September 22 - Lake Coruisk, Jennifer Drives, Toffee, Ginger, and Whiskey

Sligachan Bridge and the Cuillins

The Fast Boat is Fun!

A chilly morning.  Got down to below freezing last night.  We were up and out of the B&B at 6:30 am, and, once we scraped the ice off the car windows using credit cards, we were on our way to catch a boat ride to take us to Lake Coruisk located in the heart of the Cuillin Range.  We have read that this area provides some of the most ruggedly scenic views in Scotland.  We headed south to the croft of Elgol, located near the southernmost point of Skye.  Along the way we stopped for a quick photo op at Sligachan where an old, decommissioned mason bridge is set against the backdrop of the Cuillin.  From here one can embark on a 11-mile hike to the same area that we will reach in 20 minutes by "fast boat".

Harbor Seals

Heading for Lake Coruisk

We arrived at the Elgol jetty a little before 9:00 am, packed up the picnic brunch that Marie had kindly prepared for us, and then went to check in with the boat operator.  Lickety-split, Dave had us, three other folks, and a golden retriever named Bolly, life-jacketed, in the boat and ready to go.  At 25 knots in low 40-degree temperatures, it was, to say the least, "brisk".  In 20 minutes we pulled into Loch na Culce and after viewing the year-round population of harbor seals basking on the rocks, the five humans and one dog were quickly deposited on the "boat ramp" (rickety stairs), return times confirmed (we were to spend about 3 hours in the area), and Dave took off while we adjusted to our spectacular surroundings.

Yummy picnic brunch

Views Around Lake Coruisk

It was as though we were in a high mountain cirque, complete with the high granitic mountain walls and a lake at is base, only we were at glorious sea level which meant no high altitude concerns and hiking was a breeze.  We scrambled up the large drumlins to where we had a view of the lake and proceeded to layout our brunch picnic, packed thoughtfully by Marie, complete with cloth napkins, and metal utensils.  What a brunch!  Here was what was on the menu.  Fruit juice, french press coffee, bananas, berries, homemade granola, prosciutto, cheese, onion oatcakes (crackers), hard boiled eggs, and chocolate chip shortbread cookies.  THANK YOU MARIE!  After stuffing ourselves silly, we decided we had better burn it off so we packed up and began to scramble up the rocky outcrops to get a better view.

We spent a good couple of hours roaming about picking our way through the bogs and rocks.  A note about hiking in Scotland - some Hiking guidebooks provide a "bog factor" between 1-5.  Rick and I naively found this amusing but, as it turns out, it means something.  Scotland is very boggy.

I've learned bogs occur where the water at the ground surface is acidic and low in nutrients.  In general the low fertility and cool climate results in relatively slow plant growth (which is why there are few trees), but decay is even slower owing to the saturated soil. Hence peat accumulates.  It is important to pay attention to the hike bog factor as it can mean the difference between get muddy boots and sinking into a marsh up to your knees.

Rick at Lake Coruisk

After a couple of hours we decided it was time to head back to the boat ramp.  As we arrived for our schedule departure, Rick realized that he left his camera bag somewhere on the "trail"  (there really is no trail to speak of).  Though it contained only a few memory cards and some hardware of little value, it was going to be difficult and moderately expensive to reacquire all of this so, when the boat arrived, we informed the captain (a different captain, this is key to the story) that we would be taking a later return trip so that we could go in search of the bag.  Only when we retraced our steps to the top of a granite outcrop, which permitted us to look down into the bay and the boat ramp, did we realize that there were two boat operators and we told the wrong one that we were delaying our departure.  The consequence of this, we learned later, was our boat operator having a 20 minute discussion with his staff regarding options to manage our "missing:.  These options ranged from "wait and see" until the end of the day to calling in the Scottish Mountain Rescue Team.  Ugh!  Fortunately it is a small community and, the operator of the other boat fairly quickly realized that he had no Rick Dunn party on his list of clients for the day and soon passed that information onto our boat operator, before they did anything drastic.  Alas, all of this was for not.  We retraced our steps as best we could but were unable to locate the camera bag.  (It doesn't help that it was a sage green color.  I told Rick to buy a bright pink one next time.  So we returned to the boat launch, talked to the seals (well I did) and enjoyed the scenery while we waited for the "proper" boat to arrive.

