In Search of Suilven pt III

When I woke up this morning there was a midge hatch going on under the canoe. I have a midge hood with me and I try it on. I’m not sure that it seems to be working all that well so I get up, at 6.20am, to find that it’s a glorious cloudless day. Suilven looks fantastic behind us. Bastard.

I find a rock to sit on, in the breeze, while I wait for the others to get up, then we eat and head to the end of the loch, at Elfin. I walk, John, Stella and Rowan are in the canoe. There are a few people about on the loch, from tweed jacket style fisher types to young lads disturbing the peace in a motorised boat.

At the end of the loch we decide that Stella is our best bet to hitch a ride back to the car. I walk to Elfin tea shop and pick us up some fruit cake and drinks. Amazingly Stella is back in not much more than an hour having ridden in at least three different cars to get back to hers. We then drive back to my van. It’s very hot (in the tea shop I asked them if they saw this kind of weather often, the elderly English lady serving laughed, but a Scottish lady behind the bar said, “Aye, it was the same as this last year…”).

1500 hours – I say goodbye to John, Stella, Rowan (who’s developed a strange rash on her underside), and an eclectic gathering of cows that are grazing where the van is parked. I start the drive home, trying not to use the air con too much. I have to stop to sleep on the way as I’m tired and the heat is soporific. I don’t get to the lay-by at Shap (where I’ve slept before) until 3am, where I sleep soundly.

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