Isle of Skye

This was the impetus of our entire 2013 backpacking adventure; after a bump in the road in Inverness (home of Nessie, and as we discovered- lots of bunnies)..we almost didn't make it to this magical place.
We were lucky to get a last minute bus ride to the Isle. The ride in and of itself was crazy, we went through amazingly tall ancient looking mountains with fog so dense you couldn't see their peaks! When we arrived to a town a little away from Glen Brittle we discovered there were no more buses that would take us to our destination. After freaking out for a hot second an awesome Scotsman helped by introducing us to a bus driver (as in for the children of this isolated location). The driver agreed to take us closer but not to the actual destination. Alana and I of course accepted and used our time on the bus to make our hitchhiking signs, as we would still have 7 miles to go after he dropped us off.

Our bus, not crowded, a.k.a. nice. Took a few hours from Inverness to the town outside of Glen Brittle.

On the bus

The road to the isle

Amazing

Love letter from mi amor

Misty Mountains

Rushing waterfall water. Nature is alive!

Hiking the fairy pools

Hiking the trail

Hiking the fairy pool trail

THE Glen Brittle road. One lane for both ways.

One of my favorites. The picture doesn't do it justice. The juxtaposition of the blue water with the rusty orange shrubbery amongst HUGE mountains was truly incredible. Walking along the trail you don't want to stop, there are so many pools of water that continue to appear. It was SO cold and also rained on the two days I hiked, which is apparently typical Scottish weather. Our first sunny day we were told was an anomaly (guess we brought some temporary sunshine ;)). I definitely want to return to the isle during better weather and for a longer amount time. There is still so much to hike!

Gorgeous day! The thing about Scotland which Pat the Glen Brittle Hostel manager, turned Scottish bffl (the only person to ever call us a dirty skuzzie) let us in on, Scotland has 4 seasons-a day. So, just because it's gorgeously blue out one minute doesn't meant it's going to stick to the next. And we learned that. Oh did we.

Foot shot! Ridiculous/badly planned layers of clothing, which were  NOT waterproof and not heat conserving. #goodchoices ;P. My face and body had never been so BEAT red as it was after my hikes in the isle.It took my face/body hours to return to a normal color.

Red Skye-The Red Cuillin mountains, practically had the mountains to ourselves!

Played around with the saturation on my camera.

FAIRY POOL PARKING!

Our view

Hitchin' a ride to Glen Brittle

Panorama, Glen Brittle hostel views :)

BEAUTIFUL and CLEAR skies

Happy :)!! Such a perfect day of exploration!

Arrived.

Alana and I getting our hike on.

The isle of Skye has a variety of sized water falls all over, where the Earth just opens up and there's water. We kept hiking and hiking following the source of water which meant continuing to trek up the mountainside.

hammock happiness

My furry friends! They are everyyyy where :). Definitely more sheep than humans. That was another part that made the isle so beautiful-its utter isolation. Very few people in Glen Brittle, it's so peaceful.

A typical Skye waterfall

One of the many beauuutiful 'fairy pools'. I wanted to jump in very badly, but after having to walk and hop on my bad ankle (from a Dublin night out injury) and already having to walk on submerged slippery stone, I could not feel my face or extremities. The rain, wind, and the weather in general was just too cold for this fla girl. I shall return, next time with mi amor!

I will post a video of me wobbling and hiking about through the fairy pools soon! Which will better showcase this special place.