End of Summer trip with our grandson. Day 3

Even though we have a fantastic shower in our camper, I decided to use the camp showers, and they were fab!  But the funniest thing happened there.  A young and beautiful French girl was brushing her teeth, but standing outside the door and having a conversation with the man she was travelling with, also young and beautiful. They were standing side by side, just out of the ladies' and men's shower room doors, brushing their teeth together and having a conversation.  They really must have alot to talk about if they can’t take a break when doing this!  Years ago, I read an article in a magazine suggesting never to brush your teeth in front of your romantic partner, it is just not attractive.  I told my husband about this couple and he said the two of them doing it together cancelled that out.

We headed north to go fossil hunting at Corran Beach and see the Museum of Island Life.  We had to pass by the Quaraing first so Alan got out there to take some photos. We then left, headed north for a while until he realised he had lost the hood of his camera. Doing a 3 point turn on a single track road is an impressive feat, but he managed it!  

We arrived at Staffin Slipway and wandered there to see if we could find any fossils. We had seen ammonites at a charity shop and they were selling for between £10 and £50 and the lady said they were found at Staffin Beach. This is apparently the Jurassic coast of Scotland.  So we spent about an hour looking.  I found some cool stones with layers, which looked like sedimentary rock to me.  It has been such a long time since I studied Geology in my first year of university that I had forgotten how interesting it was. Suddenly, my interest in rocks came tumbling back and I wondered if I was here for Corbyn's benefit, or mine!   Corbyn found other interesting stones, but no ammonites.  

It was a gorgeous place with lots of little fishing boats stored in little rock enclosures that must have been around for a very long time. 

Corbyn eventually made his own dinosaur footprints!

We then stopped at Corran Beach, which is down the same road.  There have been discoveries of dinosaur footprints there. The beach is small and very sandy and the sign said the footprints can be hidden by the sand. It was fun, even if we didn’t find anything!

I don't think many tour buses go to this beach, but this small group looked like they were having a great time!

After all the fossil hunting, we drove as far north as we could. At the top of Skye, you can see the island of Lewis and Harris in the Outer Hebrides.  Where we stopped had a castle ruin and it was Duntulm Castle. There is a monument to Flora MacDonald there too.  

Our next stop was the Museum of Island Life.  I had really 

wanted to see this, having seen photos of it for years. However, it is Sunday and the museum was not open.  I talked to some young women who were travelling from the Netherlands and they were really disappointed. Loads of people drove in and left while we were there.  I know the church is very strong on these islands and I totally respect that. But the American in me sees this as lost profit!  I wonder what that says about me?

The highest gravestone is Flora MacDonald's

Anyway, very close to the museum is the graveyard where Flora MacDonald is buried so I was able to walk up there and pay my respects to her.  It is a lovely graveyard, there is the older part, where I could have spent a lot more time if I had been on my own. And there is a more modern one that is still very much in use.  The setting is amazing and it would be a nice place to spend eternity looking over at Lewis and Harris. 

Arriving at Uig was very interesting.  I had no idea we were as high as we were until we got near Uig and it was WAY down!  There were loads of switchback turns to get us down there.  Once there, we did not know what we were going to do, even went to the ferry terminal to see if we could get a ferry to Tarbert, on the Isle of Harris. No was the short answer so we finally accepted we were going to remain on the Isle of Skye for the remainder of the time we have with Corbyn!  

We visited the local Isle of Skye Brewing Company and I purchased two different beers for scientific purposes only, you understand!  (later Alan and I tested them and they were really nice. He had the Craft Lager and I had the Skye Red.)  

I also visited Uig Pottery and thanked her for being open!  I bought a fabulous Flowerstone there. It reminds me very much of my Japanese Ikebana I purchased from the Smithsonian Institute shop in a New York airport many years ago.  I am looking forward to using this new way to display flowers!

Now what to do?  Where to go?  They have wildlife boat trips leaving from Uig so I phoned one to see if they allowed children and dogs, yes! So we just might go on that tomorrow at 9:30am.  And that means we got a campsite just in Uig, which is grand since we can walk to the harbour and leave our camper at the campsite!  

After a walk in the rain around Uig, where we saw a huge seal in the harbour, it was time to return to the camper and enjoy Uno and Dominoes before bedtime.  

“The journey itself is my home.” – Matsuo Bashō