We were up early, and I have to say our host did us proud with breakfast although the jams and things were of a pre-packaged variety.
We were in plenty of time for a 9.30 appointment and we were not kept waiting. The initial session was routine – eye test (and as at Fort William, my damaged eye was still doing better than my undamaged one and the routine questions and an initial quick look into the eye.
Then it was the pupil dilation drops and a wait of a quarter of an hour before the detailed look – which was very, very thorough.
And the diagnosis was that I had vitreous humour break up of no great consequence. There was some blood, which was an indicator of retina tear, but he found no tear despite using multiple mirror lenses in contact with my eye. The advice was to see an eye specialist again, when back home and to get on with life now.
But we were on the east coast and needed to get to the west coast to catch up on our schedule. We were supposed to be camping at Uig on the Isle of Skye by the end of the day. Fortunately, we had no need to use a ferry for there is a bridge, which links the mainland at Kyle of Lochalsh to Skye. And there was also a road – some 80 miles long, from Inverness to Kyle, so off we went.
This time, we found the chance to be tourists by taking a look at Loch a’Chuilinn.
Cloudy but dry about summed it up. Of course, there was railway interest, for the Kyle of Lochalsh Railway was across the loch.
There were no trains – not even a road railer like we had seen at Bridge of Orchy the previous day.
But hey! Who needs trains with scenery like this?
There were lovely flowers too. Interestingly, I thought this picture was really out of focus. It must have been my eyes, which, with wide aperture following the pupil dilation, were unable to focus on close things.
A bit further on, as we entered Glen Carron, we stopped again, briefly.
There were pleasing mountain views. Our views, in the south of England, were of a parched, dry landscape. Scotland has no such problem.
I see no ships! Nor any trains either.
We arrived at Kyle and shopped in the coop. We needed a picnic. We bought petrol, where a chatty man told me that the toll on the bridge had gone. So soon we were eating our picnic at Broadford on the east coast of Skye.
The views were back to the mainland.
A seagull posed himself almost perfectly.
As we headed north, the mountains across Loch Ainort looked rather forbidding.
And onward we went to our journey’s end – as planned, but by the wrong, long and devious route – at Uig.
