Portree and a little more of Skye (although it nearly didn't happen)

After a day hunkered down avoiding wind and rain and watching a yacht on the outside of the pontoon area try to climb over it with every wave and gust of wind (they had a horrid time!) the forecast for today was not as grim. Grim, just not as grim. Still force 7 from time to time and from the worst direction for our mooring spot too but less rain. Well, less meant "not pouring all the time".

We went mad and booked the Scottish Citylink bus / coach thing to take us from Kyle of Lochalsh to Portree on Skye. There is a small bus terminus come turning area just off the main road so we deposited ourselves there with suitable excitement levels. Sitting in the little bus shelter (it looked a lot like the baggage reclaim at Barra airport, just dirtier and with broken glass) we patiently waited for the coach. Then we saw it go past on the main road gleefully heading towards the bridge. Was there another one running at about the same time that doesn't stop here? No, the locals were also worried. The day was starting so well. In fairness we hadn't had a jellyfish meets genset moment whilst the generator was making nice hot water for our showers earlier on, so it could have been worse.

A few minutes later, the bus reappeared, coming back from the direction of the bridge and pulled in. The driver said "I bet that I had you worried".

He was right. It transpired that he had never driven the route from Inverness to Portree before, didn't know that there is a turn off in the Kyle for the "terminus" and went past before a local lady on the bus told him that "we normally turn in there and then wait for 5 minutes in case people want a loo break". Guess what - he had already used up the 5 minutes with his diversion.

The rest of the trip was fun - the lady told him that he had to go down into Kyleakin and where to turn. She then told him where each of the bus stops were, which way to go into Portree and where to pull in there. Without her, we have no idea what would have happened as the only other locals on board were exceedingly elderly and chatted away in Gaelic to each other (or maybe it was seagull speak?) The driver was clearly English and slightly lost.

No matter, the views through the rain were gorgeous, especially of the Cuillin mountains. Well worth the trip. Arriving in Portree it was simply hammering down. So, plan A was invoked - visit the two nice places we had found on TripAdvisor and pick one of them. The Seabreezes restaurant down by the harbour won as, we discovered, did we. Excellent lunch, lovely service and atmosphere:

The outside doesn't look that special but if you are in town, go there. See restaurant website.

After a suitably leisurely repast, the rain had stopped and so we could enjoy the town and harbour area a little. Harbour sounds grand - it is a bay with a pier really. We could see that the advice we'd had from local boaters was right - the bay is full of moorings, not much space to anchor at all and apparently not good holding either. Pretty mind you:

Not a place to try out our nice new Rocna in a force 7 just in case.... The coach mystery tour was a way better transport solution.

When the rain started again, it was clearly tea and cake time, Wandering around earlier we had spied the "Central cafe" with big signs saying "Free WiFi and Dog friendly":

Having queued on the stairs for a table, we found that they were not people friendly though. When we made it to the front of the queue, a grumpy woman announced that "we only serve lunches at this time" (3:15pm!!) so no tea and cake for us. If in town, don't go there is our advice - the crew reported that the cake looked very boring anyway.....

Instead, we had a great time in Arriba where they did an excellent carrot and ginger cake. We cannot put it into our cake top spot of course - that comparison has been reserved for pure carrot cakes so far - but this stuff was great.

Another wander around, enjoying a hint of sun too, then it was time for the same driver and bus to take us back. This time he was more on the ball - although when tourists asked "do you go to" he had to look it up on his route information thingy. Stagecoach Inverness who run the service and all the antique buses in the area are clearly not the most organised or well funded operation.

The nice rain and wind showed little sign of abating for the next 2 days. Still, Patrick was enjoying his view of the Skye bridge through the pilothouse windows and the rain:

As long as he is happy, all is well on board.