One word? When seven would do…

We’re not WWOOFing anymore!

I’m not really ready to reflect on the end of the WWOOFing adventure yet although to all intents and purposes we have actually WWOOFed our last days work today. I think if I’ve learnt anything this year it is never say never and you just don’t know what the future may hold. So there is every chance that despite best laid plans we may end up WWOOFing again sooner or later. I think a sentimental post is in order but I’m not in the mood for that right now and I think a bit of distance is essential to even start trying to sum up this year so far.

So I’ll write an account of today for todays sake and come back to the rest of it at some point, probably in the not too distant future.

This morning we were clearing more bramble in preparation for fencing, this time next to the pigs. Ady and I have not actually spent that much time working together at this host so it was quite nice to have a second day of that; talking, planning for the future and generally being silly. I’ve long considered Ady and I one of the happiest couples I know anyway but this year has certainly been lovely spending so much time together.

We finished that just before lunchtime so went down to catch up with the kids who were in the byre making birthday cards for the boy who’s party they will miss tomorrow. The party has a pirate theme so they had made treasure map style cards using tea bags to age the paper and screwing it up to make it look tatty. I was really impressed J

Neil was back for lunch which was all very sociable and then we were tasked with putting in the corner posts for the fencing in the holes we’d dug yesterday. This involved baling out water with a bucket, lifting the posts into place and then mixing up a dry mix of sand and cement to pack in around the posts – the water will rise up again to set the mix. It also involved driving around the very boggy, bumpy field in the 4wd pick up which I got to do and was lots of fun J And very muddy J

After work we hung out with Neil in the kitchen chatting. He’d looked out loads of crofting literature for us to look over and spent ages talking to us about business plans, crofting ideas, grants and subsidies and more. The kids were off playing with Struan. We started planning a route back to Sussex and have hopefully got a campsite earmarked for Thursday night and a stay at Lynda’s on Friday night before arriving on Saturday at my parents. I’ve emailed Jill an update on our plans and to check we’re still on for heading there January & February.

This evening has been really nice – a really long chat with both Neil and Sue about our plans, whether our Home Ed status and insistence we stay that way will harm our chances of getting the croft on Rum. The fact that various islanders have expressed an interest in us staying on Eigg and we have been encouraged to add our names to the list of interested potential crofters here too if we decide Rum is not for us or we don’t get in, which is always nice to be told.

It’s been a really good WWOOF experience here – quite aside from falling in love with Eigg and the island life, Neil & Sue have been kind and caring hosts, the accommodation is fab, the food has been nice, the kids have loved playing with Struan and meeting the other island kids, the firework night and games room evenings were ace and the work has been varied and we have learnt new stuff. If it ends up being the stepping stone to our eventual next big move and we become crofters on an island ourselves it will become our most influential host too but even taken on the time we’ve spent here alone it’s still been a real favourite host for us all.

Tomorrow morning will be tidying up the byre and packing, then heading down to the pier to get the boat back to Mallaig. It all feels a bit unreal really.

Dinner last night was interesting – Sue had left us a recipe and ingredients for dinner which I cooked – vegetable lasagne. Oh the irony of being the one cooking something containing beans AND lentils. Oh and cottage cheese too which I have previously never eaten solely based on the fact it looks far too much like a certain male bodily fluid being enough to put me off. It was actually very nice and the flavours merged sufficiently to mask the lentils or beans. I did spill a load of lentils though so retain my dislike for them!

After dinner we headed back to the byre early and were all in bed trying to catch up on sleep by about 10pm. I had a succession of very random dreams which were clearly all sorts of things floating round my head though so although I slept for a decent amount of hours I didn’t really wake feeling rested.

First thing this morning we fed the chickens and ducks and then headed down to the pigs with Neil as we were moving the electric fence to include the old hen house which Ady had pig-proofed last week for them to get shelter from the colder weather and also to be closed into in their last week or so to fatten up. This proved to be an easier job than I think anyone was expecting and we were done fairly speedily. The next job was fencing at which point the kids faded away as they often do once the interesting stuff has been done. They have really enjoyed it here and spent lots of time drawing in the byre when we are not doing something they want to join in with. Having their own space to retreat to has been great.

The fencing basically entailed digging holes – a metre deep and a shovel and a half in width. First we had to clear a load of brambles and then we dug a hole each. Ady is stronger but I probably have more in the way of technique although that was hotly debated ;). We stopped for a cup of tea and then went back to clear more brambles. Neil had gone to the pier as there were boats due in this morning so he was off collecting food, post and shopping. After we’d enthused at the meat based soup for lunch (our only meat so far here) yesterday he’d very kindly bought us all a peppered steak slice for lunch although it was very peppery and the kids just ate the pastry in the end. It was very funny when Tarly took her first slurp of the soup yesterday and exclaimed ‘Mummy! Meat!’ 😆

After lunch we dug two more holes and then carried a gate across to the lower field and that was us done for the day. We decided the kids could do with some outside time after sitting in the byre for most of the day so we took them, Struan and the dog across to the beach for an hour and were joined by one of the girls Scarlett had been playing with on Saturday night and her puppy. The kids and dogs played in the waves, made dams and generally messed about while Ady took literally hundreds of photos of Rum and the setting sun and walked up and down the beach. Walking on beaches is excellent for clearing your mind, I’ve always done it to aid decision making. Fortunately I’ve always lived near a beach ;).

Back at the house we had dinner and then brought the kids across and read them all the paperwork to do with the croft application process, talked stuff through some more and began discussing business plans and application forms and the kids began designing future bedrooms.

We are going to have to leave here early – the only days the boat goes to Rum for a day trip is Tuesday and Thursday. You can only get from Eigg to Rum on a Monday which means unless we spent money we don’t have right now on staying on Rum for a couple of nights we need to go back to Mallaig (mainland) and then come across to Rum. It seems utterly ridiculous when we can see Rum out of the window of the house here that we can’t get across to it and then back in the same day but on the winter ferry timetable you can’t. The doctor who covers all three small isles has a boat that goes between them and would have been willing to take us across for a few hours while she visits Rum (she lives on Eigg) but her boat is currently not running and awaiting a part which has not yet arrived on the ferry here. Also she would not have been able to take the kids so although Neil said they’d be welcome to stay with him while we were gone we are very keen for them to come and see Rum and the croft sites anyway. This means either we leave here as planned on Friday and then have to hang around Mallaig until Tuesday (no campsites, no facilities in Mallaig so issues with water / toilet / showering etc. and it’s cold! There is a hotel but we can’t afford 4 nights hotel bills) or we leave here earlier than planned – Wednesday instead of Friday and do Rum on Thursday. This has caused all sorts of agonising as although it is only 2 days early it means the kids can’t go to a birthday party for one of the island kids they have made friends with and been invited to on Wednesday and everyone likes it here. Theoretically we could stay here til Monday but there is another WWOOFer arriving Monday and as we don’t work weekends anyway that is just stretching Neil and Sue’s hospitality really so we’ll be leaving Wednesday, meaning tomorrow is our last day / evening.

We’ve emailed the Rum trust and the secretary happens to be travelling on the boat from Mallaig to Rum herself on Thursday, so we’ll spend the boat trip with her, finding out about Rum and the crofts. Then we’ll be met from the boat by the Coordinator and possibly one of the directors to show us the croft site and answer any questions. We then have until December 16th to submit our application and business plan for the croft. The fact we are visiting and will meet these people will hopefully stand us in good stead and give our application a boost. The process from there is based on a points system which I think we should score fairly well on and the feasibility of our business plan and our skills, experience both directly related to land and livestock and other skills too. More to follow on all these things later…

Friday and Saturday

Friday

After breakfast we fed the chickens, ducks and pigs and then were given our direction for the day. This involved Ady going off with Neil for bonfire wood collecting while I was issued with a job list. Davies and Scarlett ticked the first couple of items off it for me by harvesting beans and the last few raspberries while I got cracking with bread making. Inbetween first and second risings of bread I pulled up and weeded the last of the beans, pulled down some netting that the pumpkin and squash had been growing on in the polytunnel, did some weeding in the greenhouse and some more pruning of the brambles. I also dealt with laundry from us and Neil & Sue as the washing machine did it’s thing. I really enjoy playing house here as it is pretty close to how we would like to be living.

Everyone reconvened for lunch which was a loaf of my bread fresh from the oven, then Ady and Neil headed off for a last hour on the wood collecting while I did a bit more weeding and pruning. The others were back by about 3pm and we all stopped to drink tea and chat. Ady and Neil had been to the shop and procured alcohol and fizzy drink supplies for the evening.

Dinner was omelette and chips cooked by Neil after which we walked next door to Mick’s. Mick runs a B&B and camping pod in the season and has set up a sort of micro pub / games room for his punters which he has opened out to all Eigg residents complete with darts board, music, circular pool table etc. We walked over carrying our beers and firewood supply and were joined by Mick and his wife for a riotous evening playing pool, darts, singing along to music and generally hanging out. It was ace J

We returned to our byre at gone midnight, all fullly replete of things we had been missing 😉

Saturday is one of our official days off but as fairly experienced WWOOFers we know no good can come of such things so after breakfast Ady went off with Neil for the ‘Rodeo’ which was all the islanders cows getting rounded up to be checked over, wormed, ear tagged and generally accounted for before many of them go off to the mainland to market.

I stayed behind to help the kids make the guy for tonight which we did with old clothes, baler twine, sawdust and lots of rags. I then decided to head to the beach for a walk and ended up bringing Rosie the dog and all the kids with me. It was great actually, watching Davies and Scarlett on the beach with Struan and the dog while I did plenty of pacing back and forth agonising and cogitating what to do next in life.

We headed back and I left them all to it for half an hour or so while I vomited out a load of words and thoughts that were in my head into a word document before Ady and Neil got home for lunch. Sue had made a very delicious soup for lunch and then we all left for Craft Club which is held in the school house. Davies and Scarlett had been up for going but had hoped Ady and I would stay which I felt would be a pointless exercise for all concerned. In the end Davies bottled out so we left Struan there and the rest of us headed to the pier. Ady helped Neil finish off the bonfire and get the guy to the top while we went to the shop and spent a fortune buying sweetie supplies for the week along with alcohol for tonight and later in the week.

