Good morning world! Another dry morning, and I was keen to see if we could swim in the river I had heard and dreamt about all night. Trina sent me on a mission, telling me that I had to come back giddy in order for her to get in the river at 8am in the morning. If you know me, getting giddy is not something that is hard work for me, so I took the camera, so I could show how just how great it was going to be. A very short walk up the river led me to a worn path to the river’s edge, a few hops over the rocks and there was a pool! A pool!!! Safe and calm, with no fear of being dragged down the river and over one of the many waterfalls! Wooo hoooo giddy time!!!!
Dashing back to camp, I very easily persuade Trina that if we swam now, for 10 mins, by the time we got back, the sun would be over the mountain top, and the camp would be in sunlight – nice and warm for when we got back! She believed me and it turned out to be true – I did make it up though, but it is amazing what a bit of wishful thinking can do!
We popped on our cossies and swim shoes to navigate the rocks and jumped in. I had to go in first to prove that it was warm enough and safe enough. The water took my breath away (not a good sign of warm enough) but after a couple of minutes swimming in the shallow pool, I was able to convince Trina in. We spent a lovely 20 minutes of so, swimming up and down, through the rocks. A great experience heighten by the fact that there was the constant noise from the waterfalls tumbling around us, and the fact that we were just below Ben Nevis!
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We had to get back to reality and get the car looked at so we headed back to Fort William and called the AA. About an hour later they sent a local garage out to look at the car. It took a while for the diagnosis device to work, but finally after lots of um-ing and ah-ing, we were sent on our way, with a minor fuel emissions problem and told to get it looked at when we got back. The rest of the car was deemed ok by the mechanic, so off we went.
We needed to get some miles done before we let ourselves stop for lunch, so headed up towards Skye. An hour or so out of Fort William, we found a small picnic spot at the end of Loch Lochy (original name don’t you think!) had a bit to eat, and more birthday cake, before having a mooch around the Locks and the canal system that seems to be attached to the loch. Apparently there is the biggest floating pub here, not that we had time to check it out!
We drove on up the west coast, through the valleys, up and down the mountains, past many lochs before reaching the look out point towards the Skye Bridge. Such a vista over the water, you could swim the distance that the bridge covers easily – but that wasn’t in the plan, and I think the boats may have got a bit annoyed to find two heads bobbing in the water!
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Over the bridge and into Skye, we had some map reading and instructions from Daniel Start’s Wild Swimming book to follow. His directions are generally good, and his enthusiasm seeps out of the book and make you want to swim! We followed the direction to the Faerie pools at Bla Beheinn, just outside Torrin, and managed to arrive just at the same time as a small outward bound party! Hum…. If you know me, I like to swim outdoors, but most of all I like to swim outdoors with no-one else there. We headed up past the group and found 2 more secluded Faerie pools higher up the stream.
It was utterly magnificent! I can not tell you how beautiful it was, and the pictures do not do it justice. We spent about an hour exploring the pools, diving under water, looking at the lovely rock formations. We even had a quick skinny dip under the waterfall, where the pool below went into a dark and mysterious cave! Luckily we were not eaten by any monsters or whisked away by Faeries! There were a few fish but I think they may have been more scared of us!
Getting changed by the car was an interesting experience as we were right on the road. It was a case of just get on with it and sod people looking in the end, otherwise we’d have been their all day!
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Driving back through Skye, we headed north west towards Glen Brittle. The Faerie pools here have been on the TV and in the Guardian as one of the top 10 places to swim, so we thought there may be lots of people around. We arrived at about 6ish and luckily most people were heading back to their cars for the evening, just as we were arriving.
We headed up to the pools, quite some walk after a long day of excitement, to find that there was only a small group of lads messing around in the pools. This gae us the confidence to take some of the more tricky entrances into the water (I am surprised we made it down and back up the bank to one pool!). As I took off my hoodie I was immediately covered in midges! Gross, I could feel them biting all over me! Trina had been sensible and put some repellent on as we walked up, but as I had my hoodie and jeans on I thought I’d be ok. I could not take my clothes off quick enough to get changed and into the soothing water! Trina followed shortly afterwards – it was such a relief to be in the water and not out in the midge invested air!
We had a magical swim here as the sun was going down behind the mountains, lots of waterfalls to shower us, pools to swim in, and rocks to clamber over. We swam up and down for ages, trying each of the pools and finally managed to make it to the pool which has had so much publicity. There is an archway underwater which if you dare, you can swim underneath and out into a private pool with a little sitting spot and a massive waterfall! Amazing!
The boys had left and we were soon on our own, apart from a few passers by who seemed jealous of us swimming. So many people asked us this week “is it too cold?”, do you think we would be swimming just in costumes if it were too cold!!! It was cool and warm in spots, depending on where the sunlight hit and whether that patch of water was being disturbed by the current. You can not describe the sensation well enough.
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After a quick change, with lots of repellent, we walked back to the car. A longer walk than on the way there, or was that just because we were tired and it was up hill! I definitely needed something to eat and was looking forward to the BBQ when we got to the campsite. We headed down the road to Glen Brittle and just kept going until we hit the campsite – not hard to find as it is that or into the sea!
A dividing of chores saw me putting out the washing, putting up the bunting and sorting the BBQ, while Trina got the tent up and our beds made. By the time we had eaten dinner the midges were out again in force. Up until now, the Citronella candles had worked a treat and we had stayed relatively midge free, but tonight there was now escape. We ate dinner really quickly and Trina ended up getting into the car to escape as they were driving her so mad! We didn’t even wash up that night as it was too much to bear. We saw other people in full midge hats, wishing we had some too! A quick trip to the shower block to brush my teeth and time for bed. It was the earliest night we had by far, but I think that we were both so annoyed with the midges and tired from a long day that we weren’t bothered about hitting the sack so soon!
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