We left my house, and took a bus to Portree, the capital of Skye. I like Portree, but it was nothing new. It’s where I went every day for school. On our island there is only one school and everyone goes there. Well, that’s not exactly true. There’s also a school for humans. I knew Portree like the back of my paw. Kate had already been through as well, since all roads on the island pass through Portree. On Skye the public buses double as school buses. We got on the same bus I had taken to school every day for ten years. Sitting there I felt so cool. I was not going to school – I was leaving the island to embark on an adventure. I hoped that I was putting out the vibe of a traveler. I wanted to tell everyone on the bus, tell the whole world. But I didn’t think that was a very traveler like thing to do. So I sat and looked out the window at the scenery I had seen a million times, but would not see for a very long time.
Kate wanted to visit Dunvegan and the castle. I visited Dunvegan in primary school, but it had been a long time. And since I was new at traveling, I thought maybe I would let Kate make the plans. When we got to Portree we discovered it was three hours until the bus to Dunvegan was departing.
“Do people ever hitchhike on Skye?” Kate asked me.
I looked at her, startled. What had I gotten myself into? “Some people do,” I replied. “I never have, my mom always said it was too dangerous.”
“So did mine,” Kate confided “and so I never have either. Want to give it a try? If we don’t make it in three hours we can always take the bus.”
It was Kate’s first time hitchhiking too. I felt so relieved. She hadn’t done everything. We weren’t having any luck, and so we started walking. Kate is a bit impatient it seems. About twenty minutes later a car pulled up next to us. Inside were two old men.
“Where are you going?” asked the old man who was driving.
“Dunvegan,” Kate replied
“I’m going that direction” the old man said. “Would you like a lift?”
After we got into the car, the old man told us he was taking his friend, the other old man, into town to buy groceries. He had passed us on the way into town, so he decided to stop when he saw us a second time.
“My friend is the grounds keeper at a hotel,” said the driving old man. He seemed to be less old than his friend the groundskeeper, who didn’t talk at all. I was a bit amazed that he was still managing to do the hard labor of a groundskeeper.
“The hotel used to be very posh, but then it was bought by different people and the times changed, and now it is not what it once was.”
Curious Kate took advantage of the situation to learn more about Skye.
“What else has changed since you have been living on Skye?” she asked. I’ve notice that people love it if you ask them questions about their life.
“In the old days, few people had cars, and so grocery vans would come to the little towns. On van on Wednesday and another on Saturdays. Families grew a lot of their own food, and had dairy products from their cows. Now it’s too much effort to milk the cows – I buy my milk at the grocery store. A lot of the young people are moving away, and they are building 300 council houses in Portree, so a lot of people from the villages are going to move to town so they can be close to the schools and the shops and everything.”
After dropping us off his groundskeeper friend, the old man dropped us off on the way to Dunvegan.
We waited about ten minutes, when a car drove back the way we had come and then turned around. We were a bit confused. Why were they turning around? Rolling down the window, we saw an older couple.
“Where are you going?” they asked.
“Dunvegan,” we replied together.
“Get in,” they said. Apparently they had driven past and wanted to pick us up, but there was a police car right behind them and they couldn’t stop. So they turned around and came back for us. In the backseat was a dog. A very friendly dog. He was a bit excited to see me, and licked me with such force I thought I was going to fall off the seat. The dog asked me what I was doing, and I told him that I was traveling. I wanted to see the world.
“Interesting,” he said. “A traveling Mouse.”
“Are you talking to the dog?” Kate asked me.
“Yes,” I replied, a little surprised. “Why?”
“Well, it sounded like you were talking, but I can’t understand what you’re saying.”
“That’s because you are a human.”
“What did he say?”
I repeated the conversation for her. “Wow” was all she could manage to say.
“Where are you going to stay?” the woman asked.
“We’re camping,” Kate replied. “A campground if we can find one.”
I couldn’t believe it. The couple drove around, found the campground, drove us down the narrow road, and then, left us at tourist information so we could ask questions. I was amazed at the kindness of complete strangers, to turn around and come back and get us, and then help us find the campground.
The lady at tourist information told us that she would not recommend wild camping, and that we had just visited the only campsite, so we walked the long way back. My bag was getting heavy, and I found myself wishing we had just let them drop us off at the campsite, and not gone to inquire about wild camping. At least it wasn’t raining. With weary paws we arrived back at the campsite and I watched while Kate put up the tent. I offered to help, but she told me she had gotten so used to doing it alone, it was easier that way. I was lucky. I’m small and Kate has a two person tent.
As soon as we set up the tent, we walked the long way back to tourist information, and then another long way to the Dunvegan Castle. The Dunvegan Castle looks exactly how I think a castle should look – dark, imposing, like it came right out of the middle ages. The outside does not match the inside, unfortunately. They had a decorator come in the wrong time period, and the whole place is frilly and fluffy, and not at all castle-like. And there was a video about the history of the castle – but of course they forgot the history of the castle mice – very important stuff if you ask me. When my school visited we learned about the history of both mice and people. Bah.
That night we had pasta cooked on Kate’s camp stove before going to sleep. She had planned to meet a friend from her time walking the west highland way, and so we were going to Glasgow the next day. And, looking at the bus Schedule, we were going to have to wake up super early.
Going to sleep that night nothing seemed different. I had been camping before with my family and friends. The people talked the same. The place smelled the same. I had been to Dunvegan before. But I could feel the butterflies in my stomach start. Tomorrow I was leaving my island, going down a road I had never been down before, to the biggest city in Scotland. What would it be like? Big? Noisy? Smelly? Dangerous? Would I like it? Would I miss home? Could I really do this traveling thing? Be a traveling mouse?