Back from another brilliant trip to Scotland!
The decision was to break the journey to Skye this time. 9 hours is a long drive with little opportunity to stop unless to eat.
So we decided to stay in Glasgow. Having only ever driven through one part I knew little about it! So I turned to Twitter and asked @colinjustin for suggestions for lunch. I then asked @IainWEwing if he was singing any where.
I just booked a Premier Inn for the first night, well you're guaranteed a good night's sleep after all! Their vegetarian breakfasts aren't too bad either and paying in advance was inexpensive.
We headed straight into Glasgow to find The Bay Tree for lunch managing to park very cheaply with only a very short walk. Now this area of Glasgow was lovely with choice of shops reminding us of London and some fabulous residential buildings.
We chose the vegetarian breakfast having eaten little before setting off and it was very tasty. The place was very popular and busy for a Sunday.
Then over to the hotel at Bearsden another lovely area after popping to find the restaurant we were to go to in the evening.
We had time to rest before preparing to go out. Originally I was to meet Iain for a drink but then a gig was arranged so we went to Balbirs to listen and have our evening meal. We had phoned to book a table and request a dish without garlic or onion. As we got there Iain was setting up with the band and I went to introduce myself.
We ordered drinks and then our meal stating we had phoned ahead for a specific dish. As the scuttling started we realised the request had not been passed to the kitchen. They finally said that they could accommodate. After waiting a while, not having ordered starters and realising there were no complimentary poppadoms we ordered some with dips.
The food was well worth the wait. During this time we had the privilege of listening to the jazz band and Iain's dulcet tones.
We were out late considering I still had a long drive the next day! But of course we had a good night's sleep and a good breakfast to set us on our way.
Driving in the highlands is never a chore and we treated it as part of the holiday. A lovely sunny day and beautiful scenery, what more could anyone ask for?
So the places we usually had to go flying past we were able to stop at. Although our first stop was to use a loo but even there we found this!
A floating pier with an amazing view!
Then on further and the chance to stop at Eilean Donan Castle!
So onward and close to the Kyle of Lochalsh but before crossing the bridge we headed to Lochcarron to an area I had gone to last year. Finding a farm B&B with cottage gave us an idea for another year with a different area of the highlands to explore but close enough to Skye.
So back to the bridge and finally on to Skye.
Another beautiful drive arriving at the The Old Croft House and eating things we had taken with us.
Then a huge breakfast to start us on our adventures.
We wanted to go back over to Oransay Island but were unsure of the tides, that wasn't going to stop us! But first stop was back to the Fairy Pools for another dip!
We decided to go to the closest pools so not as deep and quite slippery so this time we paddled rather than dipped. We could have walked further to the deeper pools, no ice this time but we wanted to move on.
Luckily the tide was out although rapidly closing in. Last time the walk way was quite sandy with stones, this time there were more stones and large ones making it harder to walk over. We didn't stay long on Oransay with the tide getting closer but
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