Scotland Diary: Plockton — Jade Louise Hollier

We made it.

We reached the top of that god-awful road, not even stopping to see what most tourists would ever dare go up there for. It must be good though, judging by the number of vehicles that made their way up and down.

After that treacherous journey, we thought it might be time to head back out of Skye and on to our next stop, Plockton.

We would be staying here for one night in a basic cabin located on an alpaca farm. We had directions from the Airbnb owners, which we mostly ignored, and steadily made our way there. It was a peaceful drive for the most part until we entered the nearby village and got shouted at by some old woman walking her dogs. She’d let them off the lead in the road and as we slowed down to swerve past them, she hurled abuse at us. Seeing as the road was our right of way we could've easily run them over, but of course, chose not to, so I’m not quite sure what she was shouting for, but there we are.

After a few more bends we arrived at the farm. A lady popped out of nowhere and made her way towards us.

‘Hi, we’re booked in for tonight’, Rachel said. ‘Ok, what for?’ said the lady.

Rachel looked at me confused for a minute before replying, ‘for the Airbnb?’

The lady rolled her head slightly, ‘yes, which one?’

‘The cabin?’

‘Which cabin?’ she asked, slightly agitated.

We had no idea there was more than one cabin, let alone different styles, so it felt like a godsend when a man appeared to show us the way. He had a Geordie accent and was much, much nicer than his counterpart. He lead us to the kitchen and lounge area (a small shack with fridges, sinks and cooking facilities, plus a small tv with several DVDs) and then showed us the toilet and shower area, all the while telling us stories of his youth. It felt like being in the American Wild West or something. As if a hillbilly might pop out at any moment and say ‘howdy!’

He then walked us past the nicer-looking cabins, which were more extensive and had electricity, before pointing us down to where we’d be. Down the opposite end of the farm. We couldn’t park down there so it took a fair few treks up and down to get our supplies, fill up our water container and have a look around.

There were alpacas, deer, millions of birds (ducks, geese, chickens, you name it) and even some racoons locked in a cage. No idea what the backstory is for that but we didn’t really go near them as we didn’t think it was quite right.

***Raccoon in it’s cage - sad face :(***

I gathered all my wet clothes and spread them out all over the cabin so that they could finally dry, and once we’d decided on what to have for dinner, we started up our camping equipment and got our cooking hats on. Not literally. We don’t actually have cooking hats.

This is where I first told Rachel about the film, ‘The Cabin in The Woods’.

If you’ve not seen it, it’s basically some weird spoof horror about a group of American teenagers that go and stay in a cabin in the woods. It’s not very good, but it’s not overly bad, and it’s definitely not scary but Rachel still found me rehashing the story scary in itself. So I’d decided that whenever we next found some internet, I was going to make her watch it.

Overall we had quite a nice evening in our little cabin. I didn’t sleep very well but then again, I never do. We had gotten neighbours throughout different periods of the night and when I stepped outside to go to the toilet, I saw a man’s shadow reach his head around the corner of his cabin to look back at ours. Rachel and I had both already decided that the trek to the toilet was way too far in the night so we’d have to be at one with nature and crouch behind the cabin. Well, I couldn’t do that with some man checking me out, could I? So there may or may not have been a moment when I made Rachel wait outside whilst I did my business into a she-wee container…

Rachel had bought a she-wee in preparation for camping but had hardly ever used it. She prefers the old squatting in nature technique, but my body is an odd one. It doesn’t like to just ‘go’. I’ve held on for hours before. A bladder of steel.

After I’d finished with the she-wee, I went to throw the contents away outside and wash it out but in true Jade style, I lost the lid of the container and had no torch to hand. In the end, Rachel came out to help me find it and so with all the commotion we were making, I might as well have relieved myself outside in full view of the man after all.

***The cabin! Complete with me in the only clean dry t-shirt I had left***

When the morning came, we made ourselves some porridge and began the packing away process. Our neighbours were all checking out at pretty much the same time so it was a little awkward having to walk past the man that had spotted me the night before. I did say good morning, which he returned, but his wife wasn’t half as pleasant and had a face like thunder. So maybe I can’t entirely blame him for trying to have a look.

We packed the car as quickly and efficiently as we could before we looked at the map to pick our next destination.

We decided on Gairloch. There are beaches, boats and beautiful country walks, what’s not to love? And even better, it wasn’t too far from Torridon which is a place we had originally planned to visit.

There weren’t many campsites available for us in Gairloch and the one that did accept tents was fully booked. So we had to re-check AirBnB for any availabilities there. Rachel found a cute little shepherd’s hut that looked free, so we messaged the owner and got the go-ahead.

For us, things were running a little too smoothly. Maybe we’d finally got some good luck on our trip?

Either way, we were off to Gairloch!

Read the next entry ‘Scotland Diary: Gairloch | Day One’

Read the previous entry ‘Scotland Diary: Isle of Skye’