Holiday in Scotland - Day 19 Harris, Skye, Kyle

We packed and cleaned and left for Tarbert in sunshine. This was perfect weather and did compensate for the dull day yesterday. After buying some lunch we drive to Hushinish which road has to be my favourite in the UK. One passes through pa castle grounds and beyond its gate are workers' cottages so I took photos to illustrate the omitted verse of 'All things bright and beautftiul'.
The rich man in his castle,
The poor man at his gate,
God made them high and lowly,
And ordered their estate.
At the end of the road were shepherds and dogs with sheep penned up. There is also at the road end what I call the loo with a view, the best situated public WC ever. Hebridean loos are well placed and clean. Later in the day I had a smile in Broadford, Skye where the Co-ops in-store loo door bore a notice saying,'Toilet out of order. Sorry for any inconvenience.' After Hushinish we still had time to drive to Scalpay, the island where we stayed 7 years ago in B&B. The ferry to Uig on Skye was a scenic voyage. It could only have been bettered if we had seen any marine life but the dolphins, whales and sharks were busy elsewhere. Driving over Skye to Kyle we one again enoyed perfect vistas of mountains, lochs and sea.

Holiday in Scotland - Day 10 - Elgol

Fine weather for most of today but rather dull so we never saw the tops of the Cuillins. The road to Elgol is very busy for a single track with passing places. Our Misty Isle boat trip set of 11am returning by 2.30. It was a little choppy at times but our crewman kept us well amused and informed, even with the tale of the Soay mice which were transported to Edinburgh zoo while invading rats were exterminated from the island. Or as he put it, mice on vacation at tax payers expense. You will see from the pics on Facebook that there his a large colony of seals to see as well as cormorants. It is a 15 minute walk to the freshwater Loch Coruisk. However the way is more boggy Scotland rather than Bonnie Scotland. Rushing back my walking stick went in to an unexpected depth and I fell into a peaty puddle. The outflow from the loch had the stepping stones fairly well awash so we stayed on the near shore and did not get to see the misty topped Cuillins. Misty Isle does great hot chocolate on the return trip and I was helped to clean up too. An ancestor of Seamus our captain helped one Charles Edward Stuart escape from the island to Italy after his 1745 invasion. Skye was Jacobite country. 'Sail bonny boat..... over the sea to Skye.' We are now booked for a trip to Canna on Wednesday. Lots of birds to see including puffins. We did spot one skua today.