Kyleakin, Skye

Yesterday I left Portree early to ride to catch the ferry 40 miles away. The forecast was for heavy rain and wind in the afternoon, but morning looked ok, just the inevitable drizzle. Ha. Fifteen minutes later the rain was coming down in buckets and the headwind was blasting me. Drenched and chilled I stopped after 10 miles at a hotel, thinking to get a taxi to the ferry port, only to find out that all ferries were canceled. I had of course made hotel and train reservations, all now lost if I couldn't get across. The very helpful receptionist took pity on me and suggested I flag down a bus to the mainland via the Skye bridge, but the driver said he had no space to take a bike. Back to hotel, the receptionist gave me a free cup of tea, said they had no rooms available, and after some effort found me a place to stay, the last bed available at the Saucy Mary bunkhouse 25 miles away. So I head back into wind and wet, and eventually the sun comes out in the afternoon, so much for believing Skye forecasts.
Kyleakin is a very pretty village at the base of the Skye bridge. The bunkhouse was like a dormitory, complete with drunken students making noise all night. But I did meet roommate Florian, an art student from Stuttgart studying at Edinburgh, out on a quick walking tour; he attempted Ben Nevis but rain turned him back. We ate dinner together and had a great conversation. Exhausted I did manage to sleep despite the carousing, but decided to stay another night at the backpacker hostel nearby, cheaper,

quieter, cleaner, nicer. The ferry reported a high likelihood of "service disruptions" the next few days, so I'm stuck on Skye, not the worse place to be.

"Saucy Mary" refers to a Norwegian princess married to a MacKinnon chief, whose ruined 15th century castle Moil is a wet walk from the village. The loch is very narrow  there, making it easy to block it with a chain and thus collect tolls from passing ships.