🎶Over the Sea to Skye 🎶

We left Thurso at 10 minutes to 8 this morning, a lot of ground to cover today. We were promised breathtaking wild and unspoiled scenery. The northern coast is lined with miles of yellow sand beaches and pretty estuaries.  The hills and mountains at present time are covered in brown (dormant) Heather and bright yellow gorse. One can imagine how the hills will be bursting with colours of pink, purple and shades in between by July and August.
We come upon the town of Forss which is half way between Washington DC and Moscow Russia. Nearby  at Dunreay is an object that looks like a massive golf ball; it is the remains of a observation nuclear plant, which was  monitored for acts of war.
The road we are travelling is known as the North Coast 500, often  you see exotic sports cars, they love it’s winding way, free of Bobbys’ it is Scotland’s Route 66. Globus   are the only tours that drive this route. The road is very narrow, in fact our coach takes up the whole width. There are frequent passing places, not an actual,lane but a slightly wider area where one, either you or the oncoming traffic, can pull aside to go by each other. It seemed to work really well. We saw quite a few motorbikes, bicyclists, and a few racing cars.
The weather today was mainly misty with intermittent light showers. It was me and my seatmates turn for a front of the bus seat. You would think this would be the premier seat for taking photographs.....not so, the occasional wipers, drivers mirrors inside and out get in the way, and the weather caused reflections that ended up in your photo.  I am still craving lamb and heiland coo pictures! From what we have observed the lambs are most active late in the afternoon, we will see 4 or 5 of them scampering around together.
As we drive along our guide Matthew educates us about everything Scotland, including his diinteresting anecdotes. While telling us about a court case of a fellow who lived in “these” parts he explained how Scottish law was different from English in that there are 15 jurors, not 12; and the sentences are,  guilty, not guilty and not proven.....in which case the tried goes free.
As we drove over a cattle guard as we approached the village of Betty Hill he said the villagers had the guard installed to prevent the free roaming sheep from constantly coming into the village, but the sheep still came. It was discovered that the sheep just lay down and rolled over the guards. Matthew! We werent falling for that  one! Or was I! I’m never sure.
Some patches of Heather appeared to look like there had been a fire. The heather is burned  every 40 years, which is to put carbon in the soil, after a period new shoots grow right through the burn.
The highlands are wild and population is scattered with crofts here and there, churches near the sea are painted white to provide visibility to the fishing boats. The largest landowner in these parts is the current Duke of Westminster 27 years young, he owns 120,000 acres and has a worth of £8 billion.
The Isle of Skye is where Bonnie Prince Charlie escaped to after the defeat at Culloden. The 3 months he was there the French were sending him funds (in hopes he could still make a comeback) the funds came in the form of gold nuggets stamped with the Fleur de Lis. Some of which were lost and never found. Several weeks ago (according to Matthew and Scottish newspapers) one turned up in the hoof of a cow who was in the open range, it had become wedged in his hoof, when it was removed it was identified by the Fleur de lis.
I haven’t said much if anything about my fellow travellers. We have seat  rotation  every day,  we move forward by 2 rows, that way we all get to experience every seat. My seat mate is a lady from Toronto, we get along well. There are other Canadians from Saskatchewan, Burnaby, Ontario, .Quebec, Manitoba;  Americans from Oregon, Wisconsin, New York, Iowa, Washington State, Texas and a New Zealander and 6 Auzzies.
All this happened before lunch.!  Lunch was in Ullapool, population 950,  one of the top fish and chip places in Scotland and it was good!!  It as 6 pm when we arrived on the Isle of Skye, driving over the new road bridge. Skye is in the group of Isles known as the Inner Hebrides.  There are a total of 790 isles off the Scottish coast that belong to Scotland.
We settled into our hotel the Dunollie which is the only hotel large enough to house 43 coach guests.
Dinner at 7 then tea and coffee in the lounge where a young boy of 16 entertained the guests on his squeeze box, the accordion which is an instrument still common in these parts. Scottish songs on the squeeze box sounded wonderful. Gay Gordens, waltzes, ones mum and dad and their friends, theWatson’s, Sinclair’s, Barr’s, Blaikies used to dance to. I wish I had been interested in dancing and learning with them.
Another long but amazing day.
Cherrio!