dude, where's my keys?: Isle of Skye

We started out our next day at a river bank with a little story from Greg:

"The daughter of the Chief of the McDonnells and the son of the Chief of the McClouds fell into true deep Scottish love. It is the type of love that you can only have if you fall in love with someone Scottish or someone Scottish falls in love with you.

The Chiefs agreed to the marriage and for a while there was peace between the clans. Then one day the daughter of McDonnell was out riding her horse and fell off onto some rocks. The girl becomes horribly disfigured. Her face is extremely torn up and she was missing an eye. The son of McCloud is so disgusted with her that he says he will no longer marry her.

Taking back the marriage proposal enraged the Chief of the McDonnells and he demands that the McClouds keep their word, but the Chief of the McClouds stands behind his son. This enraged the Chief of the McDonnells even further and he gathered his clansmen to attack the McClouds. The war is known as the War of the One-eyed Woman.

As the battle was starting the daughter of McDonnell ran to the stream nearby and cried about how she wished the clans weren't going to war and that it would stop. The fairies heard her plight and tell her that they cannot stop the war, but they might be able to help her. The fairies then tell her to put her face in the water for 7 seconds and she will be healed.

So the daughter of McDonnell stuck her face in the stream. When she brought her face out of the water, she could feel that she was healed and as she looked at her reflection she saw that she was even more beautiful then she had been before the accident. Instead of going back home she ran away to the mountains and married a farmer and lived happily ever after.

To this day it is believed that the stream where the daughter of McDonnell stuck her face in the water is still blessed by the fairies and if anyone sticks their face in the water for 7 seconds they will be beautiful forever."

Tony places his head in the water for 7 seconds. Again, I think all these morning activities are just to wake everyone up!

And we start off around the Isle of Skye. Skye is the second largest island of Scotland and has a population of 9,200.

Looking out from atop the Quiraing, a spectacular landslip on the eastern face of Meall na Suiramach, the northernmost summit of the Trotternish Ridge on the Isle of Skye.

It was very windy up there.

If one looks very closely, one can see two people at the very tip of this flat land expanse.

A waterfall with Kilt Rock in the background. Kilt Rock is named for the tartan-like patterns in the 105 metre (350 ft) cliffs.

Some flowers.

The rock pinnacle in the distance is known at the Old Man of Storr. Once again, Greg had a story to tell about it:

"There was a husband and wife who lived at the bottom of a mountain. Everyday they would head up the mountain to tell stories about the fairies. The fairies who lived on the mountain loved to hear the stories and would hide nearby in order to hear the stories told by the husband and wife. The man and wife went up that mountain everyday for 50 years, until one day they found that they were simply getting too old to make the climb up the mountain. The next day they decided it would be the last time they would walk up the mountain. The fairies overheard the husband and wife discussing this and they were devastated because they loved listening to their stories. That last day that the husband and wife walked up the mountain the fairies worked their magic and turned them both into stone, so that they could always sit on top of the mountain and tell their stories. This went along happily for a while until one day the wife fell down the mountain and died leaving the old man all alone weeping. He sits up on top of that mountain to this day pining for his wife."