We traveled on the fast boat back to Elgol with a couple from Fort Collins who were at the beginning of their two week jaunt in Scotland.  We discussed much about Scotland and Colorado, as Dave did fantastic doughnuts in the bay, tilting the raft almost completely on its side . . . and we weren't strapped in!

Me driving on the "proper" side of the car and road

Because we arrived back to Elgol about three hours later than we had originally planned, and we had 6:30 pm dinner reservations almost at the opposite (north end) of the island, we dashed along the one-way roads, hoping to not be stopped by sheep or cows (cops were of no concern up here) as was the case when we drove down to Elgol that morning.  Midway to the Loch Bay Restaurant, Rick decided that I just might be ready to drive.  I've been offering to drive for sometime but, given my tendency to get easily flustered, he was a a little reluctant to let me get behind the wheel.   Within five minutes of my pulling onto the road, he clutched the armrest and yelled "you're driving off the road!".  I thought he was joking, referring to the many times that I did this and, consequently, driving him nuts, but he was in all seriousness.  I wasn't off the road but it certainly looks that way.  I just replied that he now knows how I feel . . . and I now know how he feels because you really do have to hug the centerline.  It is almost easier to be on the one-way-with-pullouts roads because at least this way you don't have to worry about staying on your side at high speeds . . . you just need to worry about the blind summits and curves, of which there are many, especially in combination, accompanied by sheep wandering in the middle of the road.  We got to the restaurant without incident, which I believe surprised the both of us a little.

Loch Bay is a sweet 7-table, white-washed restaurant set amongst a row of similar buildings on the shoreline of Loch Bay in the hamlet of Stein on the Waternish peninsula. Their advertisement was simple, sublime, seafood and that it was.  Marie had recommended the restaurant as her favorite and we soon learned why.  They serve only seafood, most of which is freshly caught on Skye or Scotland and it is simply prepared, grilled with olive oil, salt and pepper and some citrus.  Our Slovakian waitress, Danka, helped us select our appetizers and main meal.  Both of us, still cold from the boat ride, ordered whiskey, me, Loch Bay's own 10-yr made in Speyside and Rick, a Balvenie doublewood 12-yr old.  The starters arrived, Rick a yummy bouilliabaisse and me Skye scallops (caught just down the single-lane road) with chorizo.  The scallops were so sweet.  Then came our fish dishes, Rick had the salmon and I had the halibut.  Oh it was so good to have something so light and delicious.  We ate every bit of that along with the chips (fries) and veggies.  Needless to say we were very hungry.

Another Highland Cow for Aleta

As it turns out we were one of only three tables that evening . . . and yet a couple came in to eat and was turned away.  Curious.  No one eating there was local.  One table had an elderly couple and their son from New York City and the other table had a couple, Roy and Claire, from England near the Wales border.  The elderly woman from NYC, perhaps a little tipsy, went over to the English couple and, while leaning on Roy, engaged them in a conversation about dancing.  When her husband began to talk to us, she took him by the arm, said sternly said that it was nice to meet us (though we didn't meet at all) and pulled him from the restaurant.  Hmmm.  Claire, Dunka, Rick, and myself all had a good chortle over that.

After we "rested" from dinner, we ordered for dessert, sticky ginger pudding (which is really just dense cake) with a whiskey cream sauce and Scottish toffee ice cream.  What these Scots can do with condensed milk and brown sugar!  We also ordered another dram of whiskey, Rick the same brand as before, me a Talisker 18-yr old distillers edition.  I'm not one for peaty whiskeys but after adding a few drops of water, I came to like this very much.  Roy later informed us that the true way to drink single-malt whiskey is to add a few drops of water (he chided Rick for not doing so) and warm it up in our hands.  He himself prefers the peaty whiskeys.

After finishing up dessert and wishing Danka well as she heads to Norway to work in the hospitality industry during the off-season in Scotland (the Loch Bay restaurant closes down for the season at the beginning of October) we made our way home (with Rick driving), full, but not stuffed, and very, very happy and tired.  It was the end of another eventful enjoyable day.