Haggis, Neeps and Tatties: The first half of the Skye path

Wow, what a trace! There are endless views that appear in each corner and the following always feels better than the previous one. Then you turn around and there are beautiful landscapes that you would only notice when stopping and turning. It makes you want to stop every step and turn around to make sure you haven’t missed anything. The most important thing that prevents you from stopping: Midges, but we will get to that.

Day 1: Broadford to Torrin

We start our walk around 1:30 in the afternoon after stopping for lunch at a coffee in Broadford. We had just left a 6 -hour bus trip from Glasgow and everyone needed some food/stretching. Since the SKYE path is an unofficial route, I could not find a super specific southern terminal, so we decided to take a photo north of the cooperative in Broadford, which seems to be an assumption close enough.

Finally we start with the road walk before turning on a path. The shortest mountains during this section were beautiful. We were also blessed with a beautiful climate: a bright sun, without clouds and a temperature of 65 ° F. We stopped in an old settlement that had been abandoned and that was when we first met. If you don’t know what mosquitoes are, they are really small fly that usually comes in swarms. They will bite you and leave small hunches with itching, but you are strategic with hiking/stop, you can dodge them in some way. At this point, they were not horrible, so we could eat and explore the area. There were some sheep and rams that were very nice to see while we relax too.

Some miles on the path we stopped on a remote beach and Spencer and I gave us a dip. Although cold water was frozen and contempt, it felt good to get some sweat from my body. There were no mosquitoes, so we enjoyed our relaxed time and sunbathing.

It took us a few more miles to reach the camp, but we stopped just before Torrin due to the ankle pain Spencer was feeling (with greater precision, Olivia and I forced Spencer to call him per day). We established the camp in this beautiful site right next to the road with two car campers on both sides of us, but it was pleasant and flat towards the ocean and gave an impressive view to prepare dinner.

Finally, I will update this at the end of each day, we play a screening game. I will put a race score at the bottom of each day. Spencer won the first night, so here is the current score.

Spencer 1 – Izzy 0 – Olivia 0

Day 2: Torrin to Camasunary

Starting long before the previous day, we had to recover a few miles to reach our goal. The first miles were on the road, but it was fine because it went around this beautiful entrance to which we had to take breaks. Then we begin to rise constantly on the path (on a real path, not a path!) And although we loved the blessing of the sunny climate, the dry climate along with the burning sun, even only 60 ° F, made the earth brilliant with the effect of a mirage.

After finishing that part of the path and connecting between some roads and other paths, we find a rather remote beach. It was a great idea to stop and have lunch there, since there were no mosquitoes and we cool a little with the water. We tried to omit stones through the area where a considerable stream was emptied in the ocean and it was quite fun to see the rocks bounce in the other bank when we did.

There were only a few miles until we reached Elgol, which had a small coffee in which we had an early dinner. Olivia and I have a small cake, and Spencer had a sandwich, but in reality we were mostly happy that we only had food. Olivia and Spencer also got an ice cream and were very happy with him. If you ever go somewhere as Scotland, which has many farmers raising cattle, you should see if your ice cream is good, because most likely it is.

Because we knew about a withy, which is like a good four -sided shelter, a few more miles, we thought we would try to take them and get there before dusk. We did it, but the road was not easy. The path maneuvered a cliff face at points, and although it was surprisingly beautiful when the Mountains of Cuillin appeared, it was equally scary to walk.

After some motivational breaks, we found a mile of the Bothy. It was then that Olivia had to stop and go to the bathroom. Now, this is not a crazy occurrence, but just when we started waiting for it, a giant mosquito swarm began to descend all of us. We tried to use SMIDGE to keep them away, but it was useless. I swear that the deep forest is the only insect spray that I have used that it has worked, but we had none to use now. What was felt as Sprinting became us completing that last mile very quickly, and seeing the thries emerge in the distance gave us a ton of confidence to move on.

When we opened the door, we thought that unfortunately there would be no room for us. It turns out that we were wrong and there was a lot of space for us to establish our things to sleep, even while we shared them with a couple and 8 Germans! Anyway, we were ecstatic and almost had a little more to eat and we immediately went to bed.

Chribbage Report: Spencer 2 – Izzy 0 – Olivia 0

Day 3: Camasunary A Sligachan

The fact that Bothy Sleep was very necessary for the three, but especially Spencer and Olivia, who fell asleep at almost 9. We were slow to leave, because I think we all really enjoy the comfort of the two. The only other opportunity that we will have in Bochy is at the end of the entire path, and four nights a row in a tent does not sound so comfortable.

