Week in Review: Week 26

Today officially marks 6 months of traveling! It’s so hard to believe 26 weeks have passed - time has been going by so quickly. We’ve seen so many great things, have had some of the best adventures, meet amazing people, and are making cool memories we will cherish forever. We have to admit that some of the trip feels like a blur, and we’ve already forgotten places (even countries!) we have visited. So the blog and our Instagram account serve as fantastic reminders for everything we have done.

We probably couldn’t have picked a better place to enjoy our 26th week than the Isle of Skye. No doubt it has been one of our top places, and it has definitely lived up to all of the hype we heard before arriving. It’s gorgeous! We were a little worried about weather, since October tends to be the wettest month on Skye. However, we have completely lucked out and we’ve had great weather for 6 days here! No day has prevented us from getting out and exploring, which is awesome. We are also in low tourist season, so there are almost no tourists here. This is great because we can experience the sites and enjoy them without the massive crowds, however we are finding quite a few places are closed for the season (restaurants, tourist sites, and shops). We came to Skye to experience the awesome landscape and outdoor activities, which fortunately never close! 

Highlight of the week

Sharleen: Hiking to the Old Man of Storr. I was looking forward to visiting the Old Man of Storr since we had started looking into places to visit in Scotland. The Old Man rock formation stands out as soon as you near Portree, and you can see it from many places along the east side of the Trotternish peninsula. Darrell was unfortunately still recovering, so he wasn’t able to join me on this hike. Luckily, it wasn’t a very long one so I felt comfortable heading up by myself. There were also a couple of people on the path (maybe 4 others) so at least I knew someone could help me if I ran into any troubles.  

The hike up was beautiful, especially because I caught the sunrise on the walk up. It didn’t take long before I reached the rock formations and the views were just outstanding! They were so cool to see up close, and the Old Man and The Needle formations made for some pretty dramatic pictures. There was also no one around when I got up there so I took my time in different points to soak in the amazing views. I wish Darrell was there to see it with me! 

Darrell: Being able to hike the Quiraing. These are two highlights in one really! I am finally back to feeling 100%, and off my antibiotics. It’s been a bit of a struggle to get back to feeling like my old self – even little things like small hikes and long travel days have been exhausting. My pills definitely made me sleepy and my body felt “out of whack”! We had been taking it easy during our first few days in Skye, and on the 4th day I felt ready to amp up my activity and give a hike a try. The hike ended up being a bit more intense than we planned for, but we had an awesome time! 

The views were gorgeous, and really unlike anything we have seen before. In some places it felt like we were on another planet! I’m glad that I was able to get up and out of the house!  

Least favourite part of the week

Sharleen and Darrell: Getting caught in a sketchy situation on Quiraing. So far on our trip we have been on over 10 hikes, all ranging between 8km-28km long. We’ve seen some crazy places, some of which have challenged our comfort around heights and cliffs. The hike through Quiraing wasn’t long, or overly challenging. We estimated we hiked close to 6 km, climbing up roughly 270 meters. However, 150 meters of that was in one very steep section.

We decided to climb up the very steep hill, which had a lot of loose rocks and mud. It was not an easy climb. By the time we got 5/6 of the way to the top, some bad weather had come and it started sleeting and hailing on us. We were fully exposed on the hill, so the wind, hail, and frozen rain was hitting us hard! Within seconds we were soaked and cold. Looking for a way to escape the weather and make a plan, we decided to head up to the formations and try to find shelter. Fortunately we were close, however that left us on top of a steep hill in weather we were not really prepared for. We both had rain jackets on, but Darrell was in jeans, and Sharleen just had yoga tights on – both of which were less than ideal for the conditions. We definitely don’t have the gear for anything less than fair weather or mild rain, and although we have been on a few challenging hikes, the climb up to the rock formations was definitely more climbing (almost light bouldering) than hiking.  

We didn’t feel comfortable climbing down the exposed hill in the wind and rain, so we took a look on our Maps.Me app and saw an alternate route. Thankfully Sharleen still had cell service here! The new route made our hike longer, but a bit safer on the way down. Ultimately it wasn’t so bad because we got to see more of this gorgeous area. The rain came and went, so we were able to enjoy a good part of the hike at this point and we couldn’t believe the views! However, we did have to climb down some not so great places, and we were really lucky we didn’t get injured.

In hindsight, we shouldn’t have gone up the hill. We knew the rain was coming, and we knew this section was dangerous and should only be done in good weather. But fortunately Mother Nature was on our side and held off the big rain until we were back on the main path and heading back to the car park.

Also, because of the off and on rain we weren’t able to capture many photos with our camera. However, our GoPro was awesome! Since it is waterproof it captured some great pictures, as long as we kept the len dry! Almost all of our pictures from Quiraing were from our GoPro.

Favourite city/town/village visited

Sharleen and Darrell: Trotternish. This isn’t a city, town, or a village. To be honest, we haven’t spent any time in a city, town or village this week – other than grocery shopping and a quick stop for lunch in Portree. For four days this week we explored as many amazing sites on the Trotternish peninsula as we could. The Trotternish peninsula of Skye is located north of Portree. There is a loop you can follow that takes you all along the coast, starting and ending in Portree. There is also one road that goes across the peninsula, which is nice because the scenery there is beautiful, and it mixes up the drive. After four days on the same road it does get a little repetitive! We are staying in the super small village of Hungladder. And by village, we mean there are maybe 7 houses. It’s on the north west side of the peninsula, and has been a great location. We can visit all of the main hikes and sites within 30 minutes, and from our cottage we can see the sunrise and sunset each day. It’s been great! We also have cows and sheep walking by our cottage each day – they are adorable. We couldn’t have asked for a better place!

Favourite meal  

Sharleen and Darrell: Our meals at the Inch Hotel. We started the week around Loch Ness, where we stayed at the Inch Hotel – a beautiful country house hotel with views over Loch Ness. It was our first time booking a hotel so far on this trip! Since Darrell was starting to feel better, we decided to treat ourselves to a nice stay with a breakfast package. The chef at the Inch Hotel is a Michelin Star chef, so we were excited to have some delicious meals! 

The dinner we had was fantastic, and it was Darrell’s favourite meal of the week. He had a tasty sweet potato soup to start, and it was really solid. For his main, he had what might be the best chicken dish he has ever had! It was cooked perfectly and the skin was perfectly crispy! The vegetables were good too, but the chicken was so good! Then to we finished the tasty meal off by sharing a sticky toffee pudding – easily our favourite dessert in the UK! We could eat enough of the stuff to make ourselves sick! So good!

Sharleen’s dinner was also amazing, but her favourite meal there was breakfast. She had traditional Scottish porridge with toppings of cream, honey, and a dram of whisky. It might seem odd that a meal of the week was porridge, but it was so delicious! All of the topping worked so well together, and the porridge tasted exactly how the whisky distilleries smell every time we do a tour – sweet, nutty like coconut, warm, and rich. It was so good! And really, how often is it appropriate to have whisky for breakfast!?!

The Isle of Skye has been great, and our time here is flying by. It’s hard to believe we have already been in Scotland for a month now! We are still here for another month, and are looking forward to exploring the west side. From Skye we head to Oban, where we will spend a week exploring the city as well as some gorgeous places like Glenfinnan, Glencoe, and maybe the Isle of Mull.