The shop is a real experience, everyone has an account and there is loads of banter and ribbing. There is pretty much nothing you can’t buy in there at sensible prices although the tobacco and alcohol section is by far the largest area. We collected Struan from the school and then Ady, Davies, Scarlett, Rosie, Struan and I got dropped off at the Swap Shop, which is the islands equivalent of freecycle – the old shop now kitted out with hanging rails and tables where anything you don’t want any more gets put ready for someone else who might want it. There was all sorts there; clothes and shoes, books and toys, kitchen stuff and more. We said the kids have one small thing each and Davies found a Rolf Harris cartoon book (with a name of the previous owner in it who we met later in the day and is now grown up with children of his own J ) and Scarlett a little brass duck.

A nice walk back to the house (about a mile and a half) via the other half of the Swap Shop which is a mini museum all about Eigg, the green stuff on the island, the wildlife and a potted history of how people have lived here with pictures, memorabilia and loads of stuff to read written by older inhabitants. It was excellent.

Back at the house we had cups of tea and chats and then an early dinner before heading off back to the pier for the bonfire and fireworks. Everyone went with pockets stuffed with tins of drink, although the tea room which serves as a pub was open. The fire was lit just after 7pm and pretty much the whole community was there gathered round. Someone brought out mulled wine for adults and someone else was taking sweets round for all the kids. We waited for the fire to be roaring and the guy to fall before the fireworks started.

Davies and Scarlett were straight into the gang of kids (there are 12 on the island, so it was 14 with our two – aged from toddlers to 14 year olds) and made friends with them so we barely saw them all evening. The fireworks were excellent and lasted for ages and ages. The kids all roamed off with torches on to the beach and some adults retreated back into the tea room while others stayed around the fire chatting. Someone had brought an old sofa down which started off as seating but got lobbed on the fire at the end. We were introduced to various people and spent time chatting and getting to grips with how everything works on the isles, what people think of Rum, the inevitable discussions about Home Education and our WWOOFing adventure this year. Some really nice, interesting people.

We eventually went in to the tea room where a full scale jamming session was in progress including a banjo, drums, spoons (the guy played spoons at Madonna’s wedding!) and bagpipes. There was plenty of hard drinking going on and after lots more being introduced to people and chatting Sue challenged me to another game of pool. Which I won J We then played couples – Ady and I against Neil and Sue and we won that too J. Much drink was drunk and a good time had by all before heading for home around midnight. The four of us sat up for about an hour talking about whether we want to apply for the croft on Rum and working out what to do next. Loads to think about and discuss…

This morning we walked along to the Singing Sands, about 20 minutes from here, well it should be 20 minute but was more like half an hour there as we had to navigate cows and some very boggy fields, and then nearly an hour on the way back including Struan getting soaked to waist height in a bog!

They are more squeaking than singing but very pretty and we scooped up a bottle full to bring home. I doubt such a small amount will sing much but it’s a nice momento! The kids played and the dog chased waves while Ady and I walked along the sands and talked more. We knew coming here might just change our direction again and indeed it has but we need to leave to get some retrospective perspective and have proper time to talk things through between the four of us. That’s the trouble with getting on rollercoaster rides – you can’t get off until the end and you don’t ever really know where or when that might be.

Back for lunch and then Neil and Sue have taken all the kids off to one of the other islanders which feels a bit strange. Ady and I were not actually invited and it’s been nice to have a couple of hours to have a bath, catch up online a bit and now we need to start cooking dinner.

3rd November

This morning after pig, chicken and duck feeding we were split up. Ady went off with Neil in the pick up to collect wood to take to the pier ready for the bonfire on Saturday night. He also got to meet some of the residents of Eigg, most of whom were already drinking beer at the pier despite it only being about 1030am. There is a bit of a problem with a drink (and drug) culture on the island which is something that we have been told by several people can be an issue everywhere on the west coast of Scotland but certainly in smaller rural communities and some of the islands. From talking to Sue the accepted wisdom is that if you come from a drinking family you are always more likely to drink, the other kids on the island see drinking first hand and are only too aware of the pitfalls, particularly as they know the drinkers well both drunk and sober and are able to use them as examples for not drinking.

Obviously the small islands are pretty lawless – there are no policemen or real laws. Cars are not taxed, insured or MOTd and as everyone is the same there is no need to worry. Accidents are very rare anyway and everyone drives with care and has old bangers that failed MOTs on the mainland anyway. Theft is rarely an issue and gets dealt with between islanders and as communities are tight knit anyone out of order would be dealt with in their own way too. Whether we decide to move to an island or not I am finding the social science study side of this lifestyle absolutely fascinating.

Ady said there was lots of swearing but the people he met seemed nice.

Meanwhile I had been given a fair sized job list to start working through which started with pulling up some fennel which had finished and weeding the bed ready for the next sowing of something. That done I had a choice of jobs but chose to get the nastiest out of the way first which was mucking out the ducks house. Armed with wheelbarrow, shovel, scraper and clean shredded paper to put down I went down to the bottom field which is very boggy and only slipped over once 😉 It was a proper comedy fall though, sliding down a hill with barrow in front of me which I then tried to use to get back up with but failed at least twice before finally getting up and doing a gymnast finish J

It was not too bad a job despite it basically being shit shovelling as duck poo is not that smelly and I’d always rather do such jobs this time of year than in summer. My hair got in my way lots though and I wished I’d tied it back – lesson learnt for tomorrow! I put the scrapings on some rhubarb planted down there for that very purpose, spent some time looking at the pond and the ducks that live down there and then headed back up for the next job and to check on Davies and Scarlett who had slid away while the jobs were being dished out. They have discovered Angry Birds and have been playing that on Ady’s tablet. I am determinedly not discovering it.

Next job was removing some chicken wire off an old ducking run and rolling it back up. Anyone who has ever rolled up chicken wire will know this is rarely a one person job ;). I did get to use my knife to cut it off posts though which made me feel all proper land-worker-y J I am easily pleased.

I had two jobs left on my list – one was weeding a path, the other pruning brambles so I went for the brambles. I made a cup of tea first to take out with me and then got stuck into that job. I quite like pruning, it’s what I imagined hairdressing might be like when I was a little girl, only outside J, I listened to the next door neighbour shrieking and shouting at someone to the point where I decided he must be killing them and perhaps I should go and intervene before hearing ‘come by’ and realising he was either training or using a sheepdog. I waved to the couple of islanders who passed by. I think there are 95 people living here currently which isn’t that many more than have been at youth hostel camps we’ve done.

Ady and Neil arrived home while I was doing that and called tea o’clock so we chatted over tea and then made lunch and called the kids over. We had smoked fish, tomato sauce and rice and it was delicious.

After lunch we all headed along the road to the woods, supposedly to meet another islander with a tractor and trailer to load more wood into. Neil took his neighbour in his pickup and we took their other car along – Ady drove there and I drove back, hurrah I’ve driven J The kids went off into the woods with Rosie the dog and all came back muddy and happy J We gathered huge amounts of wood and pulled it through the mud to one pile easily collectable by tractor and trailer. Except it didn’t turn up. So we came home again.

Ady and I were up for some more pruning but Neil said we’d all done enough and we should have tea and then help prepare dinner instead so we did that. While Ady went off to feed the pigs Neil and I chopped and grated carrots, onions and cabbage and chatted, learning about how we’d met respective partners, why they only have one child, all about Neil’s ex wife and other stuff. Ady is always amazed at the amount of personal information I gather from our hosts. I’m just interested but maybe I do ask too many intimate questions!

Ady and I both had showers which was lovely. I’d washed my hair in the sink at the byre but was close to feeling skanky after duck poo dealings. Then Sue came home and we had dinner. We all chatted and the kids played until 8pm ish when we leave them to it for the night and come back to the Byre for stories and bedtime.

1st November

Wow, first of the month. This time last year the beginning of our adventure was starting to edge ever closer. Now the end is doing the same, although of course it’s only the end of this phase.

After a really good nights sleep we woke with the alarm and headed over to the house for breakfast at 9am. Sue and Struan had already left for school and Neil showed us where everything was before leaving us to it. We all ate and cleared up and then headed off to be introduced to the animals. Aside from the cat and dog there are chickens and ducks. They are not laying at all at the moment so the food bill is not very justified at this time of year. We discussed whether just killing birds off for meat once they stop laying and then buying in new stock in the spring. We also talked about eating birds and best breeds, incubating and letting them hatch their own and so on.

Next was the pigs – they have a sow and a boar here, just growers they got as weaners and will be killed within the next month or so, so will need moving indoors to fatten up / get less exercise / be in place ready for slaughter. The boar is just starting to get more dominant – he is uncastrated and will need to be slaughtered fairly soon before boar taint sets in. This happens when uncastrated males start to produce hormones which taint the meat. I like pigs and although I’d not want to be a pig farmer I would like to keep them for our own consumption,

We walked a bit of the grounds and came down through the next door neighbours croft land shooing some cattle along which roam freely on the common grazing ground and needed moving on. Various people on the island keep cattle and they generally all herd around together. Once we’d got them off the land they all headed off in a group for the beach. Very funny J

Back to the croft where the next job was some fruit bush pruning – blackcurrants and gooseberries. I quite liked doing this as we’d done a fair bit of soft fruit picking earlier in the year at a couple of WWOOF hosts so it is always nice to feel we’ve completed the circle a little by doing some of the work at the other end of the season. Plus I’d not really done much pruning work so it was good to feel I was learning something new. Neill showed us a book with some pruning tips and illustrations and came up with us to show us the first one before leaving us to it.

