So early this morning I dropped off my rental at Invernesd Airport after a great few days on Skye. I have previously posted about my drive from Inverness to Skye, so I thought I would share the reverse.
I took the Northern route with a detour over to Skye and loved it. I took the Southern Route back to Skye and I hated it.
I spent the night in Fort Augustus and planned to stop at Urquhart Castle thinking you could get photos of it without a ticket. I was wrong. I was there long before it opened and it is walled, fenced and barred off. Managed to get a shot between the bars with my phone. Now. There may be another view place, but it was pouring with rain and I didn't bother looking.
Did I mention it was pouring, very heavily and parts of the road were flooded and my sat nav crapped out in Inverness, due to weather conditions, when I didn't know where I was going, at that start of rush hour?
To say it was harrowing is an understatement. I am directionally challenged. By luck, I happened to take the correct turn and ended up on the correct road to the airport. I had to fill up so that stop allowed the sat nav to reset and I made it to the airport.
But 7 or 8 roundabouts, flooded roads and in the end, scenery that was just ok, would make me not take this route again. Now the Glen Shiel is nice, don't get me wrong, but after seeing spectacular scenery earlier and with most of thr stopping points on the right, rather than the left, it was underwhelming.
The northern route got me right our of the city without all those roundabouts and without the traffic of the southern route.
This is just my opinion and experience. I certainly don't want to discourage anyone from taking the route they desire.
As a side note, in North America, we are used ti gas stations on every corner with gas available 24 hours a day. This is not the case in the Highlands or Skye. Stations are few and far between and many are not open 24 hours. There wasn't a station at the airport either, which is surprising given all the rental agencies there and the fact that you are meant to return vehicle with a full tank of gas.
As another aside, I was given a BMW. The only time I will ever drive one and it was really nice to drive.