Bruce and Elly do the Misty Isle

After lots of sleep, we stumbled to breakfast about 9am. Tigh entertained us (or got us to entertain him) with his big books of cars and aeroplanes while we gorged on cereal, fruit salad, bread and toast with (vegan) cheese.

Ocean lent us maps and a bird-spotting book and told us about places she recommended, while Scotty, upon hearing I'd left my boots in Edinburgh, lent me a pair of Berghaus boots which fitted oh so snuggly.

Elly reckoned on a little walk to Neist Point, the westernmost part of Duirinish peninsula. Ocean had told us that it was a great place for seeing seals and whales, as well as many birds. On the way, Elly was fascinated by a pair of hooded crows. The route took us along very narrow, twisty, steep single-track roads to a tiny carpark north-east of the point.

Getting out of the car was bit of shock - the wind had strengthened and tried to spoil the day by slamming a car door on Elly's head. Fortunately she was wearing Bruce's new fleece hat (he'd found the old one he thought he'd lost) and so little damage was done.

The path led us steeply down, past an old but still functioning winch-house, along a col, then back up to a peaklet on which the lighthouse nestled. It's unstaffed but someow offers bed-and-breakfast, just like every other building in Skye. Around us waves crashed against sea-cliffs and the wind made us very glad of our layers of clothing.

Ocean had also told us the there was a community art project there, making cairns and structures from the plentiful broken stone. So we built Bruce'n'Elly-henge and then went to the east of the point to see what we could see.

Waves were crashing against the base of a boulder-field and sending spray high into the air. Bruce wanted to get closer, so he tottered along and down the boulder-field. After a while he realised further travel was pointless because his glasses were getting covered in spray so that he couldn't see, so he turned back towards where Elly was waiting. As he skipped along the boulders, we realised that there wasn't just spray in the air - rain had joined it.

By now we were both quite tired, so we trudged back up the steep path, getting moderately wet as the rain continued. We were both very glad to get back to the car and, unbelievably, hungry.

Dunvegan seemed to be the mostly likely source of food, so Elly drive us back up the single-track roads, via Glendale (which had, according to Elly, the best-kept*, most welcome public toilets ever) and on to the vegan hill-fort. The Dunvegan hotel offered food, warmth and a good display of whiskies. Talisker is the local dram, so Bruce sampled it while we ate. Yum!

We both thought it would be a waste of the rest of the day to head back to the Six Willows this early, so Elly took us north of Dunvegan into the Waternish peninsula to a look-out point near Ardmore point. Rain disuaded us from getting out of the car, so we headed back to Six Willows where I wrote this up and dealt with previous photos before tea. It's now just after midnight: Elly's in the land of nod and I'm about to join her there.

* at least 4·5 Andrex rolls in the Good Loo Guide – and they sold second-hand books!