After leaving Loch Ness we went in search of some food (it was now about 4pm so a well overdue lunch!). We found a little town with a take away shop and sat down with our fish and chips to watch the shinty match that was going on between a couple of local teams. It seemed to be quite a big event as there were hoards of people watching. Once we'd polished off our food we continued on to the Isle of Skye, by now it was raining heavily so we found a nice cosy hostel in the first town on Skye - Kyleakin. Once we'd settled and watched a bit of tellie (getting up to speed on the Glasgow Airport drama, and hoping that it wasn't going to affect our flight in a couple of days) we headed off to the supermarket (back across the bridge in Kyle of Lochlash) to get some supplies for dinner. We cooked up a storm in the kitchen since we basically had the hostel to ourselves and then headed out for a late night walk (since the rain had stopped) to catch the sunset and search for otters (no luck).

Sunday we explored the island pretty thoroughly, driving to the West coast at Elgol and then headed North. The only real mountain range in Great Britain is in this area, making for some spectacular scenes. The weather was pretty fine too, so the place wasn't shrouded in it's usual misty blanket. The island's inhabitants must be outnumbered by sheep, as we saw heaps of them. Some of the rams had some big horns, and with no fences they were dotted along the side of the road. Luckily the rental car made it through unscathed.

We spent the night near Floggardy, at an in-the-middle-of-nowhere hostel with a great view out over the coast. The next day saw the return of the rain and mist, making sightseeing a bit cold and damp. We managed to find a nice waterfall near kilt rock off some coastal cliffs, and another waterfall at the head of a gorge on the coast. Maybe that's where all the mist comes from...

Another interesting sight was a spot where they were digging peat out of the ground. We'd never seen real peat, so we had to stop for a photo. Just a hole in the ground really though. There was of course the obligitory castle or two on the island, maybe ruined, maybe not. We didn't get out of the car to look.

After tonight in Fort William, we'll fly to Stanstead and then to Tallinn in Estonia the next morning for the much anticipated beer festival.