

We stopped at the town to take a tour of the distillery and also to walk around and get a nice view of the Cullin mountains. We decided not to go on the whiskey tour because we had already been on one in Edinburgh. This left us with an hour and a half to dink around in this little town without a whole lot to do. we took some pictures of the Loch and walked along the road to get to the top of a hill where some more pictures of the Red Cullins were in order. This took all of 30 minutes and them we had time to kill. We walked around the area, ran into a little cat who looked to be the town pet. It was very approachable and would come to us and just expected to be pet. It was a nice little cat and I really did try to ignore it as best as I could. Naturally this meant that the cat would run right up to me and purr against my leg. Reluctantly I petted the cat but not before visually assessing the situation and confirming that there was no danger involved withe the cat. After the minor cat detour we ended up going into a tiny little store that had all the essentials one could need in a store: candy and fingerless gloves. Both a high necessity in Scotland.

The heavens started to open up and we all ran back into the bus so we could get onto the bus and get out of the pouring rain. In Skye there are three main sections of the country and where we were at the time was in the western most section of Skye. After leaving from the area we went into the middle section to see the countryside and all of the hills in Skye. Skye is supposed to be pretty representative of all of Scotland with its varying landscape and pretty amazing mountainside. So we got to see all sorts of other mountains as well as a ton of sheep that were grazing on the countryside and the hills. The sheep were really brave and eating grass on the hillsides where frankly no one should be going. We toured around for a long while and we seeing all sorts of rock formations as well the constant state of the Pete in the area. We ended up going back to Portree for lunch because it had the most options available in Skye.

Upon returning to Portree we went and got some lunch of Fish and Chips on the docks. It was very good and was relatively cheap. So after our lunch back on the main city we headed around the upper section of Skye doing a big loop from the top down.The way around the island was a only by bus, and by gosh it was one heck of a bus ride. So back on the bus we stated around the island. We would make occasional stops to see the sights around the island, a lot of which involved rock formations as well as cliffs of the water into the Atlantic Ocean and North Sea. After a while all of the area and sights tended to look the same. The Kilt rock formation was kind of cool, and it was supposed to look like folds of a kilt. It did, but the huge wind of the area made it hard to not fall over in the area. There were people in kayaks who were trying to go across a little loch and were having no luck at all. They were trying their hardest but it just was not happening for them. It was funny to watch our leader guy try and mock the other leader it absolutely no success.

Continuing on we head around the island some more rock formations that were surprisingly rock looking. It was a shocker for me too. After a long day of moving around the island we got back into the main city again for another night of sleep. We got to walk around and check out the sights. We ended up just getting food from the local supermarket with all sorts of Scottish delicacy. Scotch pies as well as haggis and other things were options for the night and frankly they all turned out very well. We went back to the hostel and played a trivia game, a British trivia game. It was awful because none of us really would ever use or know any sort of British trivia. This implied that all of our prior knowledge was useless and the game lasted forever and a day. So after embarrassing ourselves we eventually decided to quit and head to bed. The next day was going to be a long one so we wanted to get in the right amount of sleep for people our age.

After another night of sleep we got back on the bus to head back to the mainland of Scotland. We stopped by the Eilean Donan castle in the town of Kyle of Lochalsh. It was a beautiful castle in a strategic section of the Scottish Isles that was used to protect the isles from the vikings who would try to come and loot the area. The castle was able to withstand the force of the vikings but when the British war ships showed up after Scotland and England got into a war, the castle was destroyed with relative ease. The castle was therefore a pile of rubble for a long time. The Macrae Family decided that it would be best to try to rebuild the place. Unfortunately this meant that a lot of money needed to be put into the building and they did not have the money to do that. So Mr. Macrae did what any smart man would ever do, marry a rich women. He married a wealthy noblewomen who had a ton of money lying around her own personal castle and this was used to rebuild the castle in all of its splendor. The castle had a nice little guided tour in which we got to learn about the Macrae family as well as the history of the castle and the surrounding area. The castle did seem a tad creepy and I am still sure it was haunted by something or another but that is a different story in and of itself.

Back on the bus again we got to head to the town of Fort Augustus which lies on the south end of Loch Ness. I was really excited to go to Loch Ness and possibly see the historic monster of Nessie. We arrived and found out we only had one hour to look around the Loch and see what there was in the town. After grabbing a quick bite to eat we started to walk down to the shores in order to get the full view of the area around us. We got the shore, saw a huge ripple in the water! We rushed to the side of the Loch cameras primed and ready to capture the historic moment we were about to have. Right when the edge of the loch was near, we saw what had caused the giant ripple in the water. It was... a duck.

What a major disappointment. We took some pictures of the Loch had a nice little walk around the area and got to look at some odd little trinkets of Nessie around. After leaving Loch Ness we all agreed that it really a big disappointment that we could not go to the castle there and take a boat tour of the area but all in all it was not a huge loss I guess.

We went back to Edinburgh after our brief stay at Loch Ness and finally was able to get off the bus and head on our way. The girls and Derek went back to the University while I headed to the airport. Somebody was coming up, no one really to important but i needed to be at the airport. :) That will be the start of the next blog.

Until next time, this is Nick, signing off.