One word? When seven would do…

Tuesday – the start of the epic journey ‘home’. We woke to pouring rain, which felt like it must be in some way symbolic, I just wasn’t sure quite how. Tasha tweeted to say ‘Worthing skies are crying because Nic is leaving’.

We’d talked about being away between 10am and 11am, knowing full well it would be a challenge so when we actually left at 1130am I didn’t think that was too bad going. It certainly felt different towing the horse box fully loaded, even more different to towing it half full on Sunday. Scarlett asked ‘what’s the matter with the car?’ when we had been going about 4 miles. So it was a slow and steady drive to Sheffield, rather like being back in Willow again. And with a similar sort of fuel consumption too!

As we passed through Chesterfield Babs rang to say ‘Guess what?’ to which my joking reply of ‘you’re still in France?’ was met with the chilling words ‘I’ve missed my flight’ 🙁 Babs gave me a couple of numbers to contact Chris who was supposed to be heading out of school and on his way to pick her up so I spent a frantic 15 minutes trying to get hold of Chris, eventually persuading the girl on reception to run and find him. Fortunately she did and so at least Chris didn’t head off towards an airport where Babs was not going to be.

We pulled up at Babs’ and without thinking things through properly pulled into the turning circle at the end of their road which had another car parked in it and promptly got stuck! James came out (Kirsty & co were at Babs’) and Ady and James unhitched the horse box which then dropped too low to hitch back on again due to all the weight in it. About 20 minutes of rather stressful negotiating commenced with Ady, James and I eventually tugging it round by hand, then getting the Pajero in position pointing down the road, lifting it back up to re-hitch it and then driving down the road. This also involved James’ car jack, several swear words and all three of us going funny colours trying to push, pull and lift a very loaded up horse box!

That done we retired to drink tea, mix up pizza dough and lament poor Babs being trapped in France. Chris arrived home and eventually we found ourselves some hours later with Chris on the phone to Babs trying to work out the best way of getting her from Stanstead airport the following evening, Kirsty and I frantically getting stuck pizza dough off al three of the pizza stones (Kirsty did tell me the dough was too runny, I failed to listen!) and Ady and James outside in the growing darkness trying desperately to close the back door of the Pajero which had stuck open and then trying desperately to open the back door of the Pajero when it stuck closed! Not the way any of us had imagined the evening!

Later after James had gone home, the kids had gone to sleep and Chris and Ady had gone to bed Kirsty and I stayed up and chatted. Definitely a Babs shaped hole 🙁

Wednesday – I woke up pretty early considering the late night but with loads to do once I had stirred about 8am I got up rather than going back to sleep as I normally would. We spent the morning being very efficient opening accounts at Harbro and Direct Pet Supplies pet and livestock suppliers in Fort William, so we are now able to ring through orders and get stuff delivered. I also had some email exchanges with the puppy breeder to coordinate puppy collection for the following day, with Neil and Sue on Eigg about various things including setting up a weekend visit to them sometime over the summer and with Shiona, who lives near Mallaig and is selling us a breeding pair of pigs – Kune Kune crossed with Gloucester Old Spot. Our plan is for them to be our stock for breeding meat but to use them to clear large chunks of land for us aswell. They are ready as soon as we are, mid May at the latest, so chicken and duck houses followed by pig fencing and shelter now top of the priority lists!

After lunch Ady and I unhitched the horse box and went to Lidl and Tesco for a few bits we decided would be best bought before we left the mainland – loo rolls, toothpaste, pasta, rice, cleaning stuff, flour and so on. We also went to Screwfix to collect three jerry cans we’d reserved online – two for petrol and one for diesel. We filled the Pajero up with fuel and then headed back. James arrived not too long after us and we fed the kids. The Barts left having given us a fab present of a 1947 cloth map of Rum 🙂 Thanks guys xxx

Babs and Chris arrived shortly afterwards so we got some food sorted and sat to eat with them. It was a later night than was really sensible given the enormity of the following day but it felt such a short snatched time with Barbara I was desperate to eke out every last possible moment.

Thursday started at 6am – ouch! We were up, dressed and out by 630am and breakfasted on the way. We stopped first at Cumbria, again at a services somewhere along the M6 and then carried on the whole way. Stops were for wee breaks and fuel refills only, we had food packed to keep us going. When we left Babs the satnav said we’d be there for 145pm, it was actually closed to 430pm when we finally arrived. We’d looked on googlemaps and google earth the day before to gauge the best place to park so did that and walked across to the vets were we’d arranged to see the puppies. The breeder, Heather, is the practise manager there and had brought one dog and one bitch for us to see. The dog was gorgeous, quite a bit bigger and more boisterous than the bitch but we decided the calmer of the two was probably our best option and I had wanted a bitch really anyway. So after discussions about puppy training, feeding, vaccinations, neutering and so on we left, several hundred pounds poorer with a squirming mass of black and white fluff in our arms.

