I’m still at Dundreggan.  It’s still cold.  And there’s been some snow at river level in the glen.  Today Steve and Allan are busy so I get the opportunity to take a walk in the morning sun.  Even though there is just a very light covering of snow, everywhere looks beautiful.  I walk up the Red Burn, then cut across the hillside towards Binnilidh Bheag, before walking down past the wild boar enclosure.  The boar are nowhere to be seen, but there are deer on the hillside, and I spend a few minutes watching a Red Admiral trying out it’s wings and sunning itself on a rock.

Yesterday I spent the afternoon walking the riparian planting area; a joint project between TFL and the Forestry Commission Scotland.  I found some Alder that I’d planted in May in the FCS area, all looking very healthy, and some of the Aspen and Birch that I’d planted three weeks ago in the TFL area.

That was after Marion had left yesterday morning, and today I still have some of her squash soup to finish.  It’s good soup.  Almost too good.  I know about the squash, the chillies, and some of the other veg that’s in there, but I can’t quite work out how she’s managed to get it to taste like a cross between soup and jam.

This evening I go and check out the wild boar, after dark but before tea.  It’s below freezing and vegetation crunches under every footfall.  I walk up the side of the enclosure, and eventually hear some low level grunts.  I keep going a little way and then stop.  I can hear one of the pigs walking down to where I’ve just been.  In the dark it’s easy to imagine that there is no fence between us.  As the two larger boar walk about looking for me, one above me on the slope, and one below, sniffing the air and sending out short deep grunts to each other, I get just a small taster of what it might be like to meet a potentially dangerous animal in the wild.  It’s a buzz.  Of course I’m safely behind a fence, but I feel sorry that in Britain we’ve pretty much eradicated this kind of experience from our lives.

Wow, what a day.  We’re on the road just after half 6.  Surprisingly, it’s raining.  In fact everywhere between Glen Moriston and Kincraig looks very wet.  It’s also cold, the temp doesn’t get much over 4 degrees outside while we’re in the car.

We get to Highland Wildlife park at 8.30am.  Alan Watson Featherstone is already doing a radio interview for the BBC.

Myself, Kate and Kevin are given a Landrover tour of the park.  Elk, Bison and a family of Amur Tiger, are the highlights.

I also spend a fair bit of time watching the wolf that keeps trotting around their enclosure. Wolves are a beautiful and misunderstood animal. As a predator to Deer they play a key role in European ecosystems, and their extirpation from Britain, through hunting, is an important reason why the Caledonian forest is unable to regenerate naturally, without human intervention.

We struggle to get the trailer to the pigs, in the mud (they are surely going to love their new home). But we’re on our way before 11, and when we make it back to Dundreggan, there are a number of people having tea and cakes in the cottage.

After another brief inspection by a vet and the dangerous animals inspector, the release goes very smoothly. The 6 sows trot off into the woods, curiously exploring their new surroundings. It’s very cool to see.

There must have been a good 25 people to see the release, including representation from BBC Scotland, STV and Gaelic television. I’ve managed to locate the following articles:

http://news.bbc.co.uk/1/hi/scotland/highlands_and_islands/8370348.stm
http://www.heraldscotland.com/news/home-news/wild-boar-our-new-eco-warriors-1.986562
http://news.scotsman.com/odd/Boars-to-return-to-the.5858725.jp
http://www.biodiversityscotland.gov.uk/library/Issue%2032%20final%20version.pdf

It is possible to find more articles by googling “Dundreggan boar” and any other words you think might help. I believe there is also a clip on bbc iplayer, but my internet connection is not going to be up for finding that.

Apologies for the terrible state of my pics.  My camera and bad weather don’t mix (it’s not completely recovered from the soaking it received on Skye), and the light was poor and there was water on the lens.  Really, there was…

It’s cold in the cottage and I wake in the night sure there is someone first in the room with me, and then just outside my bedroom door.  I get up; nobody.  The place is full of unusual noises and, almost certainly, a number of rodents.

In the morning Steve (Dundreggan Project Manager) comes round when I’m in the shower.  He asks me to check the wild boar enclosure and add some fencing to the gates.  It rains all day.  I go back to the cottage to eat at 2.30pm.  I’ve managed to sort one of the 6 gates.  I’m wet, even with a full set of waterproofs on.  The heater in the cottage kitchen is broken.

Half an hour later I find that Allan Common has taken the tools I’m using – I think that I’ve seen him drive off in the tractor, but eventually find him up by the enclosure gates.  He’s working on the second gate, with a bloodied hand.  It’s raining harder.  I help him and, without much talking, we manage to finish two other gates in the remaining hour before it gets too dark.

I get in and make some food, then just about manage to pick up a couple of emails on my very flaky internet connection.  They’re not the best part of my day.  Solicitors and girls – I thought things had been going ok, but apparently not.

Thankfully Steve comes round for a chat, so I don’t get too much time to think on things, before tiredness catches up with me and I fall into a deep and relatively untroubled sleep…

Actually, it didn’t turn out to be that cold.  Some clouds came by and the temperature probably stayed over 5 degrees.  And I had enough food for a decent breakfast, which I ate whilst sat next to the sea, watching a Tornado doing a near vertical take off over Kinloss.

And Jock was around on Monday, with a key, which he’s very kindly lent me for the week, as well as cooking me a meal on Monday night!  So I have a bed for the next few days.

Ok, I’m working in the TFL office for the week, updating the soon to be published, new web site.  It’s a beautifully relaxed place to work.  So long as you don’t mind jets performing numerous thunderous take offs nearby.  I managed to get a pic of Craig and his replacement, Colin.  And, in exchange for a free meal, which I’m always on the look out for, myself and Colin painted a couple of rooms in Craig’s new place last night…