The Great Scottish Adventure
Day 10
Portree
Our supposed rest day… We slept in and then spent a couple of hours doing laundry.
With chores done we drove up to Storr to see if we could secure a park up so we could get a pre-dawn start for sunrise at the Old Man Of Storr. Unfortunately the campsite we are in does not allow exit before 7am. What the heck!
Through my research, I found that the coffee shop at Storr has some park up spots for a reasonable rate, even with electric hookup! Unfortunately they were closed for the day, so that was a no go.
We went back to Portree to shop and had dinner at the 1820 Limited pub. Then returned to the campsite to try and sweet talk them into letting us leave early. This did not work out but they suggested going to a layby not far from the Old Man Of Storr for the night.
So off we went, back up to The Storr. When we arrived at the recommended parkup, it was almost all full of other campervans. The best spot we could find was very unlevel. I found a nearby small boulder and we backed up on top of it to try and level out a bit. The spot had a great view out over the Sound Of Raasay. Unfortunately, as darkness approached, a camper full of loud French girls, squeezed in right next to us and were very annoying gibbering away for hours!
It’s only one night… How bad can it be? All this to try and catch first light on the Old Man Of Storr.
Hopefully the battery will keep the fridge running and not spoil all our food. Time will tell…
Day 11
The Old Man Of Storr
We woke up at 4am for the pre-dawn hike up to The Old Man Storr. The Old Man Of Storr is a formation of basalt rock pinnacles created by an ancient volcanic plug that was uncovered by a landslip. The hike was grueling and quite steep most of the way. Fortunately distance wise it is not very long.
We should have started 30-45 minutes earlier, as we missed the actual first rays of light on The Storr. But the light was still fantastic when we reached the top.. It was nice to be up there with so few people and the weather was perfect.
I set up the tripod and got to work right away. Just Harmony and I at the classic viewpoint for the first 15 minutes or so. Then a lone fellow photographer showed up asking me what focal length I liked. I replied, “All of them”. He was a nice guy but a bit too chatty for me. But it was easy to talk to a liked minded soul and we exchanged photography stories.
After the best of the light had gone, we hiked back down the mountain to the campervan. Exhausted from our morning on The Storr, we returned to camp and slept a good hour or so. Then got up and had a bite to eat before deciding to head into town to check out a few more shops.
Unfortunately due to our delirium, we forgot to unplug the van and proceeded to rip the wires right out of the plug on the van side! Well that changes things. We have to fix that as we have to have electricity to power the fridge while in camp (the van powers it while driving). After some time, I was able to figure out how to get it rewired and all was good. Good thing I brought my Leatherman multitool!
After shopping we ordered a to-go pizza and went back to camp for the evening ritual of backing up photos, charging batteries and such.
Looks like significant rain is forecasted for tomorrow, so we’ll see how that plays out…
