Alice World Travels

“I got a tent for Christmas and need to do something with it. Do you have any ideas?”

It was a dull January morning and I was frantically sending a voice note to my friend Thidara, eager to have another trip in the pipeline. I had just landed back to the UK from Kenya and could feel the itchiness in my toes starting to creep in.

I’m not a seasoned camper by any means, but I knew that my best travel buddy would be up for making use out of my brand-new tent. And so two days later, our camping trip on the Isle of Skye in the Inner Hebrides of Scotland was beginning to form.

But we hadn’t planned to wild camp.

Wild camping — pitching your tent up in open countryside and not a campsite — is near-impossible in England and Wales, but it’s a completely different story in Scotland. Due to The Land Reform Act of 2003, the public has access rights for unenclosed land in Scotland, including the right to camp.

Even so, we thought that maybe one night of wild camping would suffice. I mean, who wants to go three days without toilets, running water and showers? “Me, me me!” I hear you all say. Yeah, me neither.

But with the long June days and suspiciously un-Scottish warmth permeating this corner of the U.K., even at 10pm, we changed our minds.

Here is what happened.

Day 1: Finding the perfect pitch

After landing at Inverness airport, we stood in the queue at the wrong car rental place. Enterprise and Europcar are easy to mix up, okay?! Once we had found the right one and were greeted by David who took pity on us when he realised we had no midge spray (more on that later), we were off to the Isle of Skye.

We drove around 2 hours to Tokavaig in south Skye, a spectacular area of sheer beauty. Using the app park4night, we found a spot overlooking the glassy Loch Eishort, with the piercing Cuillin Hills providing an other-worldly backdrop. With just two campervans in the vicinity, it was safe but quiet. We had found our spot for the night.

We used our stove to cook vegetarian haggis, mash and green beans, sitting on the beachside by the calm loch. It was the perfect introduction to this part of Scotland.

Tokavaig, our first pitch

Day 2: We’re getting wet

The previous evening was balmy, but we woke up to a light rainy pattering down on our tent, lulling us out of our sleep. Once the rain shower was over, we packed up and headed to the village of Armadale. Located on the Sleat Peninsula, it is home to a rugged shoreline, quaint gift shops and a ferry port. We pottered around a little bit, made lunch and were pleased to see that the grey sky was shifting slightly. Not that we were about to stay dry…

I had booked us an afternoon to explore rivers and canyons on a gorge walking experience in nearby Sligachan with Skye Adventure.

So we donned sturdy helmets, far-too tight wetsuits, and even tighter life jackets, and scrambled our way through the gorge.

As soon as I got in the water, I felt a smile spread across my face: I was in my element. We climbed into plunge pools, slid down waterfalls, swam in crystal clear (and perfectly drinkable) water, and jumped off 10 metre high cliffs into the depths below. It was a complete highlight of the trip, and one which will stay logged only in my memory as we didn’t take photographs — a nice rarity in this Instagram age!

After nestling into a pub for a while to play board games and eat hearty food not cooked by us, we headed to nearby Portree, the capital town of the island, to pitch up in a secluded spot that only the local sheep knew about.

Sligachan, the start of our gorge walking adventure

Day 3: The highs and the lows

We awoke at 7am to gloriously warm sunshine heating up our tent, which we quickly exited for fear of being slowly cooked alive. With the highlands being so, well, high, we hadn’t actually yet seen the night sky, nor did we ever. But the morning sky was a sharp cobalt blue, and it was just the perfect temperature for a hike.

We drove north to the starting point of the Old Man of Storr, probably the most famous walk on the island and one of the most photographed landscapes in the world. The distinctive pinnacle of rock juts out like a sore thumb on the drive to the car park, marking the beginning of the trail. As we began the four-kilometre hike, we noticed that this was the largest amount of people we had yet seen on Skye.

But for good reason.

The walk up to the Old Man of Storr was incredible. Having hiked the Inca Trail in Peru, I could see some visual similarities between the two, with their characteristic rock formations overlooking sweeping, lush greenery. It was also warm and sunny, making it feel hard to believe we were on the west coast of Scotland, notorious for its unforgiving climate.

It usually takes one and a half hours to complete the circular walk, but we took our time, enjoying the views and soaking up just being in the moment. All in all we took about three hours, and it was another highlight on our time in Skye.

The view of the Old Man of Storr

Next, we thought we’d have a proper look at pretty Portree with its bustling atmosphere and row of pastel-coloured houses lining the harbour. We had a picnic overlooking the shore before jumping back in the car for what was not only the most beautiful drive that weekend, but one of the most beautiful drives I have ever taken.

On the very western tip of Skye is Neist Point Lighthouse, and to get there from Portree, we drove along an incredible coastline and through expansive fields, all with glorious sunshine blazing down on us (and cheesy tunes blasting out of the car). When we arrived at the unmanned lighthouse, built in 1909 and perched on a rocky cliff-top, we just sat there looking at the almost-unbelievable view in front of us. For the first time on the trip we did absolutely nothing. It was beautiful.

