Their story, in their words…
For our Mark Evison challenge we set about on a three day hike along parts of the notorious skye trail.
Our journey began at Victoria coach station at midnight, where we took a night coach up to Glasgow. After a quick Starbucks trip we hurried onto our next coach to Portree ( the capital town of the isle of skye). Having previously called to ensure an available bus to take us to the top of the Island, when planning, we were sorry to hear no buses would operate until the monday. It was saturday. Here we faced our first hurdle. We quickly conjured up a plan to camp at the portree campsite and altered our original hike.
On the first day, we packed up camp promptly and began our walk. We walked from Portree to The Storr, approximately a three hour trek embracing the breathtaking views and keeping up spirits with music. The walk, although tiring, was a brilliant start to our hike. Upon reaching the bottom of the Storr trail we looked over our new route and had a snack break. Not soon after the real hike began. We hiked along a beautiful path, being encouraged and praised by passers by, who had seen us making our way to the trail. We had originally planned to hike down this sector of the walk so it was considerably steeper than we had anticipated. After many water breaks and what seemed like an endless amount of steps we reached The old man of Storr view point. And the struggle was so worth it! The view was sensational! We stopped to take in the beauty and celebrate. We hiked further past the initial trail and up to the top. After a long, rainy and accomplished day of walking we set up camp in the clouds, then explored.
The following day, we swiftly began our hike back to The old man of Storr viewpoint and back to Portree, to make up for lost time from our bus troubles two days before, then headed to the iconic fairy pools. We embarked on a hike challenged by wind and persistent rain. We walked about two hours not covering much ground, due to the terrain and decided to tackle it the next day. After a hard hike we made it back to the Sligachan campsite for our last night on Skye.
As a group we have learnt to persevere and push ourselves. This experience has not only inspired us to challenge ourselves more but to perhaps come back to Skye and complete the entirety of the seven day trail. We met so many fellow hikers, whose kind words helped us along the way. We are so grateful to have been granted this amazing opportunity to bond and hike as a group. Thank you so much Mark Evinson!
