When driving up the West coast of Scotland you can't get too far without seeing a lot of signs warning about deer. I'v seen my fair share of them standing at the side of the road in darkness and to be honest, that's frightening enough! This time I wasn't so lucky. It leaped out of the forest and right in front of my car, I managed to slow down but it wasn't enough, and she got hit to the side of the road. It took me a few seconds to make sure I was safe to stop, pulled over and put on my hazard lights, it was pitch black and not a chance of any phone signal.
He immediately told me “it’s f*cked”.
The front bumper was bashed and torn but it looked ok under the hood, I figured I'd be fine. As I was about to fix up and leave a truck pulled in front of me and a guy and his little daughter got out to make sure I was alright. As luck would have it, he’s a mechanic and took a look under the hood before i closed it. He immediately told me “it’s f*cked”…
After a bit of fiddling about while i stood and chatted to his little daughter about spotting dinosaur footprints in Skye, he deemed the coolant reservoir dead, but had an idea that might get me to the hotel a little down the road. He ripped it out, cut it up, took random bits of plastic and jammed some pipes together, told me it should work, just keep an eye on the engine overheating light while driving. Didn’t feel too great about that, but what else was i gonna do?
I made it to the hotel, the car seemed fine! But i wasn’t about to risk it without knowing more. Found a few repair garages on the map, the best of which were en-route to Skye. I made it as far as Eilean Donan Castle before setting up camp for the night. The van is still pretty bare, but i did get a super thermal fisherman’s extra large sleeping bag which done the trick nicely.
I got to the garage pretty early, but was a little disheartened to be told “we’re booked solid till the end of December… i dont know if you want to wait that long?”. But, the second place on the list was a great help. He patched up my bumper, took a look at the handy work inside and confirmed that, as long as my engine stays cool, it’ll run. Crisis averted! Now I’m in Skye, so… might as well take some pictures.
A couple of days in Skye is never a bad thing, so i found myself a nice little AirBnB, got a bottle of red wine and made my way to Staffin… turns out my back garden is The Quiraing. Not bad at all, and i had just enough time to settle in, get some food and make my way there for some blue hour goodness.
