For the second week in Edinburgh, we planned a short getaway to the famous Isle of Skye. A rural and well-preserved island located north of Edinburgh. It was a 7 hour drive from Edinburgh, which seems kind of long, but on hind-sight, it was a rather comfortable and fun road-trip=)
It was geat fun driving down to Isle of Skye in our little betsy. We also made several stops along the way which actually made the trip much more enjoyable and scenic.
The place was breathtaking-ly beautiful.
And here are the photos from Day 1 of our road trip---journey to isle of skye=)
For our first stopped by this giant lake that had a boat house and a bistro.
We saw a lot of cute ang-moh kids=) Glistening blonde-haired kids in their colourful sweaters=)
The Bistro.
Despite the sun shining brightly, it was an extremely windy day. Luckily we were all nicely bundled up=)
The lake was quite massive and they had boat rides which brought tourists to some castle ruins located across the lake. We decided not to go cuz we were going to see tons more ruins and there was a long journey ahead. Besides, we were having a good time enjoying the scenery already.
Li=) She was my navigator for the whole trip. We were supposed to use a GPS initially, but ended up using paper maps in the end. It turned out to be a blessing, cuz we were able to plan our routes much easier and could easily make pit-stops whenever we wanted to=) Plus, we actually got to know the area better and had a better orientation around.
Kids in their multi-colored sweaters playing with stones.
One of the sandwiches that we packed for our road trip=) The hot chocolate came from the bistro...yum!
Some random kid that appeared out of the forest trail alone...haha.
After a short break, we were back on the road continuing on ur journey. We planned the route such that we would drive pass the major lakes including Loch Ness (above). In fact, most of our journey was spent driving beside these lakes.
The place was just massive. And pictures simply does not do any justice to the atmosphere and wonder of that place. The place was strangely calm yet eery.
It was no surprise that people could imagine up stuff like the loch ness monster and stuff.
Anyway, we made a lot of pit-stops along the road to take photos and to see the sights. On one of them, we came across a sign that said "beach". We followed it and lo and behold, there was a staircase that led down to the shores of Loch Ness!=) So not only did we see Loch Ness, we also touched it.=)
The place was just beautiful. It was enchanting. And somewhat un-nerving. There were times I actually expected some creature to appear above the water-surface or have some monster walk up from the shoreline.
The vast waters stretching into the horizon just added to the whole mystery of the place.
Our warm and comfortable Betsy. It was an awesome feeling coming back to a heated car!
Loch Ness and our little Betsy.
Our reliable little Betsy!
In any case, if any of you are intending to rent a car in scotland, do rent them from Arnold Clark. They are the most reliable and affordable car rental company there. Plus most of their cars are new! We got this 5 seater, 2 door-hatchback for really cheap. And we also managed to get a liabilty waiver too. Which meant tt we could wreck the car or get it stolen and we wouldn't need to pay an extra cent too. (Luckily we got that waiver, cuz we actually burst one of the tyres in the forgotten lands of Skye)
Our sustainence for the roadtrip---Wine gums, chocalate and Walker chips!
My navigator throughout the 7 hr journey.
Quaint little brick cottages and their nicely groomed gardens..
Just imagine driving along scenic roads like these....=)
Just as we crossed the suspension bridge to Isle of Skye, the sun started to set....just in time!
We barely lasted a few minutes out in the cold and wind. We quickly took some shots and immediately rushed back into our car.
This scenery was just a taste of what's to come=)=) And this was taken with the sun almost gone.
The first town in Isle of Skye was Portsmouth. From there it was another 1.5 hours to our B&B.
We drove to a nice scottish pub for dinner, that had a really kind and friendly bar-owner=) Where we saw drinking scots singing and watching soccer=) The food was pretty good too.
As night time came, the whole place became totally pitch black! This whole place was really rural, there weren't any street lamps. The only light was from our headlights.
In fact, we made a wrong turn (one turn too early from our house) and actually drove poor betsy off a cliff and almost had her marooned on a cliff cuz the wheels weren't touching the floor.
Luckily it was a small "cliff" and and we decided to release the brakes and just "fall" off the cliff. =)
We did draw some weird/concerned stares from the owners of the house whose land we were on.=P
But we made it safe and sound to our B&B.
More photos to come soon.
