I spent most of my limited online time last night searching for a campsite on Skye suitable for us. The kids are feeling the loss of charge from psp / ds and Ady and I are feeling overdue for showers. We had planned to have a night in a campsite on Skye before leaving but failed to find one suitable / open / with a decent view / any internet signal. So the next plan was to get the ferry from Armadale to Mallaig and find a campsite there. We thought the ferry crossing would be cheaper than the fuel used to drive round. But we are now heading to Fort William for next weekend so won’t be staying in Mallaig for the whole time anyway and on checking the ferry cost would be £34 and would save 50 miles driving. Even in Willow with her petrol guzzling ways we’d get more than 50 miles from £34 worth of fuel.
So the amended plan became driving to Fort William over the course of the coming week which means we are driving past our tried and tested bargain campsite on the way. We decided the only bit of Skye we had missed and really wanted to see on this visit was Sleat. I know we have not gone all the way out on every little bit and we will do those bits when we come back next year but Sleat is home to Rubha Phoil which we were very keen to visit.
So to Sleat we went. We really liked it there, it felt more light and with more sky away from the mountains. We pulled over for lunch and I made pizza dough ready for dinner tonight and we headed all the way down. We parked up and did the woodland walk in the gentle rain, loving the faeries walk, the information about permaculture, the seal and otter hide (where we saw seals), the view across the sea and onto the tiny islands surrounding the coast, adored the eco campsite with it’s idyllic little plots suitable for tiny tents with the best views ever. It’s what the Sustainability Centre almost was before they lost their way! Love, love, loved the beach cave – just what it says, accessible via a scramble down the rocks and complete with fire place and chimney!
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On the way out we noticed people in the potting shed so went in to introduce ourselves and have a bit of a chat about our plans and see if they were WWOOF hosts or knew any of the permaculture people we have come across this year (it’s a fairly small community). Sure enough they know our last hosts pretty well 🙂 They said Skye is definitely the right place for people seeking our dreams and we promised to stay in touch and visit again when we’re next up here house hunting. I’ll follow that up with an email.
It felt really good to meet people who got what we want to do, nice to feel so at home :). It also really helped to reassure us that Skye does have what we want :).
We left there and intended to park for the night in one of the laybys, particularly when we sat and watched two otters swim along the shoreline. But the layby was pretty close to the road and conscious of having as long as possible in the campsite tomorrow we decided to head for a layby just the other side of the bridge.
The views leaving the island at sunset were just stunning, pink and orange sky with mists rolling over all the islands surrounding it and teh lights on the mainland twinkling in the distance.
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I am of course prepared for us to fall just as much in love with Eigg but for now I think we have definitely found where we want to be. Staying longer and looking at properties feels a bit like taunting ourselves and we will save the finer exploring of the island for our return once our house has sold.