Friday 16 July 2010
The weather was much improved so I rang to book us on a boat trip to see the white-tailed sea eagle. The trip left at 10am & it was sunny (although a bit cold) & all the places on the boat were full.
We left the harbour & travelled around the sound of Raasay without seeing much other than some shags. We arrived at the location of the eagle's nest & saw the female sitting on – if it hadn't been pointed out, you would never have seen it! The captain had a bucket of fish, which we injected (I presume with air so it would float) & then threw it out the back of the boat. It attracted lots of seagulls, but no eagle. The second fish looked as if it would go the same way, but suddenly there was movement from the heather & we saw an eagle fly very rapidly in, take the fish & fly back to land. It was all over in seconds. After a minute or so the eagle flew up to the nest.
We moved on after that (we were somewhat disappointed to see just one eagle until we realised later how rare they are here), and made a big loop back to Portree. We saw a porpoise & some diving gannets & a few other sea birds. We also saw a seal swimming in the water quite close to the boat. Not really a lot else, and we were back easily within the hour and a half time limit. Unfortunately, within that time, the weather had started to deteriorate – not rainy, but much greyer & looking ominous.
We bought some food for a picnic lunch & set out for the Duirinish Penisula and the Neist Point lighthouse. About half way along it started to rain again, but we figured we'd try to wait it out again at the lighthouse. When we arrived, it was wet & breezy, so we had our lunch in the car hoping it would get better – instead it got worse. We got out at one point but the wind plus the rain was such a vicious combination that we had to retreat back to the car in minutes. We decided we'd wait another 30 minutes & once again our patience was rewarded by a partial let up of the rain that made it seem feasible to go out to the lighthouse. The walk was down a series of steps (lots of them) and then gently along the tip of the peninsula & up to the lighthouse.
However, once we left the shelter of the cliffs, the wind drove the rain into our faces again (not nice & impossible to take photos despite trying to use an umbrella to protect the cameras). It was just too cold – we gave up just before reaching the lighthouse & retraced our steps back to the car.
On our way home we drove out past Dunvegan castle but decided we didn't want to walk to the coral sand beach even though the weather was a little improved. We felt we'd been beaten by the weather & decided to leave Skye & head for the Orkney Islands instead.
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