Arrived in Inverness Sunday morning and had to hang around the airport for an hour for the Sunday bus which only runs every other hour. Taxi fare was £20 and too expensive for my budget. Eventually got to the main bus station and decided to buy a bus ticket to Ullapool for the ferry crossing. Why didn’t anyone tell me that buses for specific ferry crossings get fully booked? I was told to come back at 3.30pm for the bus and to see if there are no shows so I can get a seat on the bus. If there wasn’t a seat then I would have to make my own way to Ullapool for my ferry. The taxi fare was £110 for the 40 minute journey. So the next few hours in Inverness was a little stressful trying to figure out if it was worth doing a staycation after all. I knew I should have just taken a week in Santorini.
I wondered about Inverness like a homeless person for a few hours killing time until the dreaded bus waiting list. Inverness is small and all the tours were all booked already but at least I booked one for the way back next week. Don’t want to miss out on that too. Checked out the so called castle, it had nice views but that’s it. I avoided the city walk tour even though it was a very cheap £6 I couldn’t bear the bloke doing it. The guide’s jokes are not funny…why do these tourists engage in shit like this and think it’s funny? It’s condescending.
Finally the time came to wait and see if I got a seat on this bus and I was not the only one. There were 5 others in the queue and 2 of them were before me. But luck was on our side as there were only 6 seats available and they were ours and for £13 it was the longest, shittiest and hottest bus ride of my life. I was so happy to get off it as I ran to the ferry terminal hoping to god that wasn’t fully booked too, and it wasn’t. I bought my ticket for £6 and boarded the ferry. I treated myself to a fish and chips meal on board and wished I didn’t bother. It looked and tasted fake. I thought I might wait for the sunset while we sailed but promptly fell asleep and woke up as we arrived in Stornoway in the dark. I found my bed and breakfast as it was only 5 minutes away from the ferry terminal which was pretty handy and met the lovely guy running it. He made me a much needed cup of tea and even gave me some biscuits. I headed to my room and fell asleep after a very long day.
I woke up next morning hoping to explore the e island and headed for the bus station after the biggest breakfast ever, cereal, toast and a full traditional breakfast minus the black pudding of course. Because of the bus timings I didn’t get to see the entire island. I made my way to the Butt of Lewis and lighthouse and Port Ness which I didn’t have time to explore. It was a lovely walk to the lighthouse passing by old rural homes and some modern ones with beautiful views of the sea and rolling hills. I even helped out a farmer with his sheep. He asked me to stand in the middle of the road and wave my hands up and down to scare the sheep away from my direction. You may think that this was a joke, I thought so too but he was genuine and I was glad to have helped. I even found a secluded beach by the lighthouse. I had a small lunch there and went for e mini dip in the seas. The water was bloody cold but the sun was shining so I stayed a little while longer. I decided to head back to Port Ness when I saw in the horizon my bus so I had to run all the way to the bus stop to catch it or the next bus would be house away which meant getting into Stornoway later than expected. I missed out on Port Ness but it looked like any other fishing village so I didn’t miss much.
I got back to Stornoway and had to wait around an hour for the next bus to Callanish Stones as that was the next best thing to do on the island. I wasn’t going to make the Blackhouse Village in Garenin and I made the better choice with the stones. They were great and with the sun setting made for awesome photos.
The next morning I headed to Tarbert which was the half way point to Leverburgh which was my base for the next 2 nights. Before that I took a bus to Scalpay which is a tiny island joined by a so-called impressive bridge. I call it necessary. Scalpay is a tiny island with 350 inhabitants, all of whom are related to one another. That means everyone on that island is related to each other. The island was very quiet and everyone I passed were friendly enough to wave and say hi. I noticed that island life meant knowing everyone. Also they spoke Gaelic and English was their second language. Stornoway seems like a big town because it has a Co-op and Tesco whereas Tarbert and Scalpay had neither of those just a local shop. When I got to Leverburgh they didn’t even have shops just a very expensive restaurant called the Anchorage near the ferry terminal. The butty bus is a better bet though for local fast food and fish and chips but unfortunately I didn’t eat there because of the horrid journey to St Kilda which ruined my appetite for me the last 2 days.
The crossing was bad and I tried so hard to focus so that I wouldn’t throw up like the others and thankfully I fell asleep. We got to the island and were left to our own devices for 4 hours so I headed for the highest spot to check out the view and the famous island birds. The walk did me good and I managed to shake off the sick feeling. It was a hard slog to get to the top but finally did it. I went further to the back of the hill to see all the birds. I managed to find a perch to view the Gannets which flew past and near my head every now and then. Walking to them was a bit weird what with the ground being so spongy and springy and not to mention wet. One of the birds chased me and I tried to run away only to sink into a bog but I had great shoes and my feet stayed dry. It also tried to poop on me but luckily for the wind it missed me. I then headed for the other side of the island and was nearly blown away when I got there. It was so damn windy that if you jumped the wind would blow you back a few feet. Then I went down to the beach of dead jellyfish. They looked weird and they were purple which was cool. Then it was time to go back to Leverburgh on the much dreaded boat ride. Before that we stopped at the stacks to view the birds close up. There must have been thousands of birds, an impressive sight but I was hanging on for dear life as the sea was so rough. The next 3 hours were the worst of my life as I couldn’t get to sleep so had to endure every second of nausea. Even after getting back to the bed and breakfast all I wanted was a hot shower and bed. I couldn’t even think of food.
After another big breakfast I got the bus back to Tarbert for the ferry to Uig on the Isle of Skye. Stuck in Uig for an hour until the bus arrives but found a nice café for a light lunch. Got to Portree and headed for the harbour to figure out what I was going to do and bumped into an old work mate from years ago standing outside a fish and chips shop with her hubby. What a blast from the past, we swapped numbers and I went off to look for my bed and breakfast. I really wanted to do one of the Eagle boat tours but after St Kilda’s I really can’t bear to be on a board. Even the bus ride was a little too queasy for me. I hope I get over it as I like boat trips.
I joined a tour of Skye which will fill up the day nicely in the comfort of a nice minibus and they collect from my bed and breakfast too which is a bonus. Shame about the bad weather as it rained all day. We covered all of Skye with a stop at a whisky distillery and oyster shed. Tried both and wished I hadn’t. The guide was great and very engaging, so apart from the weather it was a good day. The thing I like about Skye the most is the food, seafood in particular. The local fish and chips shop is always full of tourists and the food isn’t the best I have tasted. It was very oily and expensive. My favourite is the langoustines which I found in a local deli and I ate fresh langoustines 2 nights in a row. It was affordable and wished I could buy kilos of it and take it back to London but without a fridge I don’t think it will keep for the next 2 days.
