ISLE OF SKYE AND THE FAIRY POOL DEBACLE

Crossing an item of the bucket list is always an exciting moment, and it was with great joy and relief to do so with The Old Man of Storr. To me, this is the most iconic view in all of Scotland. This bizarre alien-like landscape with these gigantic rock pinnacles piercing through the earth is what made me want to come to the Isle of Skye. But boy do you have to work for these views! It's an uphill, rocky, boggy, 719metre high climb that is probably the most exhausting thing I've ever done. The trek takes you up to the Storr and I looked over to Sarah who was relieved to have made it. Well, I was about to put our 15 year friendship on the line when I told her we weren't finished, we have to make it to the Sanctuary. Seriously, I thought she was going to punch me in the face. I would have. We had come so far, I was not going to miss out on seeing the Storr from above (the view in the above photo), so we kept going. And it was so worth it. Getting down was almost just as hard (ow my knees!) but there were no regrets. Isle of Skye had so far met and exceeded my expectations.... until we travelled to the Fairy Pools.

Sarah contemplating our friendship

Lesson learned from the Fairy Pools: if the weather is bad, don't go. Simple. But no, we were stubborn fools who ignorantly thought the Scottish rain might ease off and we could have a lovely stroll through the mountains to find the Fairy Pools. Wrong. SO WRONG. In fact the rain got worse, our moods got worse with it and to be honest we had a pretty miserable time. Did we even see the Fairy Pools? We don't know - we gave up after a good 40 minute walk and after the 40 minute walk back to the car we were soaked to our knickers. Would I do it again? You betcha, but only if the sun is shining and zero chance of rain.