The long awaited Isle of Skye was literally on the horizon as our bus meandered towards the coast. If I wasn't a believer in love at first sight before (shout out to Ian!!) I sure was after arriving in Portree. There is something spectacular about being in a place where every moment of your day could be put on a post card! To our huge dismay a couple of days prior I received an email from the owner of the hostel we were staying at here telling us he misread our booking. Instead of 4 nights we were only booked for 2, and despite our desperate googling it was too short notice to find additional accommodation on or near the Isle. So here we were in one of the most picturesque areas in Scotland with only one full day to experience it!
When we walked into the hostel we were greeted by the owner who promptly asked us what our plans were for our one day. We admitted we didn't have any and without another word he started making phone calls. After the fifth call he hung up and told us that if we wanted, there were spots on a tour bus that was covering almost the entire Isle in one very full day. It was the best option we had so we agreed and hoped for the best! We spent the rest of the day doing a great coastal hike around the town of Portree and I climbed a massive hill and got a phenomenal view of the ocean, sheep fields and coast line! I even picked out a spot to build my retirement home! With our grand tour of the island finally a reality I spent the evening beach combing and decided I really was on cloud 9!
Our token day in Isle of Skye started with our introduction to Doug our tour guide. We were one of the first ones to board the mini bus and every time Doug stopped at a hostel more and more people hopped on board until at last the bus was full. It just so happened that Lindsay and I had been booked onto the second leg of a 3 day bus tour of Scotland. It also so happened that save for Dave, we were the only ones who were not born in Asia. Already Dave had taken a liking to us and after about 3 minutes we realized why... We were the only ones who were not fast asleep! With someone to give his tour to we set off into the wild Scottish highlands with team Asia in tow. We made many stops on our tour around the Isle and heard many folklore stories along the way! One of my favorite stops was a place called Fairie Glen, we had seen pictures of it on Pinterest before we left and it was one of the places we really wanted to see! Before we got of the bus Dave became serious and gave us 3 rules:
1.You can't take anything away from the Glen
2. You can't whistle while you are in the Glen because fairies hate whistling
3. You can leave the fairies gifts but they can't be made of iron.
He said of the people who claim they aren't superstitious and have decided to whistle he's had to deal with 2 broken legs, 3 sprained ankles and several broken wrists and he has even had people send him packages from across the world asking him to return rocks and things people have taken because they have been cursed ever since!
The folklore and history on the Isle of Skye was fascinating. The tour we were on was ideal because we got stories in between each of our stops and every 20 or 30 minutes the bus would stop and we would have between 30 and 60 minutes to do short hikes to lookout points and explore the areas! We ended our tour by trying raw oysters and then stopping at the Isles whiskey distillery for a taste test. I don't desire consuming either of these two items again I don't think!
We ended our day with a quiet evening of drinking tea while overlooking a quiet ocean bay and I think I speak for both of us when I say that although we know we will both return, we left feeling very fulfilled.