It poured with rain a couple of times so we sent the kids off back to the Byre to do some drawing / Dsing and Neill told us to go in for a cup of tea if it rained so we didn’t get wet either. He seems very fair with his expectations J

We all had lunch together and then Neill checked we were still up for cooking dinner tonight – Sue and Struan were both out later this evening and we’d offered to cook. He showed us where various things were in the kitchen and said he’d leave it to us. One of the foods that got mentioned last night in conversation was pizza so we decided to do that as an unambitious starting point J Neill said if we were cooking then we could take some time off in the afternoon then and would we like to take the dog for a walk and go and explore the nearest beach? That seemed a very good deal to us and meant the kids got some exercise and time outdoors with us too so I made the pizza dough and we left it to prove and headed out with Rosie the dog.

The nearest beach is literally across the road and down a lane although the ground is pretty hard going and a bit ankle turning and tussocky so it’s slow going. We were out for a couple of hours though playing with the dog in the waves and on the sand, admiring the views – huge waves, Rhum in the background, gorgeous wintery skies with low sun breaking through every so often.

Back at the house we got the dinner sorted and I brought my laptop over for an hours online time uploading my blogpost from last night, posting up some pictures and catching up on emails. If the byre had internet access I think this place would qualify as perfect!

Dinner went down well and the kids spent the evening playing with Struan while we chatted to Sue and Neill about among other things Forest School, WWOOF hosts, intensive farming and community projects. We have even more food for thought now having learnt more about crafting and our heads are rather in a spin with all the different possibilities we have as options. I think Neill will prove a very useful contact and person to know moving forward.

2nd November

This mornings first job was feeding and watering the animals – chickens, ducks and pigs. The kids did that and then Ady and Davies stayed with the pigs to fix some corrugated tin sheets up around the walls of the old henhouse where the pigs are to be moved in as the weather changes to fatten up. Davies spent his time winning over the pigs who had been a little nervous of but was soon standing in the pen with scratching them behind the ears.

Scarlett and I were tasked with bread making – three loaves of our choice. We looked at the flour on offer and went for one mostly white with a little wholemeal, one mostly brown with a bit of white and one malted with grains and some honey. Scarlett did the kneading for one loaf fully and one which I finished off when Davies reappeared to lure her away to play. I got all three in the oven to prove and then headed outside to my next job which was pruning back some honeysuckle and rose that was rather out of control. Neil had told me not to be scared to be tough with it but Ady Destroyer Goddard came along at that point having finished his task and helped which basically meant cutting both back to the ground almost! In the meantime I was in and out on the bread, knocking it back for the second rise and then putting it in to cook. I do like bread making J

Neil came back as we were finishing the pruning and clearing it all away and then we all had a cup of tea while the bread finished cooking. It smelt so nice we decided to have fresh bread and home made jam for lunch rather than the planned pasta. So we ate one whole loaf J Two remaining loaves were there for Sue’s inspection later – Neil had warned me she is rather competitive with her bread making.

After lunch Neil was off to meet the boat coming in today with various supplies so Ady and I were sent next door to strim the grass around the old croft house. Ady strimmed and I raked it up although with it being very windy today that was a bit of a fruitless task. It did complete a full days work for my arms though with bread making in the morning J it’s quite nice to be back to early nights, teetotal living with plenty of exercise and small meals after a week of excess in the holiday cottage.

We’ve had an almost entirely dry day here from rain which has been lovely and the landscape remains ever changing with Rum in the background as a barometer for what might happen next in the weather.

At about 415pm Neil arrived home and we called it a day going in for a cup of tea and to check emails etc. I forgot to upload my blog post from last night so this will probably get tacked on to the end of it. Their internet connection is pretty good for browsing but photos take ages to upload to flickr and I am loathe to reduce the size as we are planning a photo book at the end of the year so I want them all on there at decent quality.

Sue arrived home so we got involved in dinner prep – peeling spuds, grating cheese etc. and chatting. Dinner was mash, cauliflower cheese, veggie sausage patties and carrots from the garden – raw or cooked depending on taste. All very nice.

As always the kids went off to play in Struan’s room while we adults sat and chatted. We’d been talking to Neil lots about crofting which prompted them to ask if we were thinking we’d like to do it. We are and we have also been debating Eigg lots between us. Our only real issue would be with Davies and Scarlett and how home ed would work and how isolated would they be. We talked at great length and after further chats with D & S we are considering putting our names on the list for a croft, of which there will be several coming up in the not too distant future. Still loads to discuss and think about and we have been invited to sit in and observe at a residents association meeting next week and Neil and Sue have already swung into action coming up with ways for us to meet various key residents over the next few days. They met out very provisional idea that this might be for us with great enthusiasm which is both flattering and reassuring although may of course come to nothing at all. We would need to give the whole idea a lot more thought and also come away from here to get some perspective on it all – I think being at my parents will be a great leveller for talking things through with a nice rational thought process. Particularly given we’ve only been here just over 48 hours!

Back in the byre we had some bedtime story and everyone else is now fast asleep while the wood burner crackles and eats up it’s last few logs. I keep peeping out in search of northern lights and having to content myself with the stars of which there are many – no light pollution here J

Monday 31st October

Arriving on Eigg

A slightly stress morning waking to the alarm and rousing sleepy children to get breakfasted, cleared up and out of the van by 930am. Infact due to nervous energy we were out of the van by about 920am. Davies had woken all teary and suddenly decided he needed several more cuddly toys than we could fit in any of our bags, so cried. He then cried again when he snapped at Scarlett for shouting when she was not shouting at all so I did indeed shout at him for being ridiculous. I then shouted at him for crying and then had to cuddle him and make him feel better. Cue yet another debate about whether or not we should actually go to this last host. We all agreed we should but I think each of us was secretly hoping the ferry would be cancelled or the hosts would ring to say they couldn’t take us after all.

Ady was being super efficient, cleaning things and wiping surfaces, none of which needed cleaning or wiping while Scarlett was being sunny and cheery and super helpful, which only served to show Davies in a worse light and make him feel bad about himself. Argh!

So we left, speedily, kids kissing Willow goodbye and all four of us struggling under the weight of super loaded rucksacks. The ferry terminal is literally across the road so we went in, bought tickets, were shocked when the woman asked for way more than we’d been expecting for tickets. We realised she was trying to sell us returns so amended that (returns are only valid for five days so we needed singles). There were several other people in the port who we exchanged smiles and hellos with.

When it came to boarding the kids were really excited to see the replacement craft is a sea-fari boat from Skye, usually used for whale and dolphin spotting. We climbed aboard, got the safety talk about where lifeboards were, life jackets were stashed and told to stay sitting. Most addressed in pirate type speak for the amusement of the kids aboard (our two and a toddler). Technically the boat took 11 passengers but that was fairly tight. The kids were desperate to sit outside so we zipped up our coats and got comfortable. Ady and I had our waterproof leggings stashed in rucksacks and should really have put them on, the kids had decided not to even bring theirs (Scarlett will only wear hers without trousers underneath so whichever way it meant bringing a pair of trousers she will have a stand up row with me over putting on every single time).

A seal came bobbing up close to the boat, almost as if he was saying goodbye just before the engines turned on and then we were off. The going was fairly choppy for the first bit and we very quickly got drenched. It did get calmer for a while but once we were in the open sea it was really very rocky with waves crashing across the boat and getting us soaked. It was like the craziest fairground ride ever! Initially that is very euphoric with the salty water spray and the wind and you feel so very alive and vital and energised. The kids and I were all laughing and cheering and loving it. Ady was less enthused and within about 15 minutes he had declared it madness and gone inside. We lasted a lot longer – I think the journey was 45 minutes in total and we were outside for a good half an hour of it. Eventually though the kids got quieter and started to look rather chilled. I could feel my socks getting wet as water dribbled down my legs and pooled in my boots so in the interests of not getting ill I said we needed to retreat indoors. The kids didn’t argue at all suggesting they were quite happy with this J.

Once inside the true rockiness of the boat became apparent and the toddler (who had spent the whole journey inside her mum’s coat sitting just outside) was throwing up and several people looked very green inside. We’d been chatting to an older woman who lives part time on Eigg but that conversation died too as we all focussed on not being ill. I am a pretty good traveller but even I was starting to work out which side of the boat was closest to dash to if the need overcame me. Just as we were all feeling like we couldn’t manage much longer land was reached and we all staggered off rather shakily.

We were nearly 40 minutes early from the usual landing craft time so hung about in the tearoom / shop chatting to people, used the toilets (there are showers there too), had a quick poke round the shop and read some of the community notice board. Then the kids came into the shop to find Ady and I to say there was someone outside asking for us and Neill had arrived.

We all shook hands, loaded our stuff into the boot of his car and he drove us to their croft – about 2 miles away from the pier. He showed us where we’re staying, in a converted byre and then said he#d leave us to settle in and go and collect his food from the other boat (just cargo) which had followed ours in and to go to the house and make coffee for ourselves once we’d got settled.

We stripped off into dry clothes, made up the beds (a bunk for the kids and a sofa / futon for us), enthused at the plug points – we’d not been expecting electricity! And bemoaned the lack of phone or mifi signal. The byre is an old cattle shed, foot thick walls and tin roof (a bit noisy in the rain) with a cooker, sink, kitchen set up, table and chairs, stock of books, magazines and a wood burner. It’s lovely and cosy and if we only had internet signal it would come very high on our list of best accomodation this year. There is a compost loo right outside (a really nice, clean, enclosed compost loo with very long drop and no smell or risk of critters) and use of shower and washing machine in the house.

We went across to the house for tea / coffee and a sneaky peek around too. It’s a fairly small two bed croft house, upside down style with bedrooms, bathroom, kitchen diner downstairs and a large lounge area upstairs which looks across to the bay with Rumm in the distance. Neill had said he’d be back by 1 at the latest (it was about midday by then) but actually it was gone 2pm when he arrived back so we had a second cup of tea, enjoyed having their cat, Mickey on our laps and read the magazines lying around on the table while reliving the boat trip.

