Last evening & morning.

Well we're home.  Feeling quite sad.  We left in blazing sunshine, after the most amazing sunset last last.  mind you even after it set it was still light, it never seemed to get dark.  Apparently that's what happens this time of year, it's quite strange.  The journey back through Scotland was beautiful.  Glencoe & Loch Lomond were absolutely stunning.  Mind you once we got past Glasgow then the sun disappeared!!!

The last few photos are of the sunset last night & the last view & the cottage this morning.If anyone wants details of the cottage, just let me know, as it was brilliant - it even had a Jacuzzi!!

Enjoy & thank you for reading this.

Day 7

What a glorious day weather wise, it's been beautiful - just the right sort of day to go on a wildlife safari!!  Can't remember all the places they took us, but we got to see, otters, golden eagles, a sea eagle, stonechat, oyster catchers, heron, & other little birds I didn't quite catch, & the views were amazing.  I think the final count of golden eagle was 5, I'd have been happy with 1 so that was great.  Here's a few photos of the day, what a way to end the holiday.

Day 6

Quietish day today, went down to Kyleakin to see the Brightwater Centre, which talks about Gavin Maxwell and his books.  While there booked to go over to the Island to see his house.

Look!! The bridge does exist!!  Underneath it is where we booked to go to this afternoon.

So went back to the cottage for a chill & lunch & then went to Eilean Bàn, the Island where Maxwell lived for a while before he died.  He lived in the lighthouse cottages which he knocked into one house.  Lovely place, although you only get to see one rather large room, full of his things.  You can rent the rest of the cottage & have the Island to yourself ........ tempting!!

They then took us to the lighthouse & they went up to the top - I don't do ladders so i had to stay at the bottom!!!

After that we went into the otter hide - but no otters today!!  It was a lovely trip & well worth missing the England game for!!

Well tomorrows the last day, it should be a good one as we're going on a full day safari, but it means the end of the holiday, quite sad really.

Day 5.

Guess where we went today???

Weather forecast had said it was going to be nasty today, so decided on inside things.  So went to Talisker distillery.  Really interesting trip & nice taster session at the end.  Had to buy a bottle - it would have been rude not to!!!

From there went to Aros near Portree, its a complex that has an exhibition, shop, cinema & cafe.  Really nice actually, plenty of veggie, gluten free food!!  

By then it was mid afternoon, so after a trip to the Coop for provisions, went back to chill & watch the footy.

Surprisingly dry day, so wondering if the forecast timing is a bit out.  Not bothered though, we're here for R & R, so that's fine.   Now where's that book .............

Day 4

Phew what a hot day!  Beautiful & sunny & toastie hot, sunburn all round!!

Started off at Kylerhea, which is a nature reserve, with a couple of hides.  It is a mile walk between hides - but I managed it! watched the seals splashing in the water, but was mainly taking photos if flowers etc.

After that we went to Kyle of Lockash to see if the bridge really exists - it does!!!  So had a spot of lunch there & headed for Kinloch Leitir Fura.  It said it was a 2 mile walk to see the ancient ruins of
Leitir Fura.  Ok, I can do this I thought. Hmmm well it was more than 2 miles there & 2 miles back, plus it was very up & down, in fact very very up & down!!  I'm quite proud of myself for doing it, despite the pain & there's plenty of that, even with the help of my stick.  Anyway from the top the views were quite spectacular, Saw lots of wildlife, so it was worth it - I think, I'll know better when the pain has subsided!!!

Now sat with a glass of wine, watching Springwatch, looking at the amazing view from our window!

Day 3

Well what a day.  2 boat trips, & incredible wildlife.  Only to be ruined by a problem with my camera!  Have rescued some photos so it wasn't totally ruined, but it did really upset me for a while, but here goes.

Started with a trip to Portree to go out on the boat, mainly hoping to see sea-eagles.  While waiting for the boat, we saw a mink!  Our first ever in the wild!!

Good start!  We hadn't been out long, when we saw our first eagle flying, thought that was great, but a couple of minutes later another one was spotted & it came quite close to get a fish - what a beautiful bird!

So lucky to get that close, although photo is poor sorry.

We were then lucky enough to see 2 more, one was sat minding it's own business & another one came into it's territory - not a good move, it left quite soon!!!

We then saw some common seals.  went back to shore more than happy.

We enjoyed it that much, we went straight to Tourist Information to look for another.  There was one going from Uig.  So after a quick bite, we took off for Uig to get the next boat.The first trip was 2 hours, this was 3 ......

Once again we hadn't been gone long before we came across a sea eagle

Cute eh?  It was lovely out there, not a ripple on the water, the skipper couldn't believe how calm it was. We were looking for pilot whales, dolphins etc, but weren't holding out much hope, when suddenly a pod of bottle-nosed dolphins came alongside.  What an experience it was just amazing, they must have stayed with us for 30 minutes

Sorry for poor photo.  We finished off with the Puffins - can't complain at that!!!

Pizza on way home - perfect end to perfect day - will skip the bit when I found most of my photos were rubbish!!!

Day 2, woke up to lovely sunshine.

After breakfast went into Broadford, & watched the birds & plants for a while.

Then headed up to Portree, & booked to go on a sightseeing boat trip tomorrow.  Lovely place, so stayed there for lunch - actually got gluten free veggie macaroni cheese & Ed got veggie haggis - sorted!!! Both were yummy!!

From there we drove to Torrin & then to Elgol.  Single track road all the way there & back as Elgol is a dead end!!  Beautiful views though.  Best photo from here was a song thrush (I think!!)

Then back to the cottage for R & R & footy!

Day one proper.

Went for a walk round the lake before breakfast.  Hadn't slept very well as the oyster catchers had been chirping all night.  However the walk showed baby oyster catchers, which explained the noise.

Brekkie was pancakes at McDonald's before heading up to Skye.  Pleasant trip up apart from seeing a motorbike accident which looked pretty serious.  passed the coroners car a short time after, hope it wasn't going there!  

The sat nav played a blinder, was trying to get to the bridge to cross over to Skye, but the sat nav took us to the port, we then realised it was a 2 hour round trip to get to the bridge, so ended up getting the boat! Lovely trip across, never seen so many jellyfish, which were very pretty. 

Got to the cottage, which was lovely with amazing views.  

Travel Day

Set off about 2.00 pm on the 10th June 2016, uneventful day travelling up to the 'Day's Inn' just outside Lockerbie.

The view from the hotel room was stunning, overlooking a lake.

What more could you want from the start of a holiday.  Went into Lockerbie for food, the place we wanted was full, so found another & had a jacket potato.

Watched first match of Euros before sleep time.