We’d had much discussions about a name for the puppy with Willow and Wanda front runners. Davies didn’t like Willow as he was not keen on anything replacing the original Willow, Ady was less keen on Wanda. The rest of us liked the idea of having a dog called Wanda to keep the wonder / wander theme going. She was Wanda for a short time when suddenly Davies had the brainwave of Bonnie, as in Bonnie Scotland or bonny wee lass. It was perfect, so Bonnie she is 🙂

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We left Bonnie in the car with the kids to all get to know each other while Ady and I dashed into Morrisons for dinner and other last minute supplies, then we went back south to Acharn Farm where we’d booked a night in a wigwam. I cannot recommend it highly enough. Corrinne, the owner was the most welcomming, warm and friendly host. She struck just the perfect mix of seeing us in and making us feel at home while not swamping us or making us feel on show. She took our pizzas off us when we realised there was not an oven to cook them in and brought them back cooked for us, along with a beer each for Ady and I. Her son lives about 10 doors down from my parents (you would not believe how many people we have met in the last week who have connections with Worthing!). She was hugely supportive of our adventures, loved Bonnie and only charged us £30 for the night. I think it was the best nights sleep I’ve had in months! Bonnie was an angel – slept right through happily in her crate, the cushions of the converted bed was so comfortable and when we realised we had no phone or mifi signal we all went to bed together around 10pm and instantly fell asleep.

Friday which meant we were all awake again by about 7am and ready go to by 8am. Corrine saw us out with the reversing and we were on our way. We stopped at Harbro the animal feed wholesalers on the way to pick up a tick comb and a brush for Bonnnie and then on to Mallaig. We arrived really early, by about 11am and saw Richard, the SNH Reserve Managed there and Ali and Eve (Ali is the deer research assistant, married to Sean the estate worker for SNH and Eve their 4yo daughter) all coming back to Rum with vehicles. Ady asked Richard for help reversing on to the ferry which he’d been really stressing about and Richard agreed to do it for us :). The ferry was delayed anyway so we then had about 90 minutes to kill. We went to Johnstons Bros the petrol station and hardware store, bought stickers for our jerry cans, filled two of them up with petrol, got the dangerous goods licence to fill out for the ferry crossing, talked to them about how it works ordering things and got contact details to do so, went to the CoOp for some very last minute bits and chatted to every other person we walked past on account of having the cutest puppy in town along with us 🙂 Everyone told us how we’d love it on Rum and that this area is the best place to live :). Back at the ferry we chatted to Ali and Eve which was good.

The ferry crossing felt very symbolic and fortunately it was a good, smooth one. The sea was like glass, smooth and gorgeously reflecting the blue skies. We could see a warship in the distance skirting the small isles with a helicopter escort, a jet flew over a couple of times and then the captain announced there were dolphins riding alongside the boat so there was a mass exodus outside to watch that. We saw them several times afterwards. Amazing to think of all the dolphin chasing we have done over the years and how now they are just part of our commute home! 🙂

We arrived and Fliss and Georgie were there to meet us with hugs and ‘welcome to Rum’. Fliss told me the other islanders watching us drive off (we were last on, so first off the boat) had been chanting ‘fresh meat, fresh meat!’ which I found both amusing and rather alarming!

We had a quick chat, were introduced to a few people we’d not previously met and then drove along to the castle to check in. On the way we were flagged down by Norman, who is the postman as he had some mail for us – the doll from PlayMerrily, the invoice for the chickens and ducks arriving in a couple of weeks and the no claims discount proof for my car insurance! In the castle we found our room -we’re all together in one room this time and have managed to bring Bonnie up to the room in her crate too which is nice.

We took the Pajero and horse box up to the croft to unhitch the horse box. We managed to get just inside the croft land and it all got stuck. We unhitched the horse box and then got the Pajero stuck. The kids went off with Bonnie and various props and made a camp next to the river while Ady and I puzzled out the best way of getting the car out. It took about an hour but we got there 🙂

Back at the castle we had some food, chatted to people and then wandered along to the shop which serves as an evening hang out too. A few people were there including their dogs so Bonnie got to socialise too 🙂 Kids and dogs ran round with sticks while adults had a beer and some getting to know each other chats. All good 🙂

Back at the castle the gas supply ran out so we had to call out Rachel the catering manager to sort it. It made for a late dinner but I think we were all just so amazed to finally be here an early night was never on the cards anyway.

