Under Attack!

Day 4:

The Cuillin Mountains are just a wee (notice the Scottish creeping in!) drive away from our B&B so we thought we'd go on a hike before lunch. With the peaks ahead of us, and a field of heather on the side, we followed the river Sligachan up a beautiful rocky path.

However about 15 minutes in, they attacked! The dreaded midges! Teensy but over-powering because they converge in swarms and take tiny bites out of every exposed surface. And I mean every.

Word to the wise (and speaking from experience!): not a good place to answer nature's call.

Luckily we came prepared and donned our extremely attractive head nets, slathered Avon Skin So Soft all over and (quickly) covered arms, legs and, well... everywhere else. Unfortunately game one still went to the midges. Even dressed like this, my poor son had 31 bites on his face and ears.

Fleeing midge invested territory, we headed for the beach on the Sleat peninsula (rain, wind, hot sun and salt air all seem to keep the midges at bay).

After a lovely pub lunch, we wandered onto the beach and were in beachcomber heaven... Seaglass everywhere!!

I could have stayed on the beach forever but my hubby wanted to press on to the southern tip of Sleat, to soak up the green fingers of land stretching into the sea, castle ruins here and there, more little villages nested in the hills with only a one lane road connecting them to civilization.

We hiked up a (midge free) hill amongst cows and sheep one glorious view upon another.

On our way back down the hill, we ran into a friendly cow farmer who stopped to chat, turns out he has lived in this village for all of his 70+ years and is farming land that has been in his family for over 350 years. Walking away I was left with a profound sense of home, of belonging.

 

Posted with Blogsy