Wednesday, September 09, 2009

After the storm


Dunvegan Castle, Skye

[Kyle]The day after the storm, it calmed down enough for Maryanne and I to decide to go ashore for our morning run. There was reputed to be a “coral” (actually light colored shells {Maryanne: actually, the beach was remnants of ancient coralline Algae, but it was well padded with shells, so Kyle is mostly right}) beach nearby that was worth seeing. Our lonely planet guide said the beach was 1 mile from the castle. We were anchored right next to the castle so we decided it would be a good focal point for the run.

We ran and ran and were sure we had gone well over a mile. The weather was actually pretty nice and the scenery was incredible, so we didn’t mind much. We kept figuring that it must be just over the next hill. By the time we would get to the peak of that next hill, we had even more invested in the expedition so we weren’t about to give up.

Once the run was well over and we had walked a long while to boot, we finally spotted half the cars we have seen on Skye, all parked in the same place. When we reached them, we found the sign for the beach. It said 1 mile. Well, it was a nice day and we really didn’t mind. The beach was pretty and the white bottom did make it look tropical. We had to remind ourselves that the water was far too cold for swimming. A young couple was taking photos of their baby. The poor thing looked like a five-pointed down star (down as in feathers - this kid was totally wrapped up against the weather). I guess that was a good reminder for us.


Dunvegan Coraline Beach - Small, looks good, but definitely NOT tropical

Back at Footprint, we undid all of the storm preparations of a couple of days before in order to allow ourselves to make a quick getaway on the early morning tide the next day.


Scenes from our walk/run - you should be able to spot Footprint in 2 of these pictures

7 comments:

Mum said...

Wow you 2 certainly know when you should realy stay in harbour but like rebelious teeagers must go that last bit so as not to miss anything. Was begining to wonder what you were up to. Thanks for the camera it arrived yesterday I bet you hope all your days at work are like your first day back its a hard life isnt it.

Mommy Dearest said...

Beautiful photos and narrative. As always, I have thoroughly enjoyed being allowed to peek through the curtains at your life. Be well.

Karen said...

The minute I saw your beautiful picture of Dunvegan castle, wonderful memories of my trip to Scotland came back to me.... I toured that castle 10 years ago!

Seeing the tower from the water perspective though reminded me just how dark, steep and narrow the steps were, and the sort of creepy feeling I had walking up that winding staircase! It was barely wide enough to fit an average-sized adult (maybe 4-5 inches on each side to spare), so I doubt there were many "extra large" people living there in its heyday. Instead of a means to get to the roof, I bet it was used for torture -- or exercise. Oh wait... aren't those one and the same? ;-)

Thanks for the memories, and happy sails!

kate said...

a five pointed down star? pardon me for asking this, but huh?? was it an ugly baby that looked like a star fish? i'm missing something ("oh, you're missing something all right").

SV-Footprint said...

Yeah... Down as in fluffy feathers. 2 amrs, legs and a head - hence a 5-pointed down star. I'll help Kyle make it a little clearer in the blog.

Mommy Dearest said...

I loved the five-pointed star baby analogy.

kate said...

oh, i see now... i'm pretty sure i was a 5 pointed star baby. when they plonked me on the floor, i landed in a heap that was basically the shape of a triangle. they used to call me Little Buddha. so go ahead - make fun of shapeless pudgy babies if you want. it's your karmic funeral! (hehehehe)