Carters Rest : home away from home...

  Milovaig, United Kingdom
Thursday, May 1, 2008

1st May 2008:
 
Arrival in Skye and THAT "Special Place" :
 
Arrived at Kylerhea, Skye via ferry from Glenelg at approximately 5.00pm - totally exhausted as we have been in the car since early in the morning.

Greeted by Skye

 

In all our travels together, there has always been a "game" between Argi and I, whereby we will take turns to plan a surprise "finale" stay / accommodation for every trip which we make.
 
Our travel style / pattern is simple, we always start out rather rough and cheap, meaning, the beginning of our trip to a destination will always be packed with full outdoor adventures and sight-seeing without much luxury for the

Cotton Candyfloss Clouds

first few days. We will normally book somewhere reasonably cheap (but clean) to sleep because we reckon that we will be out and about during most of the day anyway.
 
However, towards the end of each trip, we will plan a surprise for the other by choosing a special place to stay whereby we can just relax and wind down from the tiredness of the first few hectic days which we have had. This "Special Place" need not necessarily be extravagantly expensive or luxurious, but it must be SPECIAL, in terms of its location, service, authenticity and uniqueness, to name just a few. In other words, there must be something about this place which is distinctly different from the others, it must be a cut above the rest, a class on its own right, so to speak.

For our trip to the Isle of Skye, it was my turn to surprise Argi and after much research on the Misty Isle, I chose Carters Rest Guesthouse, situated at Upper Milovaig as that Special Place to end our journey in Scotland.
 

Carters Rest Guesthouse - a gem:
 
The main reason which prompted me to choose this place over the others was its location. The guesthouse is situated at the North Western tip of the island, facing the sea. When I first looked at the aerial photograph of the guesthouse on its website, I was immediately enchanted by the sight I saw. I then checked the types of rooms they have and I liked what I saw and went ahead to make enquiries about the booking via the internet.

Welcome to Carters Rest

Unlike many other places which I have contacted via internet before I discovered Carters (yes, I only discovered this gem much later), the owners replied me almost immediately. I was at the verge of giving up when I had not received any replies from the other B & B's, thinking that perhaps the internet connection in Skye was

View outside Carters Rest

really bad (which I found out later was absolutely untrue).
 
When I received an affirmative email from Carters on the dates I requested for, the booking was promptly made and I was really excited at what Argi would think about this Special Place. I didn't want to disappoint him as he had made some excellent choices with his Special Places during our many trips around Asia.
 
The roads leading to Carters:
 
We have foolishly mistaken the size of Skye. We thought that since it is an island, travelling from one end to the other must be quite near and easy - but we were so wrong!

Starting our journey to Milovaig

A series of serpentine single track roads led us from the ferry pier in Kylerhea towards Broadford where we headed north.  
 
Most roads here are single track and that sort of slow you down as you have to be careful of the incoming

And it was sunny !!

vehicles and stop for each other to pass at the many familiar "Passing Place" signs fixed on the roads. From the ferry point at Kylerhea to Carters, I was driving at 70mph (ssshh!!) because I wanted to make it to Carters by 6.00pm. I had booked dinner for us and I didn't like to be late.

Dramatic Scene

 
But even at that speed, we reached Carters at only about 6.30pm...sigh !! I tried my best but I could tell that my navigator was looking quite pale and was quite silent throughout our drive! Hahaha!!
 
The drive up to this rural part was quite beautiful.

Beautiful...

Despite the rush, we couldn't resist some of the beautiful sights and stopped for some quick clicks on our trustworthy Nero to capture the moody clouds of Skye.
 
 
The warmth of Carters:
 
It was rather windy the day we arrived, quite chilly as well but as soon as we knocked on the doors of Carters, we were greeted by the warmth hospitality of Betty, the Lady of the Manor.
 
