Setting off at 6am, we drive through Edinburgh and out into the Highlands. We make good time and arrived at the campsite in Boardford for 1pm-ish. We swiftly don our hiking gear, swapped into our hiking shoes, leave my car keys with reception and booked a nights stay upon our return.
Heading out to the bus stop and we check the timetable schedule - something we should have done the night before as we had just missed one...and the next one wasn't until 4pm. Bugger!
As I had to be back at work in 7 days, time was exactly a luxury so we decided to hitchhike. I'd done my fair share of hitch-hiking - mainly in Japan, New Zealand and the States. I'd never tried in the UK. Max had dabbled too but also not here.
With nothing for it, we walked to the main road out of town, which was easy to locate as Broadford was not a big place. Cars passed doing one of three things; completely ignoring you (fair enough), waving and mouthing "Sorry" or turning the indicator on and pulling in. I stand hopefully with my thumb out trying to look encouraging. Max stands next to me smiling hopefully.
Amazingly we see a large car towing a large caravan indicate and slow down. A man gets out and beckons us over, we can't believe our luck.
"I'm going towards Portree" he says "I can take you there"
"That would be amazing" we both exclaim as he opens the wide boot and we slot our bags inside. Our lift turns out to be Polish family who live in Suffolk and have driven their caravan all the way from there. They are hoping to find somewhere to camp to night - if not they will just pull over in a lay-by and spend the night there. A child sits in a booster in the front seat and a ten year old sits next to us and his mother. The man mentions how he hitch-hiked in his youth and wanted to help us out. They definitely did as we arrive in Portree 45 minutes later and thank them several times. We scout out a few final snacks before locating our bus north.
The bus terminal is located on the edge of a school and as the bell rings, the bus floods with students. Only us two and an Australian hiker are those not in a school uniform. We'd talked briefly to the lady who had just completed the Highland way. She had debated coming to Skye as the weather had been so unsettled last year, groups of hikers had had to bail and get off the trail due to the stormy weather. We crossed our fingers hoping for favourable weather conditions.
We zoom pass the Skye country side. Lochs and dark green hillside zip by and give us a taste of what to expect on the trail. By 5pm we arrive at the trail head - a red phone box. We get a few photographs and were on our way. Hiking for 30mins, we find a spot just off the trail, pitch the lavvu tent and crash.
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