Over the Sea to Skye

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We decided we were way overdue a nice drive in the country. Since my mom's never been to Skye we decided to head out that way. My mom spent Friday evening making her famous picnic meatballs while I buttered bread and sorted out other food and drinks for our trip. On Saturday we were up fairly early and left at 7:30 am. From here we drove to Inverness, then along Loch Ness before branching off towards the West coast and Kyle. I've marked our route (pink) on the map below...
The first place we stopped was at Eilean Donan Castle. The combination of sun and cloud made for some really fantastic photographs.
From there we went on to Kyle of Lochalsh, where I took some more photos. The first one here shows the Skye bridge in the distance.
Here you can see the ferry leaving for one of the smaller islands.
Skye is a strange place. Harsh beautiful, sort of scoured by the wind and weather.
We stopped briefly in Portree, going up the East coast first. This was the view.
In Portree my mom spotted this interesting doorway with a plaster/stone cat. The sign actually reads "BEWARE OF THE CAT."
Up along the East coast we stopped for a picnic and I photographed the mountains in the distance.
There were waterfalls everywhere. Here's one we stopped to take a look at.
Almost at the top of Skye we stopped to look over the cliff edge. The tiny white dots on the green edging the sea are sheep!
Here's the view from the same spot, looking back towards Scotland.
Another waterfall. :-)
From there we stopped briefly at Dunvegan for a cup of coffee and cake before heading down the East coast. Here it started to rain and we took less pictures, but we did get to see a sea eagle! He was BIG, but still too small in the sky to show up in a photo. At one place, when the rain stopped, I took a photo of the view. On the way back across the Skye bridge and I was able to take this photo.
From there we travelled a bit up North to Plockton. A very cute little seaside village. Here's the view from the shore.

From there we turned back towards Inverness, but this time we took the top route, past this small Loch. No idea of names.
Then the mist and rain returned. I took a few pictures, but only this one came out nice.
We had a fantastic day! :-)
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