THE BOG BLOG
First, just a bit about yesterday which was our transition day, our day to go from the “mainland” of Scotland to the Isle of Skye where we will hike for seven days on the Isle of Skye trail. About noon we were scheduled to depart Fort William and take an hour and a half train trip to the tiny port town of Mallaig. From there we had tickets for the ferry to Skye, a 30 minute trip. Turns out our train left the station and in less than one mile experienced mechanical problems. Eventually the train backed up into Fort William once again and some type of ‘solution’ was accomplished. After a delay of over an hour we were on our way once more. We reached Mallaig and made our scheduled ferry with a few minutes to spare. We were toting our luggage today as well. When the ferry landed we then had to pull our wheeled suitcases almost a mile to our accommodation. But we made it and are now on the Isle of Skye!!
Stats-We hiked 11.3 miles today, gaining 786’ of elevation and descending 785’. Our route was rated as strenuous, but we felt like most of it was moderate except for the last few miles along the cliffs above the ocean. This section was very remote with lots of bog areas and essentially no trail. Progress was chore on this last section.
As we start the weather is perfect! Short sleeve shirt weather with zero chance of rain. Of course we carry our rain gear as ‘zero chance of rain’ means nothing in Scotland. We do a couple of easy miles along a fairly busy two lane road. Then we turn off onto a one lane road that has very little traffic. The sides of the road is covered with blackberry vines. And the berries are big and ripe! I stop to pick and eat. Bill and Scot have no interest, so I slow my pace to forage and gorge on the berries. In a short time I am a half mile behind them with a belly full of delicious berries. When I grew up, my dad was a big gardener. He was into composting when very few people understood the concept. Our gardens were amazing, but my favorite were the berries, which included red raspberries, yellow raspberries, black raspberries and blackberries. So today as a berry treat for me!
In less than two hours we leave the pavement and the path immediately changes. The path becomes narrow and somewhat overgrown. It gets muddy and wet. We are in sheep country mixed with a few cows. So this is not just normal mud. It is a mix of rotted vegetation, some rich dirt, lots of sheep manure and a hint of cow manure. Not a pleasure to walk in.
Yet it is gorgeous country; amazing open country with few trees, lush and green hillsides, and very remote. In fact all day we will see no other hikers, not one single person. Just sheep, cows, and a few birds.
In time we reach a loch that is almost completely covered in water lilies. As we pass the loch (lake), the already difficult trail begins to disappear. We reach the sea, which could be seen from far away, the trail is now gone. We navigate using an app called Gaia GPS on which we previously downloaded gpx file tracks. The app works without cell or wi-fi service since it functions using satellites. At any time we can see a moving marker indicating where we are and a colored line which is the path we hope to follow. Much more helpful than a paper map.
Using this app we follow the coast north. Along the way we see endless debris of all sorts including large floats, fishing nets, rope and much more. It is located at least 20 vertical feet above the sea level and far from shore. Much, much higher than the highest possible high tide. Our only guess is that it is from a tsunami. Maybe years ago or a few decades ago. Very interesting to see the assortment of debris. We humans are certainly leaving our mark on this planet.
We finish our hike at remote coastal spot with a large beach. There a just a few houses and one guy on the beach with his two dogs. There is no accommodation here for the night but we have a pre-arranged taxi. After an hour or so wait, the taxi driver arrives and she drives us 30 minutes to the village of Broadford. We will stay here for three nights. Each morning we will take a taxi some distance to where we start that day’s hike. Tomorrow we hike back here. The next day we have a morning and afternoon taxi. Due to the lack of accommodations, we is how we will do the next six days. Three nights here in Broadford and four nights in the town of Portree. Portree is further north as our hike goes generally from south to north up the Isle of Skye.
Overall a great day and the views are sweeping in all directions. Time for dinner with a pint!
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