Staycation

Apparently the word ‘Staycation’ entered the lexicon of English words in the early 2000s to mean a holiday (vacation) spent at or near one’s home. In reality it has come to mean a holiday in one’s own country but given that some countries are vastly bigger than others a Staycation in The United States of America, even if limited to a person’s home State, Texas for instance, is a different experience than a staycation in Malta or Bermuda.

Scotland is a small nation but even here I think it is bigger and more diverse than the word staycation allows. To me ‘staycation’ means a holiday at home, possibly used to catch up on all the big chores that always get left ‘until I have more time’. I am, therefore, going to coin a new word, Scotcation, to describe my current holiday to Skye and the some of the Outer Hebridean islands.

Our Scotcation began yesterday with a drive north to the Black Isle, an area that is not, in fact, an island but lies between the Cromarty Firth and Moray Firth in the Highlands. Our Baby Bomber lives there with her Navigator and Tiny Explosion. We spent a wonderful few hours catching up in person. Video calls are great for grandparents who live far from grandchildren and our regular onscreen chats mean our Little Explosion recognised us immediately and there was no shyness in our visit. She is growing so fast and it was a lovely time spent getting to know her better and, of course, to see our youngest daughter and her husband.

Today we drove west to cross the bridge to Skye, an island we have briefly visited before and enjoyed. As we had limited time we decided to do only one tourist stop, which we narrowed down to a choice of two: The Old Man of Stor or The Fairy Pools. We didn’t make the final decision until our lunch stop at the Coffee Bothy (more on that and our meal last night at The Anderson in Fortrose in another blog). As the weather looked very changeable we settled on a visit to the latter. Mainly because it looked like an easier walk back to the car if the heavens opened and we got wet!

Either would have been a good decision and both were undoubtedly going to be busy with tourists but the Fairy Pools were a very enjoyable choice for us. There is a long single track road (with many passing places available) into a massive new carpark. Money has also been spent to create a good path to walk up the glen to the pools. It is an easy walk but as it goes steeply down to begin before ascending again it means that on the return journey there is a steep incline up to the carpark before resting from your efforts!

The path follows the River Brittle up towards the Black Cuillins where it commences and allows for views of the many waterfalls along its path as it falls into the glen. Some are small with little pools while others are larger and create pools that are suitable for bathing, swimming and diving although it is very cold. I did not go swimming but enjoyed the energetic walk and managed to get a few great photos.