Thursday, May 15, 2008

Day 9: (Morning) Preparing to leave Loch Ayenort for Roisinis

I was too tired to write last night, so I'm now sitting on a rock on the shore in Loch Ayenort, in front of the fire that I cooked breakfast on and am now burning some peat, which has got a lovely yellow coloured ash and nice smell. The morning sun (9am) is casting a pretty light on the Loch, and I'm just about to start packing my boat before going up to say a final good bye to Archie, Angie, Margaret and Graham, who are some of the most generous and hospitable people I've ever met - thank you for all your help!

Yesterday was as usual, a good day. I got the fire going for breakfast, cooked some porridge with jam and boiled some water for a flask for tea, collecting some of the leaves that Archie said could be used for medicinal tea - I later found it was Comfrey.

Then I went up to meet Alistair McEachan, who again was very kind. We had already arranged by e-mail to meet, so Alistair came with gifts of Record potatoes, lamb chops, a joint of lamb and a leg of venison! That'll be on the grill tonight with a few herbs! We had a cup of tea with Alistair before he left.

Then it was off fishing with Archie along a few headlands and reefs out of Loch Ayenort. My fishing attempts so far had failed, so I was eager for success! And to cut a long story very short, it was successful and by the end of a few hours we had over ten lithe and sathe. Also on the trip out we collected some pigeon Cach from a cave, saved a lamb from certain death on a cliff, collected some sea gull eggs which I just hard boiled for breakfast and lunch, and collected some mussels which are tonight's dinner together with fish and venison, or maybe I'll save the venison and mussels for tomorrow!

We had a nice tea with chicken soup, mussels, Barra (Jimmy Ferguson's) pork with Alistair's potatoes, and some jelly for pudding.


I've learned quite a bit over this few days, not least that mussels like a bit of fresh water. So with my faith in humanity refreshed and my water bottles full, I head off to face the next challenge...

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