Scotland Day 6--The Highlands

The plan for today was to get out of the campsite early (or as early as a family of 8 can reasonably manage) and head for the Isle of Skye.

Our original plan was to camp there, but when our caravan hire fell through on Day 1, we knew tent-camping was probably out of the picture.  Since our planned campsite was approximately the same latitude as southern Alaska, we reeeeeeally didn't want to try it in tents.  No way.  Not in April, anyway.

So Plan B meant taking a quick ferry ride from the fishing village of Mallaig to the Isle of Skye, cruising the island for a while, and then taking the Skye Bridge back over to the mainland for more amazing scenery.

Some last views of Loch Eil from our campsite.  Just gorgeous!

Now we just have to be on time for the ferry...

It was fun to see more and more signs in both English and Gaelic as we moved further north in Scotland.  We made it to our ferry in plenty of time, so we wandered around Mallaig for a bit. 

Mallaig is the main commercial fishing port on the West Coast of Scotland.  Adding to its fame, the Mallaig railway is used during the filming of the Harry Potter movies.  Cool!

We made sure to hit the visitor's center/gift shop, of course!

Then it was time to board the ferry. 

Being giraffes in the visitor's lounge. 

And spending some quality time with the game boy.

It was a pretty ride, though a bit chilly on deck.  The views made up for it, I must say!

Here we are!  Now it's off to see Skye.

We didn't end up taking many photos on Skye, because we were on a tight schedule, and those "taken-from-the-car" shots never seem to turn out very well for me.  Oh well.  Just take my word for it; it was really lovely, from the mountains, to the waterfalls, to the highland cattle.  Lovely.  It really made us remember how much we've missed the mountains of home.

We went across the Skye Bridge, and drove north along the west side of Loch Ness.  I was amazed at how huge it was!

We stopped for yet another picnic lunch, and you can tell that the family was thrilled with this development...

But I think the views of Loch Ness and Urquhart Castle kind of made up for the monotony of the lunch menu.

We drove up the Loch a little way, and found The Loch Ness Centre.  We decided to give their exhibit a try.  It was informative, and not too cheesy.  We were happy.

See ya' later, Nessie!

We drove up to Inverness to fill the gas tank (ouch!) and our bellies.  We made sure to get out to Culloden Battlefield before it closed, though I opted to stay in the car with a sleeping Dallin. 



Now it's back down to Edinburgh to our original campsite.  We have to sort, load, and begin our journey home.  What a time we've had, but we're not done yet!