Annalisa (aged 16, Italy)

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Scottish Dancing?

Edinburgh

Days 9 & 10

Every member of the team takes a turn to write the blog….including the Travel Mentor! After another good night sleep in Edinburgh we woke up very excited about the next part of our adventure. This adventure started with a train ride to a small town called Alloa where my father picked us up and took us all back to my house in Dollar. We then ate some lunch and started to plan our journey. After Annalisa saw a picture of the Isle of Skye last week she, and all the other travellers, have been very keen to make the journey up north to travel around the island. I dug out my old tent and left the Teen Travellers to it! It’s always good to practice putting up a tent before you reach a campsite, it is very embarrassing if you realise you don’t have everything you need with an audience of campers watching you. The Teen Travellers struck a great deal with my parents to rent the family car and kindly asked me if I would drive them, I agreed, but only on the understanding they would buy me coffee whenever I wanted! We packed the (large) car and hit the road with the sun still shining. We headed straight for the Isle of Skye and the 5-hour drive was simply stunning. We stopped occasionally to take some pictures of the beautiful lochs and to stretch our legs. It was getting near dinner-time so we got some supplies in Fort William and found a lovely spot to eat next to some grazing horses with the amazing Ben Nevis as our backdrop, it was very picturesque. We hit the road again after calling a campsite to book in for that night, it wasn’t quite on the Isle of Skye but it was soon to get dark and although the Teen’s had practiced putting up the tent, it is somewhat more tricky in the dark. We arrived just before sunset and the tent was up in a matter of minutes’ – this left us with just enough time to climb a small hill to watch the sun go down.

After a dry, yet windy night the Teens were excited to get to The Isle of Skye. We had breakfast and took down the tent before it blew away and hit the road again. The girls wanted to visit the famous Fairy Pools, which are in the west of Skye so we headed straight there. The Fairy Pools did not disappoint – they comprise of a natural waterfall where the water flows down creating pools in which the water is crystal clear. The girls ate lunch perched on a rock and then explored the pools. The pools are a popular place to go swimming and although it was a warm day, ‘Scottish’ warm isn’t the same as normal warm! We hit the road again, this time to Dunvegan where we would camp for the last time. The girls were very tired after all the driving so they set up camp and rested for a while before dinner. We then headed to the local supermarket where we bought a very random, yet lovely selection of food for a picnic. Our campsite is right on the Dunvegan Loch so we sat outside and filled our bellies next to the water. The girls played Uno in their tent not worrying about the rain that was moving in…it’s going to be a very wet night!

Julie (Travel Mentor, Scotland)