Saturday 30/04/05

A bit the worst for wear, after two Glayva's last night, and what not. Finally pull myself together at 1.30 and head out for a walk towards the east. Walk round the coastguard station to Battery Point, then along the shorepath to Lower Sandwick. Two rams baa at me from a field. From a gate at the end of the road, a path leads down to Sandwick Beag, a small pebbly beach blocking off an inland loch. Before that I clambered down to Airdean Beaga, a little cove looking across to Arnish Lighthouse. Proceed uphill, through fields of reeds and gorse to Buaille na Cloiche farmhouse. A youngster is roaring about on a motorised ATB. Two sheep fight by headbutting each other. Make my way across marshland to the start of the path towards the Iolaire monument. Quite a few sheep with lambs here, have also noticed some dead ones. The way round the coast to Tolm is tricky, as it's a sheep path, sometimes high above the shore. Coastal erosion and wear and tear by sheep has rendered it very narrow and well-nigh impassible at time. Finally manage to gain the Tolm roadend and a half mile toil along a pebbly (3 inches) beach concludes this section. It's 3.50 when I reach the airport / Melbost roadend. View south and west is very good today: I can see Skye, the Shiants, Eishken hills, Clisham range and the mountains of South Harris and Uig. Walk up the road towards the airport, then veer right all the way through Mealabost. At the end of the road sits a picnic site above a nice beach, one which stretches for 3/4 miles. The sand is plagued with sandflies, so I stay on the dunes above. At the halfway stage to Aignish, I encounter a man walking his dogs. One of the beasts carries a dead rabbit, which it has obviously killed. Nice. The final stretch leads past the cemetery to the Aignish landraiders' monument. From there, I pick up a bus back to SY at 4.55. This evening, I watched Lord of the Rings 1 on Channel 4, all 200 minutes of it. Two guests turn up off the evening ferry. Sunset incidentally is getting nice and late, about 9.15 pm. It's not even dark at 10 o'clock, and it's going to get even better as the weeks go by.