One word? When seven would do…

Where were we?

Ah yes, midway along a very midgey nature trail track and deep in the depths of despair about life, the universe and everything!

I’ve lost track of what day was what, I think I did my slightly more positive post on Wednesday so I’ll assume that’s true and start with Thursday.

Thursday is Sheerwater Day. We’ve been every week since we arrived and been gradually seeing more and more out there each week. This week was an odd one – Ady was up with Sandy strimming on the croft, I made a cake for the teashop (I was supposed to bake every day last week but failed to pull that out of the bag at all thanks to everything else going on, but woke on Thursday and decided enough was enough with all the wallowing and I needed to get on with Normal Life again) and walked down with it. Scarlett came with me and when we got back Ady was nowhere to be found. Davies had seen him going one way but not come back. I’d arranged to collect Claire from the Teashop to come out on the Sheerwater with us so after a bit of deliberation and looking around for Ady I decided to leave him a note and take the kids and some lunch out rather than all of us miss the trip.

In the end it was only the three of us, Claire and Izzy (castle chef, I’ve mentioned her before I think, if not I am about to update the ‘Rum Lot’ biographies on the side bar soon). The trip over was pretty uneventful but just as we approached Soay we saw the Adventure boat coming towards us with a pod of about 10 dolphins all leaping and bow riding around them. It was pretty cool 🙂 Some of them came with our boat for a while too.

We dropped off the post and then headed back and Daniel (one of the crew) called down to say ‘more dolphins coming up’ and suddenly we were right in the middle of the super pod that has been around the Small Isles for the last few weeks. We cut the engines and just stopped. It was one of the most amazing experiences of my life. No sound other than the waves lapping against the boat and the clicking and whistling of the dolphins. Although Rosemarkie has been the most fab experience for dolphin watching (they are bottlenose, these were common dolphins) this trumped that a million times over for being so close you could actually lean out and touch them if you wished. They stayed around us for about 20 minutes leaping, playing and splashing. We all debated jumping in with them and it was very tempting. It was an eerily quiet and almost spiritual experience which all three of us adults said made us feel tearful. I don’t think I’ve ever felt quite so connected with wild animals before, it was as though they were as delighted and enchanted and interested in us as we were with them. My camera battery died with the first shot so I have no footage of it but that is almost better because instead of stressing about the perfect shot or video clip I was resigned to simply living it and committing as much as possible to memory. Izzy has some phone video and all you can hear is Scarlett giving a running commentary on how ‘the sea is alive with dolphins’. Izzy said if Scarlett doesn’t grow up to be a wildlife show presenter she’ll be amazed. I reckon she’ll be keeping that clip just incase (I knew her when she was nine and was with her when she saw her first pod of common dolphins ;)).

Back on Rum (I quite like the fact we leave every week for two hours, even if we never touch dry land. It gives a real sense of perspective to see it as the small island it actually is from a distance) we caught up with Ady. He and Sandy had rung Calmac to check the wheels had arrived and been assured they had and would be on the 2pm ferry the next day.

That night brought heavy rain and our bedroom roof leaked. It all felt pretty bleak and we really struggled to find the energy to even hope the next day would bring anything positive.

We were up early and Claire came up to bring my amber back as the clasp was broken and she fixed it for me. We’d decided me not wearing it last weekend had been part of the bad luck so she got it fixed and delivered for me for Friday. She stayed and had tea and chats with me as I packed everything up again. Ady went to meet Alasdair at the pier and we hoped it would all turn out okay.

However it did not pan out that way as although Alasdair arrived, on a boat, with Chris and Dean also from Eigg the wheels did not. They were not on the 2pm ferry. It was a crushing moment really, there is a manifest that comes in with the boat saying what has come in and for whom and it clearly said ‘Goddard, 1 box’ but there was nothing for us at all. I rang Calmac and was assured it had been put on and nothing had been left behind which meant it must still be on the boat heading for Canna. Two people rang ahead to Canna for us to ensure that if it did come off there it would be put straight back on the boat. In the meantime Chris (who appears to be something of an eccentric genius – he lives alone on his boat, moored off of Eigg and looks like Captain Birdseye) managed to straighten the axle that we’d all been trying various methods on all week and failed. He is slow and steady and thinks things through which there had been all too little of last weekend. I credit him with much of where we are now.