Neill returned full of apologies and made us all beans or cheese on toast which took us to about 330pm. Scarlett really took to him and was asking him all sorts of questions about island life, wildlife, crofting and so on – she was an excellent example of Home Ed J The kids went to play outside with the dog, Rosie for a while and then went back to the byre for a while. Ady and I were given a whistle stop guide to how the WWOOFing works here – Monday – Friday with weekends off. 9am at the house for breakfast to start work for 945ish. Sue and Struan (nearly 11) will be off to school by then – Sue is a teacher there 2 days a week, the school has 10 pupils aged 4 to 12. We work with Neill, stopping between 1 and 2 for lunch and then finishing at about 4pm. We help with dinner and clearing up and the house is theirs between 9pm and 9am. We said we’d probably head off before that as we have the kids and Struan has homework so D&S will be a distraction.

For today we were just asked to gather some stuff for dinner from the polytunnel, greenhouse and garden (tomatoes, parsley and dill, mint and spring onions) and then chop them, which we did while chatting to Neill.

Struan came home so I fetched Davies and Scarlett back to the house while Ady made up the fire in the byre . The kids instantly hit it off which Neill and Sue said is unusual for Struan so that was good. I’m not sure what they were playing but it sounded noisy and happy J

Sue arrived home so we met her. She is not as instantly warm and friendly as Neill although she was perfectly nice and welcoming and seemed interested in us and happy to chat. Just a bit more like a school teacher I guess ;). She rather interestingly lived in a community for a few years and is very active in community projects here. I rather think we’d clash on educational matters and possibly parenting so will attempt to not be too vocal ;). The primary school here sounds fab, 10 pupils all learning together and including forest school as part of the curriculum (which Sue does) but secondary schooling is over on the mainland and all the island kids board coming home just every 2 weekends. Sue is very wobbly about this but also thinks it will be good for Struan and it is something that all the island kids know is coming from the beginning. Davies and Scarlett were horrified when we told them about it of course. It has put off potential residents on Eigg and the other islands apparently and would definitely mean Eigg wouldn’t work for us – for 12 out of every 14 days there is no one on the island aged between 12 and 16 and on the two days a fortnight there are kids they would be spending time with their families anyway, so obviously no clubs or activities set up for the kids here at all really. We’d need to persuade at least 4 other HE families to move here too…. Anyone?

We had dinner – I really enjoyed it, pitta breads, salad with peppers, tomatoes, spring onions and herbs and bulgar wheat, falafels and then the kids went off to play again. Lots of chatting about various stuff – Eigg is really interesting with it’s green credentials, their current project is waste prevention and aiming for zero waste and Sue had remembered that I have done a waste prevention course so we chatted about that. We talked about Home Ed a bit – Neill was interested in that more, what we are hoping to do in the future and various other first meeting type stuff. They seem really nice, the byre is lovely and the kids seem happy with Struan. So first impressions all good really. We can get internet in their house so will take the laptop over each day to download emails and upload a blog post I’ll try and write in word each evening ready. I think it will be an interesting two weeks and a fitting end to our WWWOOFing.

And one of our last nights in Willow potentially.

We all slept well last night and made the most of that extra hour :). It was a windy, rainy night but we all slept better in the van than we had in the cottage, even though I woke a couple of times when the wind rocked the van it was only to think ‘oh, I’m in Willow’ and snuggle back down in my sleeping bag again.

After breakfast and second cups of tea we decided to go for a walk so had another wander around Mallaig including popping into the CoOp for some bits for dinner. The woman behind the counter commented on the weather and said she hoped it would be better tomorrow. I agreed and said we were off to Eigg so didn’t want a bumpy crossing and she reminded me that it might be no crossing at all if the weather was bad. I hear Calmac cancelling crossings all the time on the travel reports on the radio so knew it was a possibility and we’d already debated what we’d do if we couldn’t get across to Eigg. We’d agreed to hang about til Wednesday or Thursday before giving up but haven’t given much thought at all to being stuck on Eigg – after all that will be out of our hands!

We decided to pop into the ferry office anyway just to see what their weather predictions were saying for tomorrow and were very glad we did as they have got a problem with their usual ferry and will be running a smaller replacement with far less seats. We booked places and will need to be at the port earlier than planned in the morning.

Back at the van we had lunch and played some games of cards – we quite like Donkey but it does get the kids quite fired up :). Then we watched most of Despicable Me on the old laptop which we just use as a dvd player until the battery ran out (we got a good hour out of it). Then I made dinner – pasta bake and we listened to the radio.

Ady washed up and I read stories and we all theoretically got to bed early again although of course no one is asleep yet.

It’s been a biding time sort of day, there isn’t really anything to do in walking distance and it’s not even nice walking weather. We spent lots of time gazing out the van windows at the sea which was very dramatic and has Skye, Rumm and Eigg in the distance but it would not be somewhere we’d have spent two nights if we were not waiting for the ferry.

Looking forward to tomorrow and hoping the hosts are nice and we have some access to electric and phone or 3 signal to stay in touch a little bit.

Oops!

Thursday morning we said goodbye to Lynda and Stuart. It was so lovely sharing the cottage with them. It was also a bit lovely to have it all to ourselves after they’d gone for 48 hours too! 🙂

Once they had gone we totally took over the cottage doing all the backed up washing including getting all our sleeping bags, blankets and pillowcases washed and dried, airing pillows and camping mats and making the most of the space to really give Willow a good clean out and get everything sorted out.

Then we sat down with popcorn and Despicable Me which I only half watched but the others all said was excellent.

We debated dinners for the last two nights and came up with steak and chips (Scarlett wanted fish cakes, she’s been desperate for them for ages and is not as keen on steak anyway. Honestly, she’s so cheap – I made fishcakes as a real budget emergency dinner in the van using instant mash and tinned tuna and she loves them!) and fajitas and tacos as dinners we all liked with various tweaking for individuals, were not easy to cook in the van and would be nice to have as a treat.

We walked along to the CoOp and got some of the ingredients for tacos but due to a lack of avocado and a sense of humour failure on my part when the other three were being gormless about alternatives we then went to the Farm Foods shop in the other direction and had steak instead.

In theory the kids had an early night. In practise I suspect it was still about midnight before they were asleep.

Friday we’d planned to give Willow a little run anyway so we headed to Morrisons for the rest of the food supplies, stocked up on engine oil and anti freeze for Willow and checked out prices of petrol at the three nearby garages ready for the morning. We’d all slept in so had a late breakfast / early lunch before we went out and then came home and spent the remainder of the day finishing laundry processing and laying out all the things we’d need to pack for the last WWOOF host then packing them up ready to stash in the van. We started to pack up and gather stuff together and the kids and I watched Despicable Me again, this time I watched properly and I really enjoyed it too. Usually Disney Pixar have the monopoly on putting out the best of those types of films but I think Universal have done well with that one. We did some blogging on WW, summing up the wild camping experience and talking about our last host and what happens next. I’m so proud of the kids for how adventurous they are about this whole thing and how clearly they see the positives of this year. I know some of their friends are very envious and would love to be living in a van like them but I know plenty more are less enthusiastic and think it would be awful. They are looking forward to staying with my parents, not least because they reckon it will be like Christmas come early when they have access to all their toys again :).

I had a bath and then cooked dinner, enjoying swanning about the large kitchen, wine glass in hand, being all Nigella and making things sizzle and saute 🙂 while the others had baths. We ate infront of the TV as a last night treat and watched Autumnwatch before starting to watch the Derren Browne show on plus one. We’d only been talking about Derren earlier that week to the kids and were really pleased to notice one of his shows was on and assumed starting at 9pm it would probably be ok for them to watch with us. About 10 minutes in it became rather obvious it was not remotely suitable for them with way more adult content than I was prepared to unravel and explain, or feel they need access to just yet (and I am always falling on the wrong side of not censoring enough so for me to make that decison it was pretty full on!) so they went off to bed and Ady and I carried on watching. It was a real shame as I think the general message of the show was one that would have been good to explore with the kids but actually I thought it was one of the weaker programmes he has done, usually I am a real fan.

Ady and I eventually headed to bed around midnight but both of us slept really badly, lying awake at 4am chatting. It felt like our last night in our house before we left for WWOOFing with loads of last minute things to do before heading towards the unknown. I eventually fell asleep again about 530am and have felt really knackered all day today.

Saturday up with the alarm to ensure we got everything sorted out – van packed up, cottage hoovered and final tidied up, kids all packed etc to be out for 10am. It’s tough packing into Willow as you can’t do that shoving stuff in to be sorted out later trick you do into a car at the end of a holiday as you’ll just be tripping over it and giving yourself more work to do in a smaller area so you need to do it properly and that takes ages.

We left on time though, handing the keys over bang on 10am before filling up with petrol and heading towards Mallaig which is just over 40 miles from Fort William. We’d half thought we might find a stop over point for tonight on the way and indeed did drive past some beautiful parking places in the mountain ranges next to lochs but Ady had suddenly got all paranoid about just where we’d be leaving Willow while we’re on Eigg so I thought we’d be better just getting here and finding our space for the whole two weeks now.

Sure enough we found the carpark near the ferry port and have a good space we can sleep in for the next two nights and leave her here while we’re gone.

We had lunch and chatted for a bit and Ady and I talked about the fact I was feeling a bit flat. We decided it’s just that I’ve run out of momentum with nothing within my control to be organising or planning really. For the last 18 months I’ve been making this adventure happen, up until fairly recently we were still not clear about what happens next. Now we have made decisions it is suddenly out of our hands as it all now hinges on our house selling. We could well be living in our own home again somewhere up here by this time next year, planning our first Christmas and getting to grips with our new life. Or we could be facing a nightmare of our house not selling and having been without a home for nearly 2 years. Glastonbury will be a great short term location but we are very much banking on it being a couple of months stop gap while the house sells.

I felt much better for having talked it through with Ady and all settled in myself again now. I don’t like wobbling, even just briefly so was pleased to be back on an even keel again after a couple of days of minor internal angst. We did some dreaming and plotting and coming up with exciting business ideas which always makes me feel better – an adventuring pioneer rather than a nomadic drifter ;).

