Not such a good start to the morning

Wednesday 6^th April

 Being an experienced nurse and having worked for a number of years in the area of disabilities, one would think that when staying in a disabled hotel room that I would know that the red cord suspended from the ceiling was a call bell.  But this morning after using the bathroom and pouring a bucket of water down the toilet, I pulled the cord thinking (or not thinking) that it would activate the fan.  Not two minutes later there was a knock on the door to check if all was well.  Oops.   Then to top it off at breakfast when cooking my toast, I thought I would send it through the toaster a second time to colour it up just right!   Smoke started bellowing from the toaster and I thought that any moment we would have the boys from the fire service on the door.    But no, the service lady came to fuss and sort both me and the toaster out. 

The weather forecast this morning wasn’t very promising for the direction that we were heading, but we pressed on regardless.  First we thought that we would check out a little place not far from Inverness called Black Isle, we saw a home show on it on the television a few nights ago.  Fortrose on the Black Isle is a little treasure, its 30 minutes from Inverness and the loveliest little coastal village.  There were highland cattle and sheep grazing in the lush green pastures, it had a NW Coast of Tassie feel to it.  We stopped at the post office to send some cards and I had a lovely wee chat to the very friendly post master. 

Loch Ness next on our agenda en route to Fort Augustus.   We kept an eye out for “Nessie” but due to the inclement weather she decided to be a no show!  The drive was so picturesque, the myriad of colours was spectacular made all the better by the rain of course.

We dropped in at Urquhart Castle which over looks Loch Ness, the castle was blown up back in 1692 but what remains perches dramatically over the Loch. 

The drive was very slow due to the flooding on the roads.  There were so many trees covered in moss and lichen that looked fabulous in the mist and rain.  I do hope that the photos do them justice.  Swollen rivers beds with breaking banks and rapidly cascading waterfalls were the order of the day.  Water had been released from the Drundreggan dam due to the high amount of rainfall.  Large drifts of snow evident on the highland peaks as we make our way to the Isle of Skye.  Briefly popped into the  Eilean Donan Castle which was fairly unremarkable.   Made it to Portre, the capital of Skye and had a nice drive around, called into a wee pub for a pint of Tennents Ember Ale, a nice drop we both agreed.  Looked around the shops for a wee bit and then on to Andrasser for the night.    We booked in to a lovely B&B that Spock had prebooked from home, called “Homeleigh”.  “Homeliegh” is in a delightful costal spot with a grand view of the coast.  Would you believe it Jan is an Australian from Sydney but had been out here since she was a wee lass.  We moseyed down to the local pub for dinner.  Starting with a few pints of the local al, Black Cuillin which was very nice indeed, followed by a Red Cuillin.  I had a chaser of a local 18 year old whisky, I was getting the breed of the dog and the brand of the whiskey confused but it was made at Skye and it started with T.  Spock tells me the whisky was Talisker. 

Today has been a very wet day indeed, with very rough seas and huge swells but the views, colours and trees that we have seen today have made it very enjoyable.  The northern end of Scotland is indeed quiet remarkable. 

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