Speed Bonny Van…
Since they built the Skye Bridge, that song has lost some of it’s romanticism. I have to say though, that Skye is a lovely place - at least the little bit of it I saw. This despite the weather which ranged from light rain, through heavy rain to hailstones and snow.
It is also despite a couple of locals who were bizarre to say the least. In particular one chap who seemed to be having acid flashbacks every ten minutes. He was rather friendly, seemed to be telling me how much he enjoyed our band, then started mumbling something about 2002 and how he is going to smash somebody’s head in. I declined his offer of a game of pool.
It was pretty much worth the entire weekend just for the journey though. What a beautiful drive. If only the weather had been a bit nicer and I had more time to stop and take pictures. As it is, have this photo of Eilean Donan Castle, just down the coast on the mainland.
March 10th, 2008 at 1:18 pm
If losing romanticism means we can drive across for free in about 45 seconds instead of queuing for a ferry every 30 minutes, we dont have to queue sometimes for hours in summertime when the 2 ferries couldnt cope with the amount of traffic in peak torusit season and we dont have to pay £11.40 ONE WAY with a car and caravan, then bye bye romanticism - whats so romantic about that!
Otherwise, use one of the other two ferries that are still running between Mallaig-Armadale or (in summer) Geleneglg-Kylerea.
March 10th, 2008 at 2:08 pm
Erm… it was just a light-hearted throwaway comment about a folk song that has gone a bit out of date. Not really meant to cause offence or cause your blood pressure to rise over a set of tolls that I agree were outrageous. £11.40 for a trip you could just about make in a Dukes of Hazard style leap is kind of pricey.
Also, I took advantage of the freeness by driving over the bridge a couple of times in the two days I was there. Having spent some time on other Scottish Islands, the boat may be fun as a tourist but I can imagine it becomes a huge pain in the ass for locals needing regular access to stuff on the mainland.
For a follow up, I was going joke that people can argue all they like about whether the high road or the low road gets you to Scotland quicker, but I’ll be using the M6 extension when they finally build it. Maybe I will offend someone from Carlisle though.