A most excellent breakfast this morning – kedgeree (which the waiter insisted was pronounced “kedegree” until the kitchen corrected him…then he got wrong again when he served it), kippers, pastries, venison charcuterie, and lots more.
When fed we set off, deciding to head back to the Skye bridge and Eilean Donan castle for a look, before returning onto Skye. The bridge was open for non high-sided vehicles but the wind was really strong. As was the wind at the castle, meaning the castle was closed – not because the castle had a problem, but because they didn’t want visitors being blown off the bridge!
We returned onto Skye, then the problem happened. We stopped at a waterfall in the middle of nowhere, got out and heard a loud hissing noise. Puncture. No mobile signal. So we quickly got back in the car, and drove towards our hotel (in Portree) through a bleak landscape….hoping to either get mobile signal or find somewhere that might have a telephone, whilst watching the tyre pressure drop rapidly.
Eventually we found a remote hotel, parked and went to the door. Locked. We looked around, and realised there were people inside, but no lights were on. So we knocked louder and someone eventually answered the door. They had no power. The whole island had no power. Luckily they had a landline telephone which worked (assume they had a small generator) and they let us call Porsche Assist. The tyre was now completely flat.
We waited 3 hours for a tyre man to arrive. Whilst waiting we saw countless Scottish Electricity vans, trucks and lorries with generators on their trailers pass by. We later found out that one of the main supply routes had poles down, meaning the island had no electricity, and they had installed temporary generators to bring the island back online.
When the tyre guy arrived he plugged the hole temporarily, and we drove the remaining 9 miles to Portree, to our hotel – which was fortunately just 10 minutes walk from the tyre repair garage that had helped us. They asked we leave the car with them tonight and they’d repair it in the morning.
Having unloaded into our hobbit home for the night, we took the car down the hill, had a walk round Portree then walked back up the hill – into the 50mph winds.
Dinner was in the hotel, with pre- and post-dinner drinks (two different whiskies before, and an old-fashioned and a Baileys coffee after). Food was excellent. Bar man however wouldn’t stop talking to us about the drinks he made, or would like to make, or how he was planning to leave Skye soon (though he was quite harmless).
Breakfast – Duisdale House, Skye
Lunch – nothing….bit tricky when miles from anywhere waiting for a tyre repair!
Dinner – Bracken Hide, Skye
Hotel – Bracken Hide, Skye