91热爆

Finally managed to escape the drudgery of work and made it down to the South End on Sunday! And it wasn't even raining!!! So stopped to take a photo of Seafield where I spent the summers as a wee girl for my Mum as she wants to paint it. My Uncle lives there now. That's his very cool Toyota pick up truck parked outside.

I am extra pleased with this picture, not because it is any good 'cause it isn't but because I managed to airbrush out Wendys camper van which was encroaching on the right hand side, cool!
It was a bit of a misty day thanks to the sun so it's not as clear as usual. That's Bennan Head in the back ground. If you walk along beach (there's a new path with wheelchair access) past the village shop you will come to Seal Bay, which is covered in seals, preferably alive (the dead ones ming). There are also a few families of otters along here so good general wild life watching place as lots of passing dolphins, porpoise, whales and basking sharks. If you go even further along the beach you can still find the ruins of a village that used to be there thanks to the clearances. If you go even further along to the very end of Bennan Head you will find a cave that you can walk and climb through right up on to the top of the cliffs. Haven't done this in over 20 years so don't blame me if you fall and break your neck or the tide comes in and drowns you. Aparently it's a wee bitty dangerous. We couldn't be bothered, we just wanted to see what Mike was on about so jumped back in the car and drove up Auchinhew to the new car park.

We dumped the car and started off up the redicuously good path! Wasn't expecting that at all! When I wiz a lass it was wellie boots and sucktion mud all the way! We used to start from lower Kildonan and climb up past the schoolhouse and through the "new" forestry. This is a great big piece of chocolate cake in comparison!


We found Eas Mor very easily and yes Mike it is very cool indeed, had no idea it was there!

Then we decided that as it was only a mile or so to the loch we may as well keep going. It's so much smaller than I remember!

The Loch is officially known as Loch Garbad but is known locally as The Black Loch because a long long time ago the people who lived in what was at the time a glen were famous for their partying. Then one Halloween they threw such a shindig that the Black Devil who lived under the glen rose up in a fury with the noise and threw the glen into the sea leaving behind the Black Loch and plenty of peace and quiet. If you look at a map of Kildonan and look at the shape of the Black Loch and look at the shape of Pladda (Island just off the coast of Kildonan) you will see they are exactly the same shape, proving the truth of this cautionary tale. Partys near the Black Loch are still generally quiet affairs... just in case...

We sauntered back down and went for a look at the library. The walls were covered in childrens drawing so it's obviously being enjoyed! Sorry the photo is so blurred. The roof is made out of Turf which could do with a mow if you ask me!

Here's a photo of the gorge the Eas Mor waterfall runs into, it's hard to explain how impressively deep it is as there are ancient trees growing in the gully at the bottom. so what looks like bushes at the bottom is tree tops. Not bad! My mate Wendy said it looks like America. She's never been to America so please don't complain.

This is the end of the Gorge looking out to sea. On a clear day you could see to Ireland from here but today you can barely see Pladda which is the thing that looks like a blob in the sky. That is in fact an island but the horizon was having a duvet day so no way of telling where the sky and sea meet.



The floor of the wood was covered in an excellent array of funghi! We had the usual," Do you think it's safe to eat?" Conversation but decided probably not or it would've been picked by now.

It was a pleasant hour and a half walk, much easier than the full day expedition of my youth but not as exciting, still... probably just as I'm beginning to creak.