We had a brief walk around Mallaig, it’s fairly small and lots of it is closed for the season or not open at weekends – a heritage centre and visitor centre were both closed. The station was open and we happened to be there when the steam train pulled in which was pretty. We walked around the ferry port and went to the ‘most westerly outdoors shop on mainland UK’ where we invested in a cargo bag to tote all our clothes across to Eigg. We’d been debating what to use and how to do it and this fits all clothing in for the two weeks leaving us a rucksack each to carry our own stuff – toys and books for kids, kindle and laptop for me along with chargers for phone, camera etc and toiletries stuff and tablet, solar chargers and various other stuff for Ady. Feel better about that now as we were thinking carrier bags might not be the best option but was all we really had in the van. I’ve emailed the host to check we don’t need things like towels and bedding but am still not entirely sure where we’re sleeping. I think it might be in a caravan.

Back at the van we played cards, I helped Davies with some more writing on his story he’s writing and illustrating (it’s based on Little Howard’s Big Question TV show which he’s been watching loads of on YouTube), his drawing of characters is really excellent, he gives them so much facial expression and personality in just a few pen strokes. I really do think he has a great talent for illustration and a real style of his own.

Ady cooked – we had a real mish mash of foods including leftovers from the cottage and some of the food supply we’ve been carrying in the van. After dinner we read some story and in theory we’re all tucked up early although both kids are still actually awake and only Ady is asleep so far.

First thing this morning Ady, Stuart and the kids went off to take photographs of the steam train going over the bridge near the cottage.

Lynda made me cry by insisting we still take the petrol money for Willow she’d said was a condition of their coming up to Fort William (it’s been a very minor detour for us to come this far south, very minor mind you) and shoved £100 at me. We had a big hug and I told her how very grateful we are for everything they have done. She countered that was saying she so admired what we are doing and wants to support us and worries about us and in doing these little bits of looking after us like this she worries less. Ady and I are so unbelievable touched by Lynda and Stuart’s kindness and thought and anticipation of needs, as infact we are with all our friends really. With Ady not having parents around and mine being not that way inclined it still comes as a bit of a shock when people are just so unconditionately lovely. 🙂 Hoping to repay them with some serious hospitality one day…

When the others got back Stuart gave us a lift to collect Willow – we all went in the end. The bill for labour had been settled by the breakdown cover so we just had the parts bill to pay – £30! The guy who supplied the parts was there too – a retired AA man who had noted over the years all the most commonly replaced parts and has a personal collection of vintage parts for older vehicles, bought as and when they become discontinued. He’d seen Willow as a real personal challenge and showed us the original packaging both of the part actually used and the couple of alternatives he’d brought along – from the early 90s he told us :). It was the coil which had apparently been the wrong one anyway so had done well to last which had needed replacing.

Willow started first time and we came back to the cottage and swiftly unloaded dirty washing, sleeping bags, pillows etc in to air and be washed and dried and got the washing machine going. Five loads so far 🙂

We had lunch and then parted – Lynda and Stuart to do some more Glen walking, us to walk into Fort William again. On the way we checked out why it is called Fort William at Davies’ question as to whether there had been a William and did he have a fort. We googled as my Scottish history is even more patchy than my English history and that is shockingly poor. It just doesn’t interest me, despite being one of the subjects I did at GCSE, I know loads of my friends love it and I really am just not interested, I guess it’s never come alive for me as it does for so many other people. I really must get a decent book and read it with the kids to try and educate myself and fill gaps for us all. (See, a few days in a house and I’ve come over all Home Ed again!)

We had a quick look at Inverlochy castle first and then walked along to FW. On the way there is a small playpark and Scarlett had gone across the monkey bars yesterday. Today she started to do it and then slipped and landed in a heap at the bottom with a cry and a whimper. I swore and dashed in to her fearing she must certainly have broken something. She had been leaning across so fallen the full height rather than dropping from a dangle and managed to graze her cheek and chin (reckon it will be bruised tomorrow) and hurt her tummy / ribs. After ascertaining she was just winded and shocked rather than internally damaged we carried on. I felt sick for about an hour afterwards though and had to keep cuddling her which she put up with with very good grace.

We checked all our reciepts from yesterday at Morrisons (they are running a lottery thing where 3 receipts each day from every store win £100. Very clever as of course you keep going back to the store the following day to check and end up purchasing something else. We had our reciept and L&S’s two from yesterday too but won nothing.) and picked up a few bits including a DVD for the kids – Despicable Me which we missed when it first came out and have been waiting for it to go to a cheap price. £5 seemed cheap enough so the plan for tomorrow is popcorn and film on the sofa as L&S are going home tomorrow leaving us the cottage all to ourselves for the last 2 days so we’re planning plenty of making the most of it. Sprawling on sofas with popcorn and dvds is definitely something we have missed.

The walk back was uneventful, we called in Lidl and got some tablet which was on special offer and some lebuchan from their Christmas products, which felt very festive :).

Back at the cottage I did some more laundry processing, Ady got dinner on (mish mash of leftovers, quiches, sausages, various types of potatoes, salad – a real feast) and the kids had a bath. At wine o’clock a crisis was discovered of only a third of a bottle left so the kids and I dashed back out to the CoOp to get another bottle, which nicely added another 2 miles to our walking total for the day :). There was competition for holding my hand as the path was only wide enough for walking two abreast so they took it in turns of 3 lampposts worth each. Davies is at a real point of swinging between feeling like a very grown up big boy and still being my baby. This was a ‘still my baby’ moment. I’d only been wandering earlier today when he’d shrug away from holding my hand while we’re out walking, I’m sure I was far younger than 11 when I stopped wanting to walk anywhere near my Mum!

After dinner Ady and I had baths and then we all watched Frozen Planet. D&S have been really bad at getting to sleep this week and were both looking tired today so I went and sat in their room with them until they were asleep by which point everyone else had already gone to bed!

Which doesn’t make sense really when I have unlimited power and internet but there you go. I found more interesting things to do online than blog!

Yesterday Ady and Stuart went off with the kids to the train station where a steam train is running back and forth this week. Stuart volunteers on the steam trains in Manchester and is a real enthusiast. He knows the drivers and owner of the train currently up here so they went along for a closer look. Apparenting if you are interested in that sort of thing it was really good 😉 🙂 Ady and the kids enjoyed it.

Lynda and I sat and chatted about Home Ed, travelling, life in general. She is always so supportive of our rather unconventional ways and says such nice things. She knew Davies at 2 so very well and is utterly of the opinion that the choices we have made for him have been the right ones and gives me so much praise for my parenting and lifestyle. I do love her 🙂 (and not only because she says all the right things!). Then we walked along to watch the train go by from the bridge just outside the cottage before walking a bit further along a footpath towards Fort William and then back to look at the castle. We got back to the cottage just after the others and had lunch.

After lunch Lynda and Stuart went out for a drive and walk and we wandered along to the local CoOp about a mile away, mostly to check out where it was because we’d been given directions there on Saturday and utterly failed to find it. We got various reduced to clear bargains, including stuff for a couple of dinners we could bung in the freezer at the cottage :).

Back at the house the kids spent some time playing in the garden. There is a field at the back of the house with horses, ducks and chickens in it and the chickens come when you call them to be fed so we’ve been giving them our kitchen scraps. Made us all very nostalgic for our own chickens again.

Dinner was a chicken casserole using up leftovers from Sunday and some dumplings and mashed potatoes, followed by the rest of the apple pie from the day before. All very delicious.

In the evening we had baths, luxuriated infront of the TV sprawled on sofas and chatted.

See boring, but very enjoyable 🙂

Today I slept in until 1030am – quite possibly the latest I’ve slept since we left home! It was blissful and I feel very refreshed by it :).

We had an earlyish lunch and then we set out to walk to Fort William, about 2 miles away. Lynda and Stuart drove off for another walk (they love Glen Nevis and have been walking around there every day, we prefer something a little more strenuous, Ady and I are very conscious of eating more this week and not wanting to get too sedentry) and said they’d ring us later if they stopped for tea and cake somewhere incase we were close enough to join them.

We had a wander round the charity shops in the town, bought a few essentials from the chemist and took a phone call from the garage to say Willow is all fixed and ready to collect. Ady arranged to get her tomorrow morning as we were tied up for the rest of today really and was told the breakdown cover will pay for the labour so we only need pay for the parts which was just £30. Hurrah! 🙂

Lynda rang to say they’d meet us at Morrisons so we walked there and they treated us to drinks and cakes in the cafe there which was very nice :). Then they headed back and we got a few bits before walking back. The sky was very dark and heavy, particularly over the mountains but despite looking very threatening it never actually rained on us.

It was my turn for dinner tonight and I was doing lasagne which meant a full on hour or so in the kitchen grating cheese, cooking mince and sauce, making white sauce and constructing an apple crumble. Ady left me to it with a glass of wine and then came and helped move stuff around the rather fierce oven and we chatted about plans to head back down south. All a bit vague still as we don’t know what the Eigg hosts will be like and precisely when we’ll leave but nice to have a sort of a plan at least. Hoping to take people up on their offers of hospitality too :).

Dinner was served and much enjoyed by all, I had a lovely long bath and then watched some very strange TV programme about women becomming nuns before retiring to bed leaving everyone else watching something else on TV about the war. Davies and Scarlett have been buggers to get to sleep each night sharing a room without us directly underneath them shushing them!

After the very pleasant surprise of waking up in a proper bed we all eventually got up and breakfasted. The sun was shining for a while so a plan was hatched to drop Lynda and I off at Morrisons for some food supplies, then for Ady, Davies and Scarlett to be dropped off at Ben Nevis visitor centre before Stuart collected Lynda and I and we dropped food back at the cottage before joining the others. All a bit fox, chicken and grain – which reminds me I was telling Davies about that puzzle and he wants to know more about it so I promised to look it up for him online as I know there were ever increasingly complicated versions of it and he likes things like that.

