The Tease of the Black Cuillins

sunrise over Portree

July 30, 2010

Rain, rain, rain. Wind, wind, and more wind. And occasionally some mist. Oh, wait, I'm getting ahead of myself here...

Today's hike was to take us from Glen Brittle to Coire Lagan, where we would encounter a smidgen of the Black Cuillins and see some amazing rocks, mountains, and lochs. http://www.walkingenglishman.com/scotland08.htm Not that we'd been disappointed at all with the scenery we'd seen already, but this was supposed to be a bit more rugged. When we pulled up to the side of the road at the path we realized that we were going to get wet, and we hit the trail cocooned in our waterproof everything. Little did we know...

Eas Mor waterfall

A little bit past the waterfall the mist turned to drizzle which soon turned to rain which soon turned to horizontal sheets at times. The wind blew our pants against our legs, effectively providing a nice, cool compress on my very sore knees - this actually made the walk much easier for me! But I finally realized that there were bandaids floating around inside my left sock, and how on Earth did it get wet in there...? The path was clear cut and as we all had different speeds we decided to meet at the junction where we would decide whether it was worth it or not to continue up the very steep part to Coire Lagan.

a soggy lot

a soggier lot at the junction

It was raining pretty steadily at the junction and, although none of us were allergic to rain, it was going to make the route a little more iffy as far as being slippery - and we would have very limited views at the top. A unanimous vote for a visit to the Talisker Distillery aimed us down the other path back to the car where, in between downpours, we could see some beautiful scenery.

pretty little lachan on the way down

Unfortunately there was an hour and a half wait at the Talisker Distillery, but we found a lovely little pub for tea and coffee in Waternish. Just down the street was store that sold local crafts, beautiful knitwear and jewelry, and we did indulge ourselves in purchasing some fruits of their talents! Then Angela took us to SkyeSkins, a premier tannery where we were shown the tanning process for sheepskins http://www.skyeskyns.co.uk/

Back to the guesthouses to prepare for dinner. I was amused at the wishful thinking of the laundry hung out to dry with the dark rain coming across the harbor any minute!

Our hostess brilliantly suggested that after we empty all the rain out of our boots, we stuff them with newspapers to help absorb the water. She then took them and our wrung-out-as-much-as-possible socks to their drying room.

Off to dinner where we discussed future travel plans - staying Scotland to visit relatives previously sight-unseen, hiking in Vermont, meeting up with family in DC, to Croatia with friends, slogging it across the Atlantic and then all the way across the US to spittin' distance from the Pacific with one of us having to turn right around and go to DC. Angela was meeting another tour and we could imagine the excitement of those participants. We also got to see a photo of The Moine Thrust in a kilt playing his harmonica!

We packed and prepared for the return trip to Inverness in the morning. And ate shortbread.