Betty runs Carters together with her husband, Freddie, who is an extraordinary cook. They only rent out 3 rooms 

Argi working at the lounge - Carters Rest

  in their immaculate home, the master bedroom being rated 5-star (it has a private Jacuzzi in its ensuite bathroom) and a Sony laptop with free internet connection. The other 2 rooms are rated 4-star, which was what I have booked for us - a double room with ensuite bathroom (no Jacuzzi, of course) but we were provided with a cool Asus laptop with free internet connection. Fresh, clean white towels were also provided everyday, loads of coffee,tea and biscuits were neatlay arranged in a huge tray by our bedside, an ironing board, a hair dryer, a torchlight...(i hope we didn't leave anything out) and the bed was oh so comfortable!! The room was warm ; besides the central heating, an additional heater was also provided in case it got too chilly at night. All these extra personal touches are so rare in commercial accomodation and Betty's simple touches gave us a feeling like we were actually staying at an aunt's place. Absolutely marvellous !!

Fireplace @ Living Room

 

Entrance to Carters - shows the owners' humour

Besides the 3 rooms, they also rent out self-catering accomodation, which has a separate entrance and total privacy from the main guesthouse. 
 

Freddie's fantastic cooking :
 
We were immediately whisked by Betty into the warm guesthouse's dining room, which is a cosy 3-sided-half-glass enclosure, strategically built in a position to give the diners the spectacular views of the green, sea and hills outside the guesthouse.

The cosy dining room - spectacular view

 
Freddie, as we found out later, used to work as a chef in many hotels before deciding to move to Skye and set up the guesthouse with his wife. When I booked dinner for our first night at Carters, it was only for convenience's sake. I knew we were going to be very tired after a whole day of driving from Drumnadrochit and I didn't fancy arriving at the guesthouse hungry and having to look for food in the village, although I have read about the famous Three Chimneys Restuarant not far from the guesthouse.

Outside the dinning room

 
Freddie cooked different meals every night and dinner in the guesthouse is not compulsory or forcefully included in their rates. On the first night we were there, we were served with Freddie's lasagne. Now, Argi has studied in Milan for 7 years and he knows a good lasagne when he tastes one - and if Argi says a lasagne is delicious, we have got to believe him! He gave full marks to the lasagne he had that night at Carters!

Hairy cow outside Carters Rest

 
The food was delicious, the red wine was good, the guesthouse was warm, the service was excellent, the view from the dining room was magnificent -  so, how did you think i fare in my choice of the Special Place? According to Argi, I scored BIG !!

BaAa BaaAa Sheep outside Carters Rest

 
 Carters - home away from home:
 
We stayed 3 nights with the Mr and Mrs Carters and became friends with another couple who was staying there for the same duration as us  - Rainer and Sandra from Germany. All the four of us looked forward to Freddie's cooking every night for our dinner AND being pampered excessively by Betty.

Rainer & Sandra; Us; Betty & Freddie

 
It really felt like a home for us; we will all be out and about exploring Skye during the day and when we were all exhausted, we had a warm guesthouse to come back to where we could indulge in a warm strong shower before being served with excellent 5-star dinner by the ever gracious and polite Betty. 

Living Room - Carters Rest

Xuanyi on the way to scoring...

 
In the cosy dining room, we would all be exchanging stories about what we have been up to during the day while enjoying our wine and some local Cuillin Beer which was not at all that bitter (for one who hated beer like me!). At the same time, we got to feast our eyes on the splendid sea-and-hill view outside our warm dining room.
 
Did we just dedicate an entire whole entry to Carters on this Blog?  Gosh !! They must be really special! We don't think we are exaggerating here and we are certainly not paid to write this!  We have travelled to many places over the years but in all the places we have travelled, we have NEVER felt so at home as in this place.
 
I agree totally with what Argi has summed up - that Betty and Freddie are both efficient and excellent enough in what they do to serve the Queen! To my Malaysian ears, I even commented to Betty that she speaks the Queen's English - impeccable, coupled with some gracious class.
 
I guess our stay here was also made more enjoyable by the presence of Rainer and Sandra. We have never met a

AaaawW...so loving :-)

couple who is so like us in many ways and we hope our encounter with them in Skye will blossom into a long lasting friendship.

The touch of LoVe !!OooooOHhhh...