Saturday – the beach clean. Bag packed with food and water for Bonnie and some sausages for us we were collected at 930am by Ranger Mike and along with Rachel and her sister (over visiting for the weekend) and her little son we all bundled into the landrover and headed over to Kilmory. It’s about 6 miles away, very rough ground, about a 2.5hr walk and a half hour drive due to the roughness of the path. We went through the Jurassic Park esque gates to the National Nature Reserve (NNR) and within a few minutes started seeing deer. There are about 900 on the island and as part of a uni study they have been watched and researched for years.

Mike gave us a bit of a tour talk as he drove us there and then we started gathering rubbish and putting it in to big sacks to be hauled back up later. Amazing how much stuff washes up on the beaches. There is a big wrecked fishing boat from France just around the corner from the bay and most of the stuff is from there apparently. Quite a lot of ill feeling towards fishermen from the islanders. We worked for a couple of hours on that in the perfect sunshine. Davies, Scarlett and Bonnie spent the time playing on the beach and both the kids have loads of new freckles and healthy looking glows about them again :). So lovely to see them running with Bonnie on a beach 🙂

Ady carried on helping Mike but I stopped to chat to Ali who had arrived. Some swapping of life stories and fledgling friendship building stuff :). We cleared the whole of that section and then dragged it all up the hill to Martyn’s. He is the deer research person and lives alone at Kilmory in his little house. A really cool bloke, who is a zoologist but told me his degree counted for nothing and everything he’s done has been based on experience which he got working as a volunteer on research projects for about 10 years. He’s worked all over the world with meerkats, lions, turtles, wild dogs, chameleons and of course deer. He told us (mostly Scarlett and I – understandably Scarlett was loving every bit of this) about his role – the deer year is three seasons – currently we’re in mortality season where most of the deer deaths happen, those in poor condition who have used all their reserves through the winter and just don’t quite make it to the spring/summer. Martyn’s job is to post mortem them all – take bloody, fur, tusks and any other samples possible dependant on the freshness of the corpse. Next season is calving, new calves born. Martyn watches the pregnant hinds and knows the signs to be aware when they have calved. He then finds the calf and has just seven minutes to do his thing – weigh and measure, insert ear tags and collars and just check their general health. He likes to find calves at a day old before they have become nervous. His study is a mecca to the curious about animals no matter how gruesome it might be nine year old girl called Scarlett 🙂 He showed her his little book in which every single hind is listed, by name with distinguishing features, ear tags and collars. Stags do not have their own name, instead they take their mothers name and their year of birth, so Davies would be Nic 2000. Martyn was fascinating, really up for telling us how it all works and keen to have us visit again to learn more. What a fab contact 🙂

While talking to Mike he invited us out on the Thursday sightseeing tour to Soay – usually £10 per head but he said we can go as often as we like for free. It’s the small rib that takes the post out to the three people who live on Soay from Rum once a week and Mike comes along to give a commentary on wildlife spotted on the way. Again, what a fab person to have in our lives with all his knowledge and passion.

We had lunch – sausages over the open fire and I sat and chatted to Ali for a bit longer while the kids headed back to the beach with Bonnie. Then the adults went to help Sandy who was moving the seven massive panels (as in 15 foot square) which will be made into a new hide for the red deer rut and needs putting up on the cliff edge. It took eight of us, two on each corner and was bloody hard work, just like WWOOFing! My knees knew I’d done some work last night!

That done we had another cup of tea with Martyn, more chatting and then back to the village. We wandered down the shop later for a beer, chat and play where Bonnie was really thrilled to meet a couple more dogs and make friends 🙂

Another late night for dinner.

Sunday – today. I’m racing through this because it’s nearly 2am, I’m really tired and I want to go to bed, but I know I’m already forgetting stuff so I want to get it down and I can come back later with details and pictures.

This morning we went off to the croft land. I’ve not had much one to one time with Bonnie and it was another gloriously sunny morning so Bonnie and I walked while the others drove. Bonnie was a star with her walking (she’s rarely on a lead, the issues of car etc don’t exist!) and stayed with me all the way aside from one brief confusing moment for her when I didn’t head towards the village as we’d done every other time she came 🙂

The kids and dog played in the river, I caught up with texts and emails and phonecalls – we have signal on our land :).

We had one of those perfect moments today, Ady and I sat drinking a cup of tea looking out over our land, sea eagles circling overhead, sun shining, kids and dog happily playing and the gentle sound of the river running by. We have all sorts of concerns about the static and other moving stuff but today we found time to take deep breaths and remember why we’re here.

Like I say loads more to tell, I want to write properly about Bonnie, ticks, people, stresses and so on but I’m falling asleep over my laptop and tomorrow is another busy day!