06
Aug 10

Glen Shiel – Mellon Udrigle

We started the Glen Shiel trail, but Iestyn didn’t feel too well, so we gave up, and went to Eilean Donan castle instead. There we decided to do our beach day today, and started by going to our favorite Isle of Skye.

Well, it’s mostly Iestyn’s favorite place, I am yet to see it in good weather to really start liking it. This time we made it to Elgol, but due to low clouds did not enjoy its views of Cuillin ridge. The place was still really magical, with bulls as big as houses and beautiful coast.

Passing by Big Sand beach that turned out to be too touristy and camp-y, we made it all the way to Mellon Udrigle, one of the prettiest Scottish beaches. It was warm and pleasant, and turned into an amazing romantic sunset. We camped there for the night, while unwisely throwing away the rest of our evening pasta too close to our tent, so we got seagulls crying right by our heads real loud.

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Wildlife sightings:
seagulls


05
Aug 10

Ardnamurchan peninsula – Glen Shiel

Iest's Birthday morning :)

Iestyn’s birthday! I totally let Iestyn sleep as long as he pleased (no ‘unintentional’ nudging, twisting and turning or anything), and after he woke up (from completely natural causes) he got all his cards and presents. He got a whole big box of hazelnut Tatranky (I think that was a winner) but also a very cool and sleek Apple remote, so we can finally watch stuff from our bed without getting up!

After that we got up, packed everything in the car, only to find out that we can’t get out of the campsite back to the road because the ground got wet and soggy overnight. So we had to take everything out of the car again to make it lighter, and it didn’t help either. That didn’t look good at all, and Iest was getting pretty un-birthday-y pissed. We gave up our combined efforts and decided to get help. Luckily, the first car to drive by was a 4×4, with a guy in a nice shirt and a tie going to work, still offering to help. So, after a little confusion with where the hell does our car have a hook for a rope (turns out it has it in the boot :)), we were rescued and back on the road.

That gave us a little bit of a delay for the day, but soon we were in Mallaig having breakfast including a proper birthday cake for Iest. After that there was no holding us back from sea kayaking for the rest of the day! (Except may be that we couldn’t find the guy with the kayaks for a while, until he actually put a red kayak by the road next to his house so we wouldn’t pass it again.)

Kayaking was fun though, the water was surprisingly warm (not that either of us would care to turn the kayak over), and after a couple of showers we even got sun for the rest of the afternoon. The coolest thing were seals playing in the water right around us, lots of them. We also got to see some big sea birds and a nice part of the coast.

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For dinner I took Iestyn to our favorite Indian restaurant in Fort William, which once again served us some awesome grub in abundance. Camped in Glen Shiel.

Thanks to Mike at http://www.seakayakhighlands.co.uk/ for renting us the Kayaks, and being super patient with us! :)

Wildlife sightings:
Seals

Little bunny rabbits in the campsite