The owner of the Duntulm Castle Hotel is called Kevin and he is a very, very accommodating person. Not only did he cook us all breakfast but went so far as to cut up Emily's toast into nice bite-sized pieces for her! He also very kindly provided us with an excellent itinerary for the day.
Starting off from the hotel (which, by the way, is next to the ruins of Duntulm Castle that was once home to the Jacobite-supporting MacDonald clan) we headed for the gravesite of Flora MacDonald.
 |
| Our hotel and the ruins of Duntulm Castle |
Flora was instrumental in saving Jacobite leader Bonnie Prince Charlie after his disastrous defeat at the battle of Culloden. Disguised as Flora’s housemaid he managed to rejoin a French ship that had been sent to rescue him. Flora died in 1790 (probably from hypothermia) at the age of 68. And how gorgeous is that photo of the lovely old lady trying to warm Daniel up because he said he was cold!
After Flora MacDonald it was on to more flora – but this time of the mossy kind. Fairy Glen is a weird and wonderful collection of ridged hills and mini-cliffs and bluffs and this place kept us all entertained and active for a good hour. There was something very tantalizing about climbing these small moss-covered peaks. Each little mound looked more inviting than the next and so the roller coaster running began. We must have run up and down at least 10 of these little hobbit hills! Emily was a champion and was first to scale the rockiest and most challenging of the peaks.
What made this place even more interesting was the silence. We all stopped running for a second and not a sound, the moss absorbs all noise and was like a soft squishy blanket under our feet.
 |
| Running amok at Fairy Glen |
 |
| Baaaaaa |
 |
| The soft spongy moss that covered the hills |
Continuing on with our loop, we headed to the West Coast town of Dunvegan for a bit of seal spotting. We did see two things flopping and jumping about in the water, but whether they were seals or otters is still up for debate.
From a distance the beach looked like white sand, but on closer inspection it was full of interesting little bits of coral. Have included a picture to show just how interesting J
By this time we were a bit hungry, so stopped at an interesting little cafe in the village of Portree. It reminded me of a typical Sydney cafe and I had a yummy soup. All was good as we headed back up north towards the hotel. That is until I started feeling a bit ble, which got steadily worse until it culminated in an emergency stop with a massive soup vomit on the side of the road. Hmmm - not good.
Managed to get back to the hotel, headed straight for bed and oh goody, had vomit number 2 at 11pm and probably should have had another one at 1am, but fought off the seedy feeling until I finally fell asleep. Boo Hiss - I am beginning to re-think my tough "I don't get sick" stance, because when I think about it - I've been a bit sickly over here. Plus I have a tickly little cough that just won't go away (sniff sniff).
But phew - felt ok in the morning. Good thing too as it was a big day of driving ahead.
No comments:
Post a Comment