Tuesday 23/08/05

In the afternoon, I go for a walk to the Iolaire Monument. On the way I take notes and 'directive' pictures, in order that anyone else doing the walk knows what to expect. This is only a short, 7 km / 4½ miles, walk and acts as a trial-run. Go behind the Coastguard Station to Battery Point, then across to Lower Sandwick. There, I speak to a man who has just returned to Lewis after an absence of 4 years in New Zealand. I later learn that this was actually one of the island's GPs. Continue past Stoneyfields Farm to the monument, then retrace my steps. In the evening, the weather deteriorates, the barometer plummets and the wind picks up. We're promised force 9 to 11. Waves crash over the Goat Island causeway at 11 pm.