New Year 2005

Just to reassure readers that I have not abandoned the journal. Stornoway library cannot provide me internet access as their server is down, and they are also waiting for a fibre-optic cable. Net result, I'm nearly a MONTH behind. Bear with me - I've got a riveting account of the January 12th hurricane, where unfortunately 5 people perished as they tried to flee the floodwaters in two cars. The sea washed the vehicles off the causeway, linking the islands of Benbecula and South Uist. It's the depth of winter now, and the weather is barely suitable for outdoor pursuits. I can cope with wind, rain, low temperatures and snow on their own. Not in combination.

Greetings from the Heathery Isle, Isle of Lewis.

Festive period 24/12/04 to 05/01/05

Happy New Year and hope everybody had a nice Christmas.

I've not been very busy at all over the festive period, in between running up and down to Stornoway for supplies every other day or so, and not going out because of inclement weather. On Christmas Day, it was very cold with wintery showers. Now, I don't mind the cold, but with a strong wind, that's asking for hypothermia. On average, the weather comes in three day cycles:

- gales, with rain and relatively mild temperatures (10-13C)

- showers, wintery and low temperatures (3-8C)

- quiet days with moderate temperatures (7-9C)

The wintery showers consist mainly of hail, which can be painful if driven along by wind.

Walks consisted of the odd hike across the moors south of my current base, Kershader. I'll give further details once the computer in Stornoway library is back on-line. This comes from the library in Tarbert, Harris, 40 miles south of Stornoway.

Wednesday 22 and Thursday 23/12/04

Found myself going up and down to Stornoway these two days, rather than being out and about. It's called bad planning, unfortunately. As I've said before, Lewis's main town is not exactly the Venice of the North, but it's looking slightly less drab than normal,due to the Christmas decorations being up. They were lit on December 2nd. Christmas is very close now, so town is very busy indeed with hoards of islanders jostling around in shops, frantically trying to get the shopping done. The driver on the Balallan to Stornoway bus always plays BBC Radio 2, and I'm already fed up with the Xmas songs. The weather has been persistently greyish. And very wild, particularly on the night 22nd to 23rd December. A gale was forecast for evening and early night, and boyo, did it blow. Good god above. The roof was making a racket, I thought at least all the tiles would come off. Rain was swept along the road - seen horizontal rain now. This was a mere force 10, I think. Come morning, the sun was out, and there were a few showers on the horizon. Quite innocent really. But by the time I came out of the library, at 12 o'clock, the clouds had taken over and rain was coming down again. Nonetheless, I went for a little walk, this time heading north out of town, past the Western Isles Hospital, and the hamlets of Lacasdail and Newmarket. In Laxdale, there is a well, which was improved and put in use by King Edward VII in 1902. Went off into the Tolastaidh / Tolsta road. Then climbed over a gate and walked across the saltmarsh to as close to the shoreline as I could get. And walked the same way back, after lunch.

On return to the hostel, somebody had been a bit zealous in the cleaning, in throwing out my old copy of the Stornoway Gazette which contained all the info about bus services in the islands over Christmas. Bit inconvenient.

Tuesday 21/12/04

Started forth at 11 am, under cloudy skies and a blustery wind. Headed southeast out of the village, onto the moors. I thought I was heading south, but when I finally caught sight of the first loch, Loch nam Breac, this assumption turned out to be incorrect. I changed course, heading southwest for Loch Leathan, the Broad Loch, and was met with a strong gust of wind on reaching its eastern shores. There was intermittent rain, but nothing too bothersome. Next heading was due south, Loch Tobhtaichean Amlaidh, the very long loch. On approaching this, I heard a strange sound, which turned out to be thin shoals of ice creaking on the water. This had gathered in a bay by the force of the wind. There were actually small patches of ice and snow still remaining after the weekend's snow, in spite of the relatively high temperatures since then. It's about 6-8C today. Tramped down the eastern shore of Loch T.A., which has a fairly convoluted shoreline. Stopped for lunch at grid ref 354170, which is just off the southern bight in the loch. It was getting steadily more windy, but still mostly dry. Could see Loch nan Eilean a little way to the east. After lunch proceeded to walk around the southern shore of Loch T.A., until reaching the three rocky islets in its southwestern bay. From there on, it was a straight course northwest in the general direction of Roineabhal, until reaching Loch Ealaidh. This was known territory, and the only problem was crossing the fast-flowing and deep stream flowing into the loch at its southern extremity. And the high degree of saturation of the ground. It remained wet right through to the last gate opening up onto the road. Sank up to my ankles into mud at that point, so had to wash my boots in a puddle before returning to the hostel.

Monday 20/12/04

Went to Stornoway to do more shopping and catch up on the journal in the library.

Sunday 19/12/04

At the late hour of 12 o'clock I once again made my way towards Loch Ealaidh, which you can reach by clambering over some gates on the boundary between Kershader and Habost. There was this cat which was sunning itself on a wall at Habost. It did not want to be touched, the old tom was just after some warmth in the cold winds...Then it's a bogslog over the hills to the loch. My stones were still lying in the water at the weir. It had snowed (yesterday as well), and there had been a hard frost overnight. The hills in the distance were capped in white, a beautiful sight. Frost makes it easier to walk the moors, all the water is turned to ice. The only downside of this weather is the temperature. Even though the thermometer told me it was +6C, the windchill was significant. Had lunch at the southern end of the loch, then headed southeast. I reckoned that at 1.40 I could reach Gravir before nightfall. The valley I had chosen beautfully led me to the western extremity of the long-named loch, after which I could see Glen Odhairn ahead. As I was 60m up (200ft), I had a good view of the way ahead, but once I had descended to the valley bottom my orienteering was badly fouled. At 3 o'clock, I thought I was heading nicely east, towards Gravir, when I encountered this loch. Now, I headed past 2 of them when still high up on the hillside, so was not expecting anything significant. But this was a big loch. And those mountains looked familiar - they're the ones you can see from Lemreway. Hm. And the sun was half left, not half behind me. I.E., I was going south instead of east. And the loch was Loch Choin Bain. Cut northeast across country and regained the main valley 15 minutes later. It was a bit wet, and the light was beginning to fail. Fortunately, the first houses of Gravir Glen were nearby, so I splotched through the bog and made my way up to the metalled road. Things were straightforward from there. The road down Gravir Glen was not gritted, but the B8060 from Gravir Village was, and then I did not have to worry about the ice I had encountered in the glen. Between Eishal Junction and Caversta, I noticed the snowcapped mountains on Harris being backlit by the clear skies in the east, as stormclouds were approaching from the west. This was at 10 past 4, 35 minutes after sunset. An absolutely gorgeous play of light, well after sunset. Something you cannot capture on camera, because of insufficient light. Not something I'm likely to forget. Returned to Kershader at 5 o'clock, with still some light remaining.

Saturday 18/12/04

On Saturday I headed for Stornoway, just for a change, to do my weekend's shop. A fall of snow and sleet had left the roads in a treacherous condition. The little bus could not race at its customary 50mph, and the Harris bus also encountered some problems. I was not the only one with the idea of going shopping. At Balallan the Harris bus was full to the rafters, and the passengers getting on at Balallan and Laxay had difficulty finding seats. The majority of them were teenagers, so it was lively, shall we say. Stornoway town centre was busy, the library's computer system had packed up, so could not update journal then. After a shop at the large Co-op on Macaulay Road, I headed back to Kershader at 2.20, and this time the bus was not as packed, fortunately.