What a nuisance for you, I have wireless service again so here are more of our travel tales…

Our last day of walking and eating in the Scottish Highlands was very memorable. We decided to have a look at the island of Handa, off the coast of Scourie. Handa is known for the wildlife and its pristine environment, but like much of the Highlands can be hopelessly socked in by nasty weather. Once again the travel gods were looking after us. The weather was about 10C (50F) and only a low wind for our trip on the ferry to the island, very mild compared to what it could have been.

The only complexity to this entire arrangement was when, after two glasses of water, two cups of tea and one cup of coffee my dear husband mentioned he’d read there were no toilets on the island. The walk we planned took 2.5 to 3 hours not including the additional wait and ferry time to and from the island. So potentially five hours with no toilet facilities. OMG. I’ll spare you the details but the outcome was a very nervous me until we crossed to the island and discovered there was one composting toilet on the island. I have seldom been more uncomfortable than on the last half hour of the 2.5 hour walk around the island. Are we noticing a theme appearing for this journey?? I hope not as we still have a couple of weeks to go!

The scenery, and flora were well worth any discomfort. There was potential to see wales, seals, otters, puffins and sea birds, but on this particular day we had only a brief otter siting and the sea birds. It worried us not a whit for we enjoyed the shear cliffs and stunning rock formations and flora enormously.

At the end of our five hour excursion we stopped at the ferry dock for a late lunch at the Shorehouse Seafood Restaurant. Once again we lucked into a charming and flavoursome discovery! (Apparently once the well known British chef, Rick Stein, ate there and it got his stamp of approval.) First of all, you have to love a restaurant that allows well behaved dogs to sleep under the tables while the humans dine on fresh salmon and crab salad, followed by a deadly chocolate brownie with awesome vanilla bean ice cream. Life just doesn’t get much better. Forgive me if I sound too happy, I wish all of it, and more, for you. (Sorry we ate the brownie before I remembered to take the photo…my bad.)