But we were surely not beautiful. It was time for a shower.

We still wanted to wild camp, enjoying the unpredictability and adventure of it, and having only one night left. So we headed to Kinloch Campsite close to Claigan Coral Beach, meant to be one of the most stunning beaches on the island and our dream destination to camp. Sheepishly, we asked the man behind the desk if we could pay just to use the shower facilities. He took one look at us and said “yes, please go and shower right this second.” Okay, it wasn’t like that at all, but one more day and it might very well have been.

We paid £5 each and had what could only be described as a top tier shower. We were clean, and it was bliss.

Freshly washed and looking fine, we headed for Coral Beach. Parking up, we took all of our camping gear out of the car and set off on the path towards the secluded beach, a 20-minute walk away.

Neist Point Lighthouse

We arrived, and it was everything we had hoped it to be. Beautiful sands, clear water, rolling hills and a flat patch for us to pitch up our tent. So pitch up, we did.

This is when one of the high points turned into the lowest point of the trip. We noticed that no one else was staying there, apart from a lone man. This man came up to us in what can only be described as a slightly creepy manner, and then proceeded to ask us for food and water before telling us to go to an even more secluded area and literally disappearing, running up the side of the hill. Bizarre, yes. Enough to pack up and leave? Probably not.

But we felt slightly uneasy, so decided to ask a nearby couple (and their lovely black Staffie) if this man had asked them for food and water too. If he was that desperate, he would have asked everyone, right? Not just women?

As soon as we mention him, the woman, a Scot from Dundee, let the words fall out of her mouth as she told us of his behaviour throughout the day which only targeted women. I won’t quite say what she told us that made us decide we wouldn’t feel safe that night, but let’s just say that I genuinely thought she was talking about his Cocker Spaniel until I realised he didn’t have a dog…

So we left.

We felt sad that the final evening of our trip was essentially ruined, but I would rather be sad and alive than not, and we found another pleasant place to pitch up close to Dunvegan Castle. Which, besides the insane amount of midges swarming around like a dark, itchy cloud, was a lovely place to enjoy the midnight sunset.

Day 4: Are we in a movie?

Without even considering eating with the midges around (I am itchy just thinking about it), we quickly packed up and headed to another beach. On the way, we spotted a sign for toilets and found a great place overlooking the sea to cook our last breakfast and then wash everything up.

Then, we headed off to our final destination: Camas Daraich Beach.

Enjoying Camas Daraich beach

If there’s anything I’ve learnt in life, it’s that you cannot control it. But you can control your reactions. The previous night left us on a downer, but we just dealt with it, and that led us to an even better beach than Coral.

Camas Daraich is located in the south of Skye, and I almost don’t want to mention it because it deserves to be as untouched as it is. However, once you park up, you have to walk on a rocky road for almost an hour to get there. But when you get there? You’ll be forgiven for thinking you’ve found a shortcut to the Caribbean.

With blindingly-white sands and one of the clearest seas I’ve ever seen, the secluded beach was empty apart from the handful of people who decided to journey on down to it. The sea was cold but worth a dip, with dozens of graceful jellyfish and hundreds of tiny fish flitting around, and after taking an ice-cold dip, we dried off in the heat, heads down away from the sun’s glare.

After a few minutes, a familiar Scottish twang was slowly getting nearer and nearer to us, and I said, without even looking up, “that’s the woman from yesterday. The Scot from Dundee”.

My friend fobbed it off.

“Of course it’s not, that’s just another Scottish woman!”

But then a black Staffie came into view, and the woman immediately recognised us too and came over to chat.

Of course we would bump into someone we had just met at what felt like the most secluded beach in all of Scotland.

“I was just telling my son that I may have saved the lives of two women last night! Glad to see you made it!”

We felt like we were in a (quite terrible, probably) movie at that point.

After chatting to the couple for a bit and taking photos with Bobby, their dog, we headed back to the car and onto Inverness Airport.

We had an action-packed, eventful wild camping trip, and I cannot recommend the Isle of Skye enough. I only wish we had more time there.

Good to know

• If you want to Wild Camp, download the app park4night to find good spots that others have recommended
• I would recommend solo women or groups of women to pitch your tent in a place with a few other tents and camper vans so you’re not completely alone
• If arriving at Inverness Airport, head to a Tesco or another large supermarket first to get any food you might need, as you won’t see big supermarkets like that on Skye
• Our petrol only cost us £40 in total for the whole 4 days, which I thought was very reasonable!
• If you go in June, take a sleep eye mask — it is almost permanently daylight so you will need it if you’re sensitive to light
• DO NOT FORGET MIDGE SPRAY

Words: Alice Bzowska

Photos: either I’m in it or I took it