The Isle of Skye!

We had to leave Fort William and Ben Nevis and were very sad to do so, but also excited for our next stop. 

We took the steam train the Jacobite from Fort William to Mailaig. It was an amazing trip with stunning scenery. We had a lot of fun and were able to visit with some nice women from Scotland. They adopted us for the train ride, buying us coffee, biscuits and a souvenir map. We had a blast visiting with them and learning more about their lives and Scotland in general. 

The train stopped a couple times and we were able to get out and look around. 

It was so much fun!

Once we got to Mailaig we had about an hour wait until our ferry left for sky. So we grabbed some fish and chips (the best so far on our trip!) take away and enjoyed it on the pier. 

Mailaig was a beautiful little town on the water and was a fun place to just sit and relax for a little while. 

We hopped on the ferry and said goodbye to Mailaig as we headed to the Isle of Skye. 

We were excited about riding on the ferry and wanted to sit on top to enjoy all the views.... We began to regret it a bit about mid way through the trip. :) 

It was very windy and very cold! :)

Once we got to the Island we had to make our way up to Portree We hopped on a bus and enjoyed more amazing views as we worked our way up the Island. 

Portree was a beautiful town! When we got there we needed to find internet right away to see if any of the B&B's had e-mailed us back about availabilities. We were hoping to stay up in the north part of the Island but nothing looked promising. The only place that had wifi was this little bar in town connected to a hotel. Since things weren't looking good in the smaller villages up north we decided to try around Portree and see if there were any vacancies at the B&B's. The bartender (who we also think was the manager/owner) was very nice and kept are bags for us as we headed out into the village. The first place we stopped at was very cute and the lady was really nice. She didn't have any vacancies but had us wait as she called her friends to check with them. She had one friend who had a room available and she came over immediately to pick us up. It was a very funny experience and her B&B ended up being in her 2-bedroom apartment but she was very welcoming and we were completely taken care of. 

The next morning we headed out early and planned to hike the Quiraing range. It was located in northern Skye. 

We told our bus driver what we were planning and he told us he'd drop us off at the trail head. (p.s. bus drivers and taxi drivers are my new favorite people!) We were expecting the trail head to be near a town or some building, landmark, or something... nope. What you see in this picture is all there was. :) We waved goodbye to the bus driver as he left us alone in what felt like the middle of no where and made our way to the cliffs. Eventually we saw more people and found that most people were coming from a car park on the other side of the cliffs, which took about 2 miles off the trip. 

While we were hiking we saw our first highland cow!!!! He had shed most of us winter coat, but he still had the bangs! We were so excited!! 

Emily climbed to the top of the Prison rock, while I sat below taking pictures and fretting.

As we were hiking we heard a lot of baaing which didn't surprise us because sheep were literally everywhere. Than we heard barking and yelling as well. We looked down into the valley and watched as a shepherd and his amazing dogs gathered up all his sheep. It was so fun to see, we just stood there mesmerized! 

We took a break and had a snack and just enjoyed the scenery. Simply amazing. One of the most beautiful places I have ever hiked. 

We wanted to get to the top of the cliffs and we knew there was a path somewhere or someway to get to the top, but we could not find it. So we decide to climb up the side. The sheep were looking at us with the expression that seemed to read "what the heck are they doing?" :) I did not realize I was such a wimp until we started going up and I realized I might have to go down the same way... luckily we eventually found path once we were on top so we did not have to scale down the same way we came up. 

We didn't stay on top for too long because the clouds started rolling in and encompassing the cliffs. 

We got to the trail head and started walking up the road where we found a picnic table over looking the cliffs. We sat there and waited for the bus. We took the long way back on the bus and got to see the rest of Northern Skye through the window.  It was such a great day and we were pretty tired afterward. We got back to town and found a place to eat, then hung out at the pub with wifi to try and plan our next leg of the trip. When I ran back to grab the computer it wasn't until after dinner so it was already evening time. As I was unlocking the bedroom door Mairie swings open her door and exclaims rather loudly, "So you're alright! I was about to send out for the search and rescue! I was just telling my friend about it now how you had gone out there and I was getting worried!" Oops. Should have stopped by her apartment first and let her know. :) She was so sweet. (So don't worry mom, we are being watched out for over here ;) by a lot of different people!) 

The next morning we took a bus off the Isle and headed south for Ireland! ... Only we didn't exactly make it.