Midge Gaiters



The forecast was for light breezes and then rising winds, but from a favourable direction, so it looked like a gentle start followed later by a wild dash across the Minch and into harbour.  Rosie wore her new Lewis hat, in preparation for the wild weather.


Rosie In Lewis Heavy Weather Hat

The promising early breeze then faded away and left us to motor into Loch Inver, past the local seal on a port navigation buoy.

Furry Picture of Furry seal

Lochinver in Loch Inver is a fishing port.  We saw a few small local boats, mostly tied up, and three large Spanish trawlers, offloading large quantities of fish which were destined for Spain, by road.

Lochinver- Spanish Trawler Unloading

The economics of this seems a little strange.  Are the Spanish prepared to pay so much more than us for fish or is this another facet of wasteful EU fisheries policies (our fish go to mainland Europe and we get ours from somewhere else)?  Or don't the British like fish very much?

The next day we went for a beautiful walk up a local salmon river, the Allt an Tiaghaich, and back down past Loch Druin Suardalain.  The names here are quite difficult for we foreigners.

Doug Beside the Allt an Tiaghaich
A worrying sight was the salmon, milling around where the river meets the sea.  With such a dry summer, the water in the river is too low for them to get upstream.  It rained on our walk, which is good start, but the peat uplands need to soak up a huge amount of water to make up for the last few months.


Rosie Prepares For Rain - Distinctive Mount Suilven Behind


Rosie & Patent Midge Gaiters (Trousers Tucked Into Socks)

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