We spent the whole first half of the day walking in the Valley of the Colinas de Cuillin. It was one of the most picturesque areas that had walked. There are the black cuillín and the red cuillino of what I have been able to gather and the Black Hills really look in jet black, while the red hills are more gray with a reddish tone of the internal rock and the ground that cover its bases.

It took us a long time, but the hotel in Sligachan dragged slowly more and closer to us until we did it for late lunch. That’s where I had haggis, neps and tatties: haggis, puree of turnips and mashed potatoes. It is not that it was the best version of this dish I could have (I was too pepper too), but the last time I had Haggis was like a buñuelo and I still liked it now I was not wrapped and fried. It is certainly an acquired flavor (if you don’t know what Haggis is, you must look for it, because I don’t even know), but I like spoil meat, so I enjoyed it.

After spending time carrying our phones and playing chribbage, we finally get up and think about cutting a few miles of our next day. It was supposed to be 11 miles to Retrae, so we ended up going at 4, where we found a good camp outside the road. It was a little wind that made it decently difficult to configure, but there were no mosquitoes, so we were happy to end there for the day.

Chribbage report: Spencer 3 – Izzy 0 – Olivia 0 (this is getting out of control)

Day 4: Sligachan To Portree

What we did not count was that the wind was impressing the mosquitoes the night before because when we woke up, the rain cover of each of our stores was covered from them. Possibly they are the worst, twisting the mass to wake up, but that was only our reality. After packing our bags in the protection of our store, we had to run to move our things and the breakdown camp. Our hands and faces were swarmed and that made it incredibly difficult to break down the tents, but essentially impossible to establish breakfast. Then, against our best judgment, we jumped breakfast.

The walking walk was completely on the road, so there was nothing particularly fun to look for more than some abandoned cabins and farms with different cattle. That does not mean that it was not beautiful, it was, but somehow you get used to the beauty of this island, for a statement that is.

Olivia was breastfeeding a hot point in any of the heels that we could finally handle after dealing with a swarm that attacked us while trying to wrap an ankle. Spencer also had a slight access point on his little finger, but that could also be mitigated with some bandages. After dealing with that and hiking, we all did it safely to the cooperative in Portree around 11:30.

After seeing Spencer walking along a sheep path in recent days, we decided to give the name of Sendero Shepard. Olivia also had the obvious name of a path with all his pain in the heel: Achilles. I have no idea of ​​the rules of the names of the paths, and I honestly don’t care. I know that they are clearly Americans and maybe they are only allowed to give people who make paths of months (check the last sentence to see if I care), but I am happy to have anointed both of them with one. We will see if I get one at the end of the path, but I like spontaneous nature, so it is great that they have them (I can or do not refer to them in future blogs by these names … Stay to see if I do).

The restart was short since we had bought a decent amount of meals in the restaurants on the path, but we still had to take a little for what was left. Once we packed all the new grocery, we accelerate any coffee that could sit because we were hungry. There was this coffee called Summer Down The Street from a Fish N Chips store and it was phenomenal. They made sandwiches from the Focaccia house and they all looked very delicious and unique. He had an mackerel ruibarb only with a salad, which Olivia also had, and we agreed that it was super delicious. That is all to say that if you stop in Portree, I strongly recommend them. They also had a lot of points of sale, so as hikers, we were very happy.

We spent a solid three hours using coffee like our command center while we all did small tasks: I got some money from the bank and Spencer went and bought more food and a role gauze for our injuries, while Olivia could pack a quick and very necessary nap. We were sad to go (through hiking, you really love having walls and as isolation and things), but we knew that if we kept cutting miles of our day on the trotternish crest, more likely to succeed in completing the walk.

Although we took it easy and we had some difficult conversations between them to make sure we were ready to finish this, we finally arrived at the camp. We found a place on the last crest before descending to the Storr and we were very satisfied with the cut distance of our total. We only have about 30 miles now and 7k feet of profit, and although that is nothing, it is totally feasible. Another caravan that goes south even told us that on the crest, due to the light wind, there would hardly be mosquitoes if we needed to camp. That statement alone is enough to give him the confidence of an entire army to finish the way.

Chribbage report: Spencer 3 – Izzy 1 – Olivia 0 (finally someone who Spencer wins!)