We went back to meet the later ferry incase it had gone to Canna and back but there was nothing on there. We talked to the skipper – Ben who by now knew the story and promised to see what he could find out back at Mallaig but was worried it may have gone on the Eigg and Muck ferry instead, in which case it may be sitting on one of those Isles instead. We came back to the shop and after various phonecalls managed to get hold of the only person at Calmac Mallaig who knows what she is doing – Cat. She went down to the freight cage, opened the parcel to check it had wheels in it and put it on the van ready to be driven onto the Rum ferry on Saturday morning herself, came back the phone and apologised that ‘we employ idiots’. Love her! That done, with an assurance we trusted that they would be with us first thing on Saturday we retired from static business for the evening and had a drink with everyone. We went off to get dinner sorted for us and the kids and then we went down for another drink while Davies and Scarlett watched a film at the static. It turned into something of a session, with Alasdair spending over £100 at the shop. Ady left to put the kids to bed, I stayed awhile but didn’t drink much and headed off at 1130 leaving them all in full swing still. I hear it went on til 3am, ended with dinner back at the castle and was a real party to remember.

We were not in a party place…

Saturday was an early start – Ady and I headed to the boat and sure enough the wheels were there. Apparently they’d even radioed ahead to Neil (on harbourmaster duty) to say ‘the boat contains the wheels!’ 🙂 We gathered them up and headed towards the static. Chris was along the path so we collected him too. Up at the static we soon had a workforce of Sandy, Mike and Ian. The wheels went on and then Sandy went to fetch Alasdair and Dean and the day began. The kids went down to Fliss and Sandy’s to watch a dvd with Bonnie so they stayed out of the way for the duration of the day which made it much easier than last week.

I cannot say it went easily and there were challenges every single step of the way with things to dig out, move and pull straight as we went. The tractor broke down in the middle of the ford so we stopped for half time oranges. The midges were evil so most of us were in midge jackets / hoods the whole time which really didn’t help with the heat or vision but slowly and surely it got there. We crossed various paths, turned corners, navigated round rocks and banks, crossed the river and finally, finally crossed the gate and into the croft. It didn’t go smoothly even from there as we needed the mats all the way up the croft hill and we almost lost it into the ditch just inside the croft. All the animals were freaked out by this massive tractor and static moving alongside them but to cheers, camera clicks and a feeling that it wasn’t quite real we were there. On the croft.
Words can’t quite express what a feeling that is. Our view is stunning, all the more amazing for the length of hassle it has been to get it here. Ian came and helped us level it, Vikki brought up sandwiches and elderflower fizz to toast it and then we headed down to the village. We said goodbye and thank you to Alasdair and Dean – we have not yet settled up with Alasdair, we’ll sort that out later. We were given housewarming bottles of wine from Abby and James (castle staff), Claire and Steve and tonight Mike brought up a card and bottle of whiskey. Rachel came up with a bottle of cava and the whole village is thrilled for us with congratulations coming from even the most surly and grumpy of quarters. It felt like a real community effort yesterday.

We had a drink and then came home for dinner. A really late night but with no reason to be up for anything specific this morning that was fine. Home. On the croft 🙂

Today has been lovely. Ian came up for a cup of tea and chat about hydro power, then Ady and I returned the mats we have borrowed from Billy the contractor on the castle and put a wash on. The kids stayed at the croft with Bonnie and played in the river. We caught up with the castle staff and Abby took us on a castle tour which we had not actually managed to do before – amazing place.

Back at home Ady strimmed round the pigs as Barbara keeps escaping, I hung out the washing and then sorted out the horsebox a bit to get various things out now we are not so worried about weight in the static. While I was doing it Rachel arrived with Sika so Sika and Bonnie had a great hour racing about the croft together while Rachel, Ady and I had a bottle of cava to toast us getting home. We can actually see each others houses now 🙂 We walked down to the village with Rachel along the north nature trail which is probably our quickest walking route to the village at about ten minutes and certainly a smoother walk.

Back for dinner – beef stew and dumplings. And some breadmaking as the oven was on, along with a cake for Teashop tomorrow and cinnamon roll dough for breakfast in the morning in celebration of being here at last. Mike called in with a card and bottle of whiskey and Kate sent a text to arrange to go to Harris tomorrow evening. Suddenly everything feels wonderful and possible again. I know there will be many more challenges ahead and hopefully we’ll face them with more positivity than we managed this last issue but it’s over now and life is good again :).