bussin

Written May 14:

Yesterday was a big travel-by-bus day, but it was a lot more beautiful than that sounds. I packed up my stuff after a thunderstorm last night at Kinlochleven (I’m very glad I had a cabin and not a tent). Then I caught the bus to Fort William, the “end” of the West Highland Way. The bus ride over was quite pretty, but I think because I didn’t finish it I didn’t like Fort William very much and found it to be a rundown town compared to the other ones I’ve been to. The start of the WHW, Milngavie, was the same. I’m not sure why they decided to start and end the WHW in those places because they were the least appealing spots of the whole thing. I wouldn’t recommend spending any more time there than you have to. Maybe it’s to create more tourism for those spots that need it?

After a boring few hours in Fort William buying random things I don’t need and getting a whole box of frozen mochis just to eat 2 of them and throw out the rest, I caught the 915 bus to Portree. Now this bus… oh my god! It was the bus to end allllll other busses. It was the most scenic 3 hours I’ve ever had on a bus maybe! I literally couldn’t tear my eyes off the window and took a billion photos. Thankfully I’d just finished the book I was reading, but even so, I wouldn’t have wanted to read at all on it. I would recommend this bus route to anyone planning on going through these places. We went past at least 10 lakes right next to the water, with mountain ranges everywhere that rivaled Glencoe. We passed farms too with sheep and baby lambs (ofc), real highland cows, beautiful white horses, goats even. We passed bays with sailboats and islands off the coasts of those bays and lakes. We went over the Skye Bridge which was pretty cool. We even passed a castle - The Eileen Donan castle by Kyle of Lochalsh. There were multiple waterfalls just casually there by the side of the road. One thing I’ve learned is there is so much water in Scotland, and with how much rain it gets, there are also a million waterfalls, it’s almost become mundane to see one. Also I’m not sure what is going on with these mountains or “Monroes” or “fells” whatever they are called, something is in the water and I’m thinking it might be volcanic-related, but they are AMAZING. What is going on?!? They are so lumpy and big and there are so many of them. They are so dramatically tall and steep, they look like huge Hershey’s kisses plopped in the terrain and covered in grass.

The weather got progressively worse as we got to Skye and I called a taxi to take me to the campsite. Thankfully I didn’t have to set my tent up in the rain but it basically rained the whole night and was really cold, I kept waking up! This morning I took everything down in the misting and the drizzle. I’m also still kinda sick with a cold. It was pretty miserable I’m not going to lie…

Also there’s about 1 mile of visibility here, so I’m not sure how much I can see of the island today. But right now I’m waiting for my rental car to be ready and having breakfast at a trendy place called Birch in Portree. It’s so cold and rainy ugh! Gotta roll with it. Hopefully it will clear up this afternoon and the rest of the week should be better. I’m going to go to the Dunvegan castle after because at least that’s inside. But these are champagne problems - I’m still on the isle of Skye driving on the left side of the road in a Peugeot, things could be worse!

Enjoy this photo of my face in the rain juxtaposed with this nice Scottish man doing yoga in a kilt. I have seen a couple men in kilts out and about it’s been cool!