Driving today was SO much better than day one. It's still weird to try and center the car in the lane whilst sitting in what feels like the passenger side, but yesterday (first day) was nerve-wracking. Today was more familiar and less stressful.
We put about 150 miles on the car, driving from Inverness due west to Isle of Skye. We had nice weather for the most part, just an occasional fog patch and mist to deal with mid-journey, which was about 5 hours in all. Saw another castle along the way - this one newer than the ones we've toured already. And once on Skye, we stopped in the town of Portree, the largest town at 3000 people. Had a cappuccino break and walked around the town's pier which sits on a very picturesque harbor.
Then 15 more miles onto our town of Uig (pronounced OO-eeg), where we are staying for 3 nights. It's also on a beautiful harbor that serves as the setting off point for the majority of ferries bringing people to and from the Outer Hebrides islands. Steep hills rise directly behind our hotel, and we walked up about 1.5 miles this afternoon to an area known as Fairy Glen. An interesting hilltop full of strange geologic formations, with gorgeous long views in every direction: to waterfalls, across the valley to sheep farms, to the ocean.
Along the way today we stopped at a Loch and dam, and found a perfect little black and white bird popping in and out of the water (completely submerging itself) along the shoreline looking for a snack. A Dipper, new bird #32 . I've only ever seen one other Dipper (in Colorado 20+ years ago..a relative of the European one), so this was a great sighting.
Not to be outdone, Uig delivered up a pair of Golden Eagles for us on our after-dinner walk (new bird #33). So birding is still good. The weather, however, may not continue the nice string we've enjoyed. Rain is forecast for the next couple days, so we're not sure if we'll get to take the sea eagle boat tour out of Portree.
Still, it's all good!
Pictures probably tomorrow -- having trouble loading them...(sorry)
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