Day #11 - Exploring the Isle of Skye

I do not want to task you with all of the details, but despite both not feeling well we had a great day. Beth started off the day not feeling well because of possible dehydration - just not drinking enough water (as opposed to too much of something else). I had an afternoon bout of something - possibly related to something I ate at lunch. However, we're all good now!

After tripping over each in the room we headed out to visit our second and final Scottish distillery, the Talisker Distillery. In place since 1830 Talisker is the only whisky made on the Isle of Skye and one I enjoyed before coming to Scotland. We bought some of the straight from the cask whisky, that is only available from the distillery, to bring home and share. Today we realized we ought to figure out how we are going to pack everything we bought and exactly what the customs rules are! We're thankful we brought the computer and have internet access.

After the tour, tasting and shopping we did some exploring and went in search of the Talisker stone that Norse sailors had named and the distillery was named after. See the photo for the Talisker Stone.

The stone and beach were at the end of a fifteen minute walk along a dirt farm road. The road went through the fields and had a change to speak to many sheep and goats (none of them spoke back to us, but we're pretty sure they were talking about us). Of course getting to the trail / road head was separate adventure and in addition to watching for cars we were also on alert for sheep in the road.

Talisker beach and distillery are on the opposite side of the island from Portree and the B&B and we found a small single track road that cuts across the island. It was a little like a roller coaster track in several places and a lot of fun to drive. We popped back into Portree had lunch, did a little laundry, met a wonderful retired couple from Wales who are on a 12 week sailing trip and then headed north of Portree to find some natural landmarks.

We discovered several incredible natural wonders including, the Old Man of Storr (rocky pinnacles and the face of man in the rocks, Lealt (a spectacular gorge and waterfall), Mealt (300 foot waterfall and kilt rock (the pillars in the rock face of the cliff look like the pleats of a kilt), Quirang (a single track drive full of switchbacks to an overlook on a several columns and pillars).

We met a German couple that had been a part of same tour at Talisker and also on the Talisker beach and they were also touring these natural wonders and we kept meeting up with them along the way. They were always there first, so I guess we were following them.

The evening finds us reading The Times - Scotland Edition, sipping whisky and planning our evening attack on Portree. Tomorrow is a driving day, we leave here and make tracks for Edinburgh, which is 4-5 hours away. We're both anticipating a low key day with lots of driving and limited sight-seeing.

Thanks for reading, we hope all is well with you!