In the event Davies decided he wanted to come with Lynda and I so Stuart dropped the three of us off and we got all the various components for a roast dinner while he nipped back for Ady and Scarlett. He then collected us, dropped Davies and I off with Ady and Scarlett and we arranged to meet up with Lynda and Stuart again a little later on for a lift back.

Lynda and Stuart climbed Ben Nevis a few years ago having practised on smaller munroes and hills for quite a while and kitting themselves out with the appropriate gear. Ady is very taken with the idea of climbing it and so we went to look at the visitor centre and start walking the very first bit of it to see how we felt about it. Scarlett is all for it, Davies is rather less energetic and as I mentioned last week I have my whole own theory on climbing mountains ;). We did all go a little way up today though. We have decided as it is the best part of an 8 hour walk all the way up and back down again and there are very firm recommendations about kit, footwear, provisions, navigation tools etc. that this is not the right time to do it with threats of snow and high winds and a distinct lack of decent footwear – I have steel capped boots or DMs, the kids have wellies or their primark boots. We will walk it one day, when we move up here though.

Back at the cottage we had lunch and then Ady and I got dinner on – roast chicken and all the trimmings followed by apple pie using apples Lynda and Stuart had brought from their garden. Scarlett commented that it felt like Christmas and it did actually, all very cosy and festive and sociable :).

After dinner we all watched Countryfile and then put on UP that L&S had brought along with them. Ady and I both had baths (although I managed to catch both the beginning and end of the film with the two bits that made me cry at the cinema and everyone laughed at me!) followed by chatting and bed.

L&S are very relaxed, easy company, dote on the kids and we have a perfect balance of them having paid for the cottage (and all the food so far, although we are paying for the rest) while Ady and I revel in having a kitchen to cook in again. So they get a nice break and are very well looked after, we get to enjoy playing hosts and a lovely time in a cottage – win:win 🙂

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This morning we sorted Willow out ready to be left for a few days, packed the bed up, put sleeping bags back into their sacks, moved everything that might get shunted around if she goes up on a ramp or recovery truck and took out anything of value along with enough clothes etc for a few days. Good practise for packing up next weekend ready to go over to Eigg.

Lynda had texted to say we could get into the cottage from 1pm so we rang the breakdown guy to tell him and arranged for him to pick us up at 1pm. He dropped us off at the cottage after an interesting ride with some trading life stories and him giving us some top tips for moving up here. He’s a nice bloke, has really gone out of his way for us, hope he gets Willow fixed nice and quick and the price is not too much.

The cottage is HUGE – four bedrooms (two double, one twin, one single), two bathrooms (one with bath, one with shower), enormous kitchen with table, utility room with fridge freezer and washing machine, large hall and big lounge. It is really warm and cosy, light and airy and very comfortable and well equipt. I can’t fault it really :). We can see Ben Nevis from the front windows and a field with horses, ducks, chickens and rabbits from the back windows.

We’ve had a lovely afternoon and evening with Lynda and Stuart, all had baths (oh what bliss!), dinner of pizza and chips bought from the farmfoods shop literally round the corner which means we can get all our food for the rest of the week without needing a car. The kids watched some films and enjoyed lazing on sofas. Despite the chance of a bedroom each they went for the twin room and are sprawled out in their beds luxuriating in the space.

The Mifi works, we have phone signal, there are loads of walks nearby and Lynda and Stuart are loving hearing all our stories of our adventure. I think we’re going to have a lovely week :).

This morning was spent in the van, some card playing, some reading, some drawing and lots of chatting and drinking tea. Oh and listening to the radio. Ady won Popmaster this week 3 to my 2.

After lunch I decided we all needed to get out, rain or no rain (it’s not stopped for about 48 hours) so we put coats and wellies on and headed off for a walk. We walked in the direction of where we thought the breakdown garage was but missed the turning on the outward walk and followed a sign for a walk trail instead down to the loch. Through the woods which were all autumnal and lovelyand down past the misty loch.

We suddenly noticed some decorations dangling in the trees in the wood and a sign next to a tree with loads of brollies dangling and a welcome sign saying we could borrow an umbrella as long as we returned it, signed the Fairy Folk. Then followed a rather surreal half an hour or so wandering from tree to tree over a fairly large area through a succession of decorated glens, gardens, trees and scenes. There were all sorts, bells and windchimes, pond life scenes around huge puddles with dragonflies and frogs on lily pads. Gnomes and dragons and goblins, glitter and mirrors and jewels, charms and twinkly things, cuddly toys, fairy statues, various animals, toadstools, flowers, rainbows. There were trees adorned with welly boots and odd socks, piles of pinecones and woven branches creating arches and shapes and pathways. It truly had a feel of magic and naturally Davies and Scarlett loved it and were totally captivated and charmed by it. I also found it utterly enchanting and wandered about like a 7 year old gazing from one little area to the next, ringing the windchimes and smiling at it all.

Ady, who is less easily impressed thought it was slightly spooky and half expected an evil person to leap out having entranced innocent children into wandering off the pathway :lol:.

I signed the visitors book and Scarlett donated a pound she happened to have in her coat pocket into one of the various places where donations are collected. From a bit of googling the project is in aid of local disabled people and was done by one woman. From reading the visitors book (it said it was number 11!) there are many regular visitors who also contribute to the display now, particularly things like the outgrown welly tree.

I loved the whole thing 🙂

From there we crossed a bridge over a fast running river leading down to the loch and then back up onto the road where we did find the garage and checked with the man there about arrangements for tomorrow – we’re to ring him once we are ready for a lift and he’ll take us to the holiday cottage and look at Willow on Monday.

We decided as we were already wet to carry on down to the loch and look at the canal and locks so walked down there too. I rang Jill to confirm the Glastonbury part of our forward planning is all still ok and had a bit of a catch up chat with her.

Back at Willow we rang o2 customer services as Ady’s phone was playing up and a very lengthy two phonecalls later we finally resolved that by changing some settings.

After dinner instead of bedtime story the kids requested we start reading the WW blog from the beginning to relive some of of the early days of our adventure following a conversation about ‘this time last year….’ and speculation about ‘this time next year…’

This morning Ady was up super early again taking photos, this time of the loch, which was very beautiful. Like a mirror, perfectly reflecting what was above. Several loads of people stopped next to us to get out and take photos. So after Popmaster we decided to do the same and all went down through the little wooded area to the loch and skimmed some stones. Mostly to see how very far the ripples travelled on such a still body of water.

We wanted fuel so the plan was to get that and then see how far we went towards Fort William until we found a suitable overnight stop again, preferably with a walk nearby. So we set off, stopped for petrol about 5 miles along the road and then within a mile Willow suddenly sputtered and died :(. We pulled over, ironically in the same area next to Loch Oich that we’d turned round in yesterday opposite a shop. After a few tries to start her were unsuccessful Ady started fretting he’d put diesel in instead of petrol as it was such a coincidence. I googled for the petrol station phone number (hurrah for smart phones!) and we rang them to check. Sure enough they were able to confirm it had been petrol so we could rule that out. That left breakdown cover as the only option really.

We actually have two sets of breakdown cover – a cheap £6 a month Asda one which is PAYG monthly and then a proper RAC motorhome one which cost loads but provides hotel accomodation and insurance for contents and so on. That has always been our last ditch plan though as I know lots of breakdown cover won’t be called out a second time for the same problem so it made sense to have a choice of two incase of something silly we’d been told to get fixed but hadn’t bothered (eg my Sharan used to not start each winter and they would advice a change of plugs and points which may not be feasible to have done on Willow but may cause a second need to call out assistance). So we went with the cheap cover for today, thinking we could always use the RAC one later this month to get us all the way back to Sussex if required.

The guy came out and initially seemed convinced it must be diesel in the petrol tank but did rule that out and now thinks it is to do with the coil. He was very lovely though and ascertained our plans for the coming week, thought about it and then came up with driving us to a layby near their workshop where we could safely park up for our two nights to sleep, then he’ll take us to the holiday cottage on Saturday, come back and collect Willow and then pick us up from the cottage when she’s fixed. What a top bloke :). He even reminded us we’d need enough food for two days so I could nip across to the shop and pick up a few essentials.

A second truck with a flat bed then came along and Willow was loaded up on the back and we all got in the cab and they dropped us off at a lovely flat layby in a nice quiet place a short walk from their workshop ‘incase you need anything’.

Of course this whole process took nearly 3 hours, was incredibly stressful, particularly for Ady 😉 and by the time we were safely installed it was nearly 3pm and we’d not had lunch and were starving. So we made cheese on toast, took a phonecall from James where Davies got to talk to Marcus and Ben (bonus!) and ate lots of chocolate and drank lots of tea to recover from all the excitement.

We did intend having a walk but it started to rain shortly after we arrived here and never stopped all afternoon so instead we stayed in the van, played some cards, the kids both did some drawing /writing in their sketch books and we all did lots of talking about short term future plans. We had decided staying in Willow until Christmas camp was probably not feasible and as Willow needs taxing at the end of November and I had a moment of desperately missing my Dad earlier today when Joyce said I was looking like him and then a white van drove past and I automatically looked to see if it was him and then realised it clearly wouldn’t be the idea of going to stay with my parents for those 3 weeks between leaving our last host and going to camp came up. Everyone agreed it would be the best idea. Scarlett can see family and friends for her birthday, we can all catch up with people, get the house on the market, swap Willow for my car, get different clothes, the kids can play with their toys and we can properly talk through all our future plans with my Mum and Dad. It will be challenging staying with them for that long I am sure, my Mum in particular is not a model hostess but it will be finite, we will have plenty of places to go and spend time away from them in Sussex.

I really don’t want our last nights in the van to be endurance tests and it is getting colder, damper, darker and increasingly difficult as the weather changes and the clocks go back. We have made our decision about where we want to be so sticking around in the interests of seeing more of the place we know we want to move back to anyway seems pointless when we could just go back to Sussex and start putting the wheels in motion to actually make it all happen. I’m feeling like this is very much the right decision, despite awareness of potential issues.

