Day Two – The Last One
The day dawned bright, warm and sunny with a breeze – perfect conditions, and the kind of weather midges hate.
We started the day (after breakfast of course) with a swim in the gorgeous sea. This was, of course, done in wetsuits, as although the water had a look of warmth is was anything but.
The initial reaction to the water wasn’t too bad, barely anything was felt by me, or my younger brother, as we were the pioneering two to go into the gentle waves.
It wasn’t until you either put your hands in or kicked your feet properly that you really became aware of any extreme cold – as both these parts were bare. But after a lot of kicking and waving of hands in the water, they too became accustomed to the cold. The worst part? Going completely underwater. And unfortunately with the sea being so clear and the sand so white (making visibility under the water amazing), is was something that quite obviously had to be done.
We all had googles, so our eyes would at least, not freeze, and to I took the brave first plunge – not staying down for more than two seconds, before coming up with water streaming past my ears.
It wasn’t however, all that bad, and although it was hard to stay down for more than ten or fifteen seconds (as after that you got an awful brain freeze), it was spectacular! If you tried hard enough during those ten seconds, you could pretend you were snorkeling in a hot country somewhere it was that beautiful (though this obviously couldn’t last long in the cold… and I think I’d rather be in Scotland anyway!)
I again remembered how much I genuinely love being in the water, the happiness and kind of freedom it gives to me. There are few other things that give me that peaceful and kind of fulfilled feeling and I only wish I could do it more often.
Looking back to when we were preparing (aka ‘wet-suiting up’), I can see my obvious excitement about getting in the water. I was ready before anyone else, helping the others all I could and telling them to hurry up – and anyone who knows me will know that usually I am the last person ready.
Before swimming, i feel I should mention that I finished Gavin Maxwell’s Ring of Bright Water Trilogy. Rarely I feel that anyone can say a book changed them, but I know for certain that this one did. The way Maxwell wrote made me feel as though I was there myself, and though many a thing did happen, it only both increased my love and knowledge of otters and Scotland even more than what it was before. I won’t go into a rant, but I strongly recommend his book to everyone and anyone – despite interests or preferences, it’s a bloody good read!
After getting out of the water, and having a (very long) short break to eat and to start a new book, my mum and I decided to go for a kayak around the bay. It was so warm that it took us a good half an hour to get ready, as we just felt so relaxed we were sleepy!
Once we got into the boats, we headed over to where my mum had met the seal the evening before. As we headed out, we observed that the water had an obvious change in colour even though it was still quite shallow. It wasn’t until we got over there that I realized it was a giant shoal of small fish, and that if you put your paddle in deep enough they would scatter, showing the white sand at the bottom again.
Further out, parts of the water were so smooth and so dark that they looked like molten metal, but at the same time you could see outlines of the dark rocks below.
As luck would have it however, we didn’t see any seals, despite kayaking around many of the islands and rocky outlets.
One bigger island was very close to another, and thus created a small, sheltered bay. As we kayaked in completely still and glassy water, there was no sound apart from that of the boats moving through the water.
This gave the bay, in a sense, an eerie magic to it, and as we glided over rocks and seaweed forests almost silently, a peaceful and almost wonderous feeling came upon us.
Heading back into the noise of the wind and open water, my mum and I decided to have a short race. I, because I like to think I was the stronger out of the two of us, won (although its more likely to be because I was in the faster and more streamlined kayak…)
After that we headed back to the beach, where my brother was in the water attempting to catch crabs (he had caught one, named Roger, who was slower than the rest because of a few missing legs), and my dad was fishing from the shore – as we pulled up. he caught the world’s smallest flounder (the only fish he managed to catch in our two days here).
My mum and brother swapped, and with me still in my kayak we headed off to explore the shallower water at the side of the beach, where there were rocks covered in seaweed, creating a home for many types of creatures.
My brother stayed further away, not feeling confident in sterrting or controlling the kayak around the rocks, I however, went in very close, and its safe to say I almost got stuck a few times! I steered out luckily, and saw many a small dish (dark blue on top with a silvery belly, no more than fifteen centimetres long), as well as a few big crabs.
One of these crabs suddenly rushed at another and the two locked claws and had a small tussle before going backwards and staring at each other… An interesting insight into the lives of crabs there…
We headed back after a while, and I went off for a shower while the rest of my family stayed on the beach.
While I was away getting clean (which felt hella good I have to admit), they again saw the seal – Merida. She, instead of following my dad in the kayak (who was out fishing again), was more interested in my mum and brother on the beach.
My dad however, did not miss out as he saw an osprey hunting – which is quite a feat in itself!
Osprey’s will circle high above their prey for a while, before vertically dropping with amazing speed into the water – creating a huge splash, before coming out with a fish wrapped in it’s claws.
The evening was one of a beautiful but almost violent red sunset, promising that the next day would be as beautiful as it had been the last two days. This certainly did not make us want to leave to catch the ferry back to Skye – where we would not be stopping, but heading to a hostel on mainland Scotland, where we’d be spending the night before heading to a friend’s in Northumbria the next day. (Here a couple of pictures of our time there, in order to make this post a little more interesting!)
This part of Scotland had a hold on all of us, and as we left the next morning, we felt as though we were leaving a dream behind.
This is where the writing stops, but there are a few more pictures to be shown. On our way to the ferry, we stopped at some standing stones on the Isle of Lewis – though at this point both my cameras had run out of battery (as well as my phone) I managed to take a few pictures, as did my dad on his phone.
Ioukuoi 