We are so very lucky. The weather is perfect for Skye. The sky is blue. No breeze. And fortunately for us , not as crowded as we thought.

We set off for the Fairy Pools. We’d heard the roads were super busy but we had no trouble. We parked and then the trouble began. It’s a 1.5 km walk in and 1.5 out. A lot of it downhill to start then flat then uphill.

I started but just couldn’t do it. So sat patiently in the sun while Steve headed off.

He made it in good time so off we went through the most beautiful countryside.

Coffee called and we found a lovely little cafe. There are not too many villages. They are small little places but lots of farm houses around. More populated than Shetland or The outer Hebrides will be.

Next stop ……. Another castle. Dunvegan. It belongs to the MacLeod clan. By other castle standards it’s little – but it’s a little beauty. I could stay there – in summer.

And the gardens are beautiful. There’s a walled garden, a water garden , a rhododendron garden and a wild wood.

Portree is the capital and is a buzzy hub compared to the rest of the island. It boasts a cute harbour with coloured buildings.

There are lots of ice cream shops, little shops with the usual tourist offerings. But it’s the boats and water we are drawn to.

We drive north and stopped at The Storr. Storr’ means ‘big’ or ‘giant’. In Celtic mythology, Skye was once the island of warring giants. After a particularly vicious fight, an enormous giant was slain on the Trotternish ridge. I love all the myths and legends from these islands.

We head up the Quiraing. This is a land slip on the northern part of Skye. You drive up a winding road to the summit and stop to look back at the spectacular view.

Today being a beautiful blue day I spotted some locals removing the hay bales and the wooden wreath from where Alan married Sophie. I’d seen a banner as we drove up. And there at the top saw Alan himself. Newly married moving the hay to the wedding reception or Ceilidh ( kay-lee)

The best man stopped and chatted and had the best legs in a kilt I’ve seen.

We could have continued over the Quiraing but headed back from where we’d come to continue up the coast.

The drive was beautiful. We were listening to radio Skye and they gave instructions on how to drive. The roads here are narrow so there are little passing bays every 300 metres.

The manners of driving. If you are slow like most of the vans then pull over and wave those behind you on. Some people didn’t get the message. But here it’s best to go with the flow. Which we did. It wasn’t very busy and we passed little townships , lots of sheep , beautiful coastlines , a beach with some hardy souls swimming and despite the blue skies the water would be cold!

We arrived at the Museum of Skye. A series of Croft houses showing how people lived. A little similar to those on Shetland. We’re becoming quite knowledgeable about Crofting here on the islands.

From here we continued around the top of Skye to the Fairy Glen.

We arrived at our Hotel Uig. A great place with a beautiful view and we had a lovely garden room with table outside our door where we could have a drink looking at the sunset ( and dry some washing. ) It doesn’t get dark here until around 8.30!

Dinner was in the dining room and I had the most delicious caprese salad which is my favourite Italian salad which was good as straight after we got got talking to people I’d met in the car park earlier.

Turns out they are from Messina in Sicily. We shared a drink and lots of conversation. Such a lovely couple. They love to travel and we suggested they come to Brisbane and they invited us to their beach house in northern Sicily.

This is why travel is so great. It opens the world to people and places.