We rang my parents after dinner to tell them and they were very happy (less vocal on the subject of Lynda and Stuart and holiday cottages it has to be said ;)) so that was good :).

So tomorrow we have a day here, hopefully a walk and a last night in the van for a week before hopefully handing her over to be fixed ready to travel to Mallaig next weekend for our last WWOOFing host.

Anyway, some pics from the last two days. Check out those snow capped mountains 🙂
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Wednesday 19th October

Autumn Walk

This morning we woke to more snow. Ady had got up and the gas bottle had run out while he was making himself a coffee so he’d had to change over to the spare bottle in the snow (the gas bottles are outside the van behind a little door). It was very pretty but bitterly cold. The view was stunning though and we had a steady stream of people pulling up alongside us and jumping out of their cars with their cameras to get snaps of it. At one point two car fulls of people pulled up together and it started snowing again and they all cheered. It felt very festive J

We played some more card games – yes I am well aware of the piss taking potential in my playing games 😉 I certainly would not buy or play any of those long drawn out games though, a five minute card game is definitely my limit for passing time rather than competitive playing. Of course I could well find myself living up here this time next year with cold winter evenings stretching before me and a yen to start playing some game I can’t even pronounce the name of so I probably shouldn’t make wild declarations like that just yet…

We decided we needed to spend the night on lower ground. As beautiful as the mountain view was it was way too cold to do another night there. We were also on reserve long life milk and generally low on food stocks. The kids and I had rice pudding for breakfast laced with cinnamon though which was gorgeously warming. After Popmaster we drove down the hill, pausing for a quick look at the Glengarry view point and heading down to Invergary. We spotted several likely looking laybys for potential overnight spots along the way with the intention of driving til we found a shop and returning to one of them if we had not gone too far past it.

Sure enough we found a shop selling various provisions at not too ridiculous prices so we stocked up with basics like bread and milk and cheese along with some sausages and bacon for dinner tomorrow so we don’t have to find a shop then. Then we double backed on ourselves and returned to a woodland we’d spotted as suitable for a walk and perhaps an overnight parking spot.

We had lunch and I made some pizza dough ready for dinner later then we headed off for a walk. As in so many of the woodlands we have visited there was a choice of walks, colour coded so we selected the moderate walk alongside the river hoping to see salmon or otters. Something must have gone wrong though as although we thought we’d followed the marker for the red walk we didn’t see any more markers at all.

We merrily walked alongside the river for nearly an hour before deciding we must have gone wrong as we couldn’t see a way to cross the river meaning it would not be a circular walk and the walk guideline had said allow an hour for the walk which we assumed returned you to the carpark. We had enjoyed chatting and looking at the trees and the river anyway so decided to walk for five more minutes before just turning round and retracing our steps. Just as we were about to turn around we spotted a bridge across the river so assumed that was the way and it was just poorly marked.

The path seemed to disappear after that and we should have decided almost straight away that it was wrong but we battled on for a bit over some very marshy ground, across a couple of streams and into an area where new homes were being built. By then we’d gone far enough to feel we didn’t want to go back through it all and cross the bridge to go back again although that potentially was the most sensible option. We crossed a field with a load of cows in it and then found a fence with a low enough point to climb over leading back to a proper concrete path. No idea what we’d done wrong but we ended up about half way along the yellow route at that point. It did lead us back to the carpark though.

So an interesting and rather longer and more exciting walk than intended – about 2 hours of fairly fast walking so a good five miles, but at least we all felt we’d properly stretched our legs at last and fully deserved our pizza later J. Back at the van we packed up and headed back to a layby, mostly because we had no phone or internet signal in the woods. Ironically we drove to a layby which did have both but has since lost both, no idea how or why, which is why I am typing this on word and will have to upload it tomorrow,

Once we’d found a parking space, overlooking the loch, Ady walked into the woodland and found somewhere suitable to dig a hole to empty our toilet. He’s been wanting to conquer that aspect of the wild camping adventure, having read about the guidelines for such things in our Wild Camping leaflet so armed with his little spade he dug a hole the required depth and size, away from water etc. and took the loo off to empty it. He returned triumphant. I am so pleased he is able to find pleasure in such things! 😉

I meanwhile got the dinner on and we all played cards and listened to the radio while it cooked. Hot water bottles all round tonight even though it is not actually anywhere near as cold as it was last night so we’re very cosy and snug even if we don’t have internet to play with.

I’ve had a flood of emails from Lynda today, all of which made me smile more and more and feel slightly teary. The first was to say the company had been unable to get hold of the owners of Wanderers End so they had booked a different cottage instead. A quick look at it online shows it to be lovely, even lovelier if you have been living in a campervan for six weeks! 😉 I then had an email this evening to say she was worried we may have been bulldozed into sharing a holiday cottage with them and she forgets we aren’t family and therefore happy to just fall in with their plans! I emailed back to say we were totally overwhelmed with their kindness and the only downside for us was feeling bad we were not able to pay anything towards it but would be more than happy to buy all the food and do all the cooking (actually we are really looking forward to doing all the cooking!). And we hope they will let us repay the hospitality when we move up here for good. I am getting very excited at the propsect of a lovely long guest list of people coming to stay 🙂 I got yet another lovely reply to say they would agree to us going halves on food and yes please to doing all the cooking! I do love Lynda 🙂 She could certainly teach my Mum a thing or three… infact I’m rather evilly looking forward to telling my Mum L&S are coming up and paying for a holiday cottage for the week… 😉 actually maybe I’ll let the kids ring and tell her!

This morning we woke in our very cosy layby, it was an excellent overnight spot. It was cold in the van this morning so we all pulled our clothes into our sleeping bags to get them warm before getting dressed. Reminded me of pulling my school uniform into bed and getting dressed under the covers as a kid. It’ll be good for Davies and Scarlett to have tales of frost on the inside of windows and condensation puddling on the windowsills to tell their kids as they put another jumper on rather than turn the heating up 😆
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We listened to Popmaster and watched the weather keep changing from blue skies to rain and hail with the hilltops all around getting shrouded with mist and clouds and emerge with further dustings of snow every time. On the next sunny interval we donned hats, gloves, wellies and coats (even Scarlett and I wore socks!) and ventured out.
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We were parked right next to Cluanie Dam so wandered along to take a look at it close up. It’s huge!
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We didn’t want to drive far today so decided to visit a shop if we saw one but to stop at the next best layby really. We ended up driving less than 10 miles. We found one, just before the viewpoint for Glen Garry. I know it is just before rather than just after because we pulled into it, Scarlett vetoed it on rather spurious grounds and we have been operating a consensus based decision making rule for overnight stops. We then got to the viewpoint stop and decided that actually Scarlett has vetoed rather a lot of places lately on fairly feeble excuses so maybe a majority vote would be better. We discussed it further and agreed the layby would be fine so turned around and went back to it :). Scarlett was fine with this by the way so it was all but consensus in the end, just with some additional brow beating ;).

The views were stunning for about 15 minutes
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Then the rain and wind returned and stayed for the rest of the day.

We drank hot chocolate, had lunch, made cookies, baked a pie for dinner and played lots of games. We did some treetop (as recommended by Em), some mini travel version of Cranium (grumble pail in Yorkshire 50p, first played in Tarbert at host family), some Go Fish (pack of cards, pound shop in Lancaster, game learnt in Glastonbury from Jill), some noughts and crosses and boxes (taught by my Dad when I was kneehigh to a grasshopped and played on trains to London with kids over the years), a game of Beetle (no idea where I learnt it but I taught D&S and the other kids at Bryn Mawr it one sunny afternoon) and then a very long and complicated game made up by Davies using various cards, some toy animals, some toy cars, a torch, a roll of sellotape and what appeared to be ever changing rules which meant Davies won both times we played 😆

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The kids did some more reading together too.

It was a lovely afternoon 🙂

Hurrah for radio 2, easy entertainment and spare pairs of socks.

After dinner we all snuggled up for stories and then into bed. It is very cold tonight although once we’re actually in sleeping bags it is fine but I confess to feeling very pleased at the prospect of the holiday cottage next week and am aware we will need to decide what to do after the hosts as I don’t think four weeks in the van before Christmas camp is viable as the weather continues to turn colder.

A very lazy morning at the campsite with showers all round, watching dvds, online stuff and various other sitting in the van type stuff. The weather has truly turned and it has rained all day today with added blustery wind just to prove the point. We even had a couple of bursts of thunder and lightning in the night.

At 3pm we declared it time to head off so with everything fully charged we left, collecting our clean washing from the garage attached to the campsite on the way. I just grabbed it and shoved it in the van quick as it was pouring with rain but noticed once we stopped that although it is indeed clean and dry it also has the unmistakable aroma of cigarette smoke. Yuck! The worst affected is a fleecy sleepsuit of Scarlett’s, it seems to have soaked right in, there is no way she can wear that again until it has been rewashed :(. I’ve seperated all the stuff that didn’t smell and put that away but all the tainted stuff is now stashed seperately with sheets of tumble drier fabric conditioner inbetween which will hopefully air the smell out.

We drove about 15 miles before finding a suitable layby and then spent ages getting the van level including a rather dramatic roll over and off the chocks by Ady who was trying to do it by himself because I was ranting about the smelly washing and sorting that out. I really yelled at him and so then had to deal with him feeling crap about himself too. Sigh.

I got dinner on and then helped Ady find a fix for his phone camera which was not working properly (thanks doctor google, it turned out to be the geotagging thingie trying to find his location and failing so not taking a picture). It was incredibly cold in the van, I even put socks on and the first fall of snow is now covering the very tops of the high peaks around us. So straight away after dinner we all got into pjs, put the bed down and sat in sleeping bags drinking hot chocolate. It was like a giant sleepover 🙂 We have thermal underwear, hot water bottles and many more layers of clothing to put on before we start to fret about temperature too much, I suspect the condensation will prove more of an issue than the actual cold.

