G & J away from home

Sunday, 3 July 2016

We are still eating very well at the lighthouse:

Part of the breakfast buffet (Photo: Gary)

Or, rather, Gary is and I am eating very moderately in an effort to ensure the gall bladder fairy goes away and visits somebody else.


After breakfast I settled in the warm conservatory with my laptop and a book for our day 'at home' at the lighthouse while Gary went out on a morning walk back down to the jetty.

The jetty (Photo: Gary)

The trolley which used to be hauled up the ramp (Photo: Gary)

He reappeared shortly before lunch, persuaded to come inside because of the two big rain showers he could see on the horizon.  Eventually (a tuna and egg sandwich, a coffee, and two bits of shortbread later) he decided that he would take his chances with the rain and took off on a walk around the peninsula.

Five to six hours it said on the plastic-covered map the lighthouse supplied.  I wanted him to take the other half of his sandwich if he was going to be out that long; he was prepared to take two boiled lollies.  I offered my daypack and raincoat in case of emergency or if really foul weather caught up with him; he took his umbrella.  (Book reference TICK for Mr Tumnus, the umbrella carrying faun in C. S. Lewis's The Lion, The Witch, and the Wardrobe and, given the wind here, flying umbrella operator P.L. Travers's Mary Poppins)  At least he changed out of his sandals!

My concerns were that if he was injured he would need to settle down until we found him and a big orange raincoat would help with sheltering him and well as making him easier to spot (and a tuna-and-egg sandwich wouldn't go amiss at that point) but a small collapsible umbrella and a couple of Werthers Originals weren't going to be quite as useful in an emergency.

The walking track ... close to the edge (Photo: Gary)

Cormorants? (Photo: Gary)

First goal, the beaches (Photo: Gary)

On his arrival home at 5pm he was able to confirm that no emergency had occurred; also that his umbrella had worked very nicely to keep off the rain (in conjunction with a convenient rock), that he had eaten 50% of his rations, and that he had walked 18,000 steps in the 4 hours he was gone.

View of the second beach (Photo: Gary)

Second goal, pass the lochs on the hill (Photo: Gary)

Boggy walking conditions with masts ahead (Photo: Gary)

He reports that his knees were quite tired and that the first part of the walk along the cliffs had taken some careful negotiation (a bit worrying if Gary thought that), and the rest had been almost entirely bog, except where he had gone uphill trying to avoid the bog and there the ground was covered in springs which almost immediately turning into streams to be forded.  (More accurately jumped across rather than forded, hence the tired knees.)

Third goal, the radio masts (Photo: Gary)

He had such magnificent cell phone signal under the towers that he stopped to get his messages, somewhat hampered by the requirement that he enter a PIN for his voicemail, the first time he has had to do so.

Even when he finally reached the lighthouse again he didn't stop as he saw an opportunity for a photo from the beach below and walked down there to take it.

View from below the lighthouse (Photo: Gary)

Later this evening while he was rest on the bed, sorting through his photos, he suddenly realised the sun was setting and dashed out to get more photos of the lighthouse, telling me on his return that he had had to run up and about the hill get into position before the sun dropped too low for the photo he wanted:

Lighthouse alight (Photo: Gary)

Fingers crossed that after all this abuse his knees and legs will be working well enough to enable us to drive out of here tomorrow - and we might even attempt the Applecross road since my gall bladder has responded to the buckets full of antibiotics I have been swallowing and is no longer protesting at every jolt or bump.

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