The heatwave in Scotland

The journey back across to the Isle of Harris was covered in fog, but we again saw a pod of dolphins playing around the boat. We have seen dophins on virtually every journey in the Outer Hebrides, which makes amends for the poor weather. Also, the sun often makes a spectacular evening appearance.

We moored on the quay in Scalpay and found that were were next to a boat called Mollymawk. We had not met the crew, but we had been following them north since the Strangford Loch in May. I enjoyed being sociable, whilst Phil unfortunately had to work, but no doubt our paths will cross again sometime.

I enjoyed an afternoon walk to the lighthouse on the end of Scalpay. This was one of the days when most of the country was melting in the 40 degree heatwave. As you will see from my pictures, the weather here was quite different. The fog that decended upon the boggy moorland rolled across in a very attmospheric way and at times became very thick. It was so severe that I could not even see the lighthouse from the opposite hillside.

 

On the way back I stuck to the strangely springy path. I thought about the Peter May book I was listening to, where the young girl had nearly died by being sucked into a peat bog, and the Jeremy Brett in the Hound of the Baskervilles, but I made it back to the boat without incident.

The next day we sailed to the Shiants. A group of uninhabited islands with a huge bird colony. These islands apparently have two percent of the World's puffin population, and there were puffins everywhere. The sky was thick with birds, puffins, guillimots, razorbills and cormerants were the most common. I particularly love the Auks, the way they fly with their little legs stuck out behind them, the general mad flapping that take off involves, and the comical crash landings. It was a special place and we feel especially luck now that we are reading about the impact of the Avian bird flu outbreak. Thankfully we did not see any dead birds here. 

After a night here. our thoughts turned to the journey round Cape Wrath to the Orkneys, so it was off to Stormoway to complete the boat jobs needed in preparation for this 24 hour passage.