Davies and Scarlett have decided Scarlett is going to learn to read and Davies is going to teach her which is fine by me. I was just starting to edge towards fretting about her and reading. She will be nine in a matter of weeks now and thus far has shown no interest at all, infact had been utterly resistant to the very idea. She appears to be excellent at blending and working out what words say, less confident which what sounds each letter makes, the total opposite to what Davies was. He had all the sounds sorted by used to do that ‘ker ah tuh, ker ah tuh, dog?’ thing. He does now appear to be fairly fluently reading which allows me to rest a little easier that our approach does work given time and hands off. Would be nice if Scarlett hit the end of this year with some interest in reading though and a bit of ability.

So the kids did a few pages of a Dora book we happen to have in the van and then I read them a couple of short stories from an anthology of funny tales from various childrens authors we picked up at a charity shop.

Now the weather has changed and we have run out of money I guess the days may pass a little slower living in Willow and I don’t want the end of this bit to feel boring or rubbish so I’m hoping we’ll find somewhere to have a walk tomorrow.

This morning Ady was up with the sun, which actually isn’t really *that* early but a couple of hours earlier than I was up! He sat on the bench next to Willow with his cup of coffee and the camera while the rest of us slept on.

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Once up and breakfasted and van returned to a van instead of a bedroom and dead mouse disposed of (I resist using the words good clean kill, mostly because there was blood splattered but I am sure it died very quickly) we were ready to set off.

We were back at our campsite, the only one we’ve actually used since Rosemarkie, now our third visit, by 11am. I had a shower, we passed two loads of washing on to the owner to take advantage of their wash and dry a load for a fiver offer which if not cheaper than the laundrette certainly saves on finding one, parking and hanging around for it and we got everything plug in, filled up and emptied in appropriate manner.

The kids watched a couple of dvds, I blogged, found the way to reboot Ady’s tablet which had crashed and we then spent way too long trying to work out a way to link it to a google account so he could download apps that wasn’t already linked to a different phone we also use for downloading apps. That involved far too much faffing about.

Ady cooked a delicious campervan roast dinner – we’d got a joint of pork reduced yesterday so he cut that up and roasted it along with potatoes, a reduced bag of fresh veg and gravy. Washed down with cider or coke. We do miss our roast dinners.

We ate dinner watching Autumnwatch which was fab, slightly disturbing seeing Chris Packham and Michaela Strachan together on TV looking so much older than I remember them from their Really Wild Show days, although of course in my day Chris was presenting with Terry and Nicola. Ooh have wondered idly for years if Nicola Davies the author was the same Nicola Davies the presenter and she is. So still just the one famous namesake then 😉

After dinner we had more lazing around with electronic things before setting the bed up and having stories and hot chocolate. We had planned to meet Lynda and Stuart next weekend in Fort William and have found out today they have booked a holiday cottage for the week, called Wanderers End which sleeps six and as they only need for 3 nights we are welcome to stay in for the week. This rather takes the pressure off fuel costs for our final week and even has a bath! As ever the kindness and generosity of them blows me away, they treat us like beloved family 🙂

Tomorrow we’ll hang on here til about 3pm ish, make sure we do some walking in the nearby area to stave off lethargy and then head to the layby near StromeFerry (No Ferry) we have earmarked for tomorrow’s overnight stop off.

I spent most of my limited online time last night searching for a campsite on Skye suitable for us. The kids are feeling the loss of charge from psp / ds and Ady and I are feeling overdue for showers. We had planned to have a night in a campsite on Skye before leaving but failed to find one suitable / open / with a decent view / any internet signal. So the next plan was to get the ferry from Armadale to Mallaig and find a campsite there. We thought the ferry crossing would be cheaper than the fuel used to drive round. But we are now heading to Fort William for next weekend so won’t be staying in Mallaig for the whole time anyway and on checking the ferry cost would be £34 and would save 50 miles driving. Even in Willow with her petrol guzzling ways we’d get more than 50 miles from £34 worth of fuel.

So the amended plan became driving to Fort William over the course of the coming week which means we are driving past our tried and tested bargain campsite on the way. We decided the only bit of Skye we had missed and really wanted to see on this visit was Sleat. I know we have not gone all the way out on every little bit and we will do those bits when we come back next year but Sleat is home to Rubha Phoil which we were very keen to visit.

So to Sleat we went. We really liked it there, it felt more light and with more sky away from the mountains. We pulled over for lunch and I made pizza dough ready for dinner tonight and we headed all the way down. We parked up and did the woodland walk in the gentle rain, loving the faeries walk, the information about permaculture, the seal and otter hide (where we saw seals), the view across the sea and onto the tiny islands surrounding the coast, adored the eco campsite with it’s idyllic little plots suitable for tiny tents with the best views ever. It’s what the Sustainability Centre almost was before they lost their way! Love, love, loved the beach cave – just what it says, accessible via a scramble down the rocks and complete with fire place and chimney!
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On the way out we noticed people in the potting shed so went in to introduce ourselves and have a bit of a chat about our plans and see if they were WWOOF hosts or knew any of the permaculture people we have come across this year (it’s a fairly small community). Sure enough they know our last hosts pretty well 🙂 They said Skye is definitely the right place for people seeking our dreams and we promised to stay in touch and visit again when we’re next up here house hunting. I’ll follow that up with an email.

It felt really good to meet people who got what we want to do, nice to feel so at home :). It also really helped to reassure us that Skye does have what we want :).

We left there and intended to park for the night in one of the laybys, particularly when we sat and watched two otters swim along the shoreline. But the layby was pretty close to the road and conscious of having as long as possible in the campsite tomorrow we decided to head for a layby just the other side of the bridge.

The views leaving the island at sunset were just stunning, pink and orange sky with mists rolling over all the islands surrounding it and teh lights on the mainland twinkling in the distance.
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I am of course prepared for us to fall just as much in love with Eigg but for now I think we have definitely found where we want to be. Staying longer and looking at properties feels a bit like taunting ourselves and we will save the finer exploring of the island for our return once our house has sold.

A very windy night on the far coast last night. We’d swapped sleeping orientation too which meant I was on the side next to the window and I don’t sleep as well that way. Have swapped back round again tonight. I didn’t hear the mouse but all the chocolate was eaten off the traps again so it was clearly about – the sound of the wind must have drowned it out!

This morning after Popmaster we headed off to properly explore Trotternish, the top right of Skye (or top left, depending on how you look at it I guess). We’d gotten half way round last night before stopping, so did the second half with intentions of having a decent walk and seeing some proper scenery. We stopped at a museum of fossils but it was £2 each entrance and Ady said it looked like there was very little there to see, so we didn’t bother. We stopped at the Staffin / Kilt rock viewpoint hoping for a walk but it simply was a viewpoint. A very gorgeous viewpoint mind you, with information boards, dinosaur footprints to compare to your own and railings blocking a very impressive sheer drop down the cliff. The pillars of rock were impressive too.

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From there we drove to Storr and pulled over for lunch before getting togged up to do the walk. It was far harder going than I’d expected being very steep and I was lagging behind the others quite quickly. At the halfway point I decided I was no longer enjoying the climb and would sit and enjoy the view. I was feeling quite smug and self congratulatory on this and was sitting soaking up the amazing views and deciding that it was a metaphor for life in many ways – some people need to climb to the top of every mountain, others can be happy to get halfway, realise the journey is more important than the destination and be happy to stop and just enjoy how far they have come. An epiphany on a mountainside ;). I watched a woman climb closer and closer to me taking photos and seeming oblivious to me. When she caught sight of me (her eyesight was poor, she geninuely had not seen me although she reckoned I’d be in all her pictures!) we had a 15 minute chat and I shared my deep ponderance with her. She was equally entranced by it (she had not enjoyed the climb much either and had decided halfway was perfect for taking photos looking up and down!) and we shared potted stories of what brought us there. She was kiwi, travelling round the UK and heading for home to sell up and buy somewhere with a view and settle for a simpler life. Clearly I had a similar tale to tell. We agreed that we had it all sussed, wished that all our dreams came true for each other and parted. 🙂 A very happy encounter, wish I had her picture on my camera too really. Did feel slightly like that scene in Lost where Jack meets that Irish guy running and he runs off with ‘see you in a different life’…but I’m not anticipating any air travel any time soon so I guess I’m safe.

Ady, Davies and Scarlett did make it all the way to the top and Ady said the going had actually been much easier the second half of the way. They rang me from the top but couldn’t see me as they were shrouded in mist. The weather kept changing with clouds blowing across and the view was like this one moment
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and literally seconds later like this
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All very mystical and atmospheric and lovely though. You could *feel* the history and imagine all the thousands of people who have climbed and walked there and almost hear the echo of their footsteps.

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I meanwhile was gazing out over the ocean at this
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The others came down and we all retreated all the way back down to the carpark before deciding what to do next. We thought we’d do the other upper jutting out bit so via Portree for petrol we headed towards Waternish. And very lovely it is too. It felt more rugged that Trotternish somehow although that could have been the darkening sky and the lateness of the day ;). We pulled up at SkyeSkyns only half an hour before they were about to close but got happily ushered in for the free guided tour of the tanning process and shown round all the old fashioned machinery used for the process of making sheepskins. Fascinating stuff 🙂 Upstairs in the show room we were all very tempted by the gorgeous rugs and hope to one day have one in our new house on Skye ;). It was particularly interesting having seen sheep and cow skins being salted at the slaughterhouse in Devon all those months ago ready to be shipped off for this process as all the skins used here were from animals killed for meat.

By then it was 6pm and steadily getting dark. We’d been looking for an overnight stop and found nowhere at all suitable – either too close to the single track road or on too sloping an incline, so we made the decision to head back to Sligachan where we knew we could come to the campsite again. It was the right choice, despite arriving in the dark and having a really late dinner as it is even blustery here and the van is moving despite being in a dip and fairly sheltered.

We’re now debating our next move as we want to do the Sleat peninsula and that is where the ferry across to Mallaig leaves from so we will probably head off of Skye on Sunday and get a campsite back on the mainland on Monday and have our final two weeks in that area. Lynda and Stuart are planning to head up for a few days next weekend so we’ll meet up with them then too.