The Worst Day of my Life

The Worst Day of my Life

 

June 23rd 2015

Today started off well, as we headed off to the Butt of Lewis, to explore the most northern tip of Lewis. As well as taking photographs of the scenery, our grown-ups were on the look-out for examples of anything connected with peat.  Bella and I didn't know what peat was (except that we know someone called Pete) so Grannymac had to tell us.  She said that peat is made of the decayed remains of plant material in wet, boggy areas.  Because there is no coal and almost no wood on the islands, people cut the peat into chunks, set the chunks out to dry and then took them home to use as fuel for their fires.  Well, imagine that!  She said that only a few people do that now as so many homes now have central heating of some kind - much less work than using peat.  Before going on to our adventures, we are going to put three peat photographs here, two of the peat where it was cut and left to dry, and another of someone's peat stack beside their house.

What a huge amount of cutting, carrying and stacking must have gone into making a pile that size!  It should be enough to keep that family warm until next summer.

When we reached the Butt of Lewis, (if you read this, Blueper B, it isn't what you mean by 'butt' in America!)  right up in the northernmost point of the island, it was very exciting.  There was a lot of rocky scenery. with cliffs and very strange rocks, with the sea crashing into them far below.  I don't think it would be much fun to be there on a stormy day in winter!

 

There was also a very tall, thin building which Grannymac told us was called a lighthouse.  At night a light shone out from it to warn passing ships to keep away from the rocks.

There were lots and lots of clumps of very pretty pink flowers (which Grannymac said were called 'thrift') growing on the rocks, with gulls sitting on nests here and there.  Bella and I really enjoyed sitting amongst them - the flowers, not the gulls.

I didn't know it then, but that might easily have been the last time I saw Bella.  When we left the lighthouse area, Grannymac wanted to stop to take some photographs of some models which were at the side of the road.

While she was doing this, an elderly man, out for a walk with his dog, came along and started to chat.  After a little while, he asked if we could give him a lift to his neighbour's house - he was just going along to 'socialise' (wink, wink) as he produced a half-bottle of Famous Grouse whisky from his pocket!  What could anyone say?  The car already had four adults in it, but he squeezed in and his dog jumped in too!  That was the start of the trouble,  I was sitting on the back seat when Grannymac got out to take her photographs, and as she got back in, with all the squash, she didn't notice that I had fallen out of the car!  I tried all I could to attract her attention, but nobody heard me and to my complete horror, I had to lie there at the side of the road and watch the car drive away without me!  Even now, I can hardly bear to think about it.  The man and his dog got out of the car a very short distance along the road and Bella told me afterwards that she tried very hard to tell Grannymac that I was missing.  After a little while, her message must have got through to Grannymac, as she realised she couldn't find me. Apparently there was a big panic and everyone was very worried and upset.  Mr Apache immediately turned the car round and drove for twenty minutes back to where the man had got into the car.  And there they found me - one very unhappy but greatly relieved little bear!

You will understand now why I said this was the worst day of my life.  What if someone had come along and found me?  Or if nobody had noticed I was missing until they were all the way back to the house?  I still sometimes have nightmares about it but try not to think about it too much.  Grannymac has always looked after me but she promised she will now be even more careful when we are out. 

We stopped for a while at Callanish Standing Stones but the rest of the day was just a blur to me as I tried to calm down after such a horrible, terrifying experience.  I was so glad to get out of the car and back into our house where I felt safe again.

A Day of Exploring

A Day of Exploring

June 22nd 2015 

We didn't have any particular destination in mind today - we just set off to explore some other parts of the island.  Because Grannymac really likes maps which help us to see where we are and where we are going, we are going to include a map of Lewis and Harris in this post.  Our house for the week was roughly half-way between Tarbert and Stornoway - it took about an hour to get to either of them.



We set off to Tarbert first and from there we explored South Harris, where some of the most spectacular scenery on the island can be seen.

The first place we stopped at was a beautiful sandy beach with waves from a turquoise blue sea  washing up onto it.  We saw a lady taking her two dogs (which we had also seen on the ferry) for a walk.  We didn't take time to go onto that beach but maybe another day we can spend more time on another beach. 

Bella and I had an excellent view as we drove on a narrow, twisty road through wide open rocky areas with only a very few houses, or maybe small farms (called crofts), dotted here and there.  We all thought it looked very pretty on a day in June, but it must be very different in the middle of winter.

We then had a quick visit to a small town called Leverburgh.  The only photo Grannymac took there was of some very strange looking 'baskets', in fact a whole big pile of them.  Grannymac told us that they are called 'lobster pots' and that they are put into the sea with some bait in them, so that lobsters (sea creatures with two big long claws) will come into them and be trapped.  That doesn't sound a very nice thing to do, especially as it seems that many people like to EAT them!  Grannymac explained that this is how these fishermen earn the money they and their families need.

On the next part of our journey we saw something very interesting happening to some sheep but there will be a separate post just about sheep, so we keeping this part of our story for that post.  Lady Helen knew about a very old church in this area which she wanted to have a look at.  It is not used now but it had quite a few very old stone carvings in it which really were very interesting to look at it - you can see some of them in this collage.

There was a pretty little harbour nearby too.

On we went again and before long we saw some very strange creatures lying on rocks in the sea.  We had never seen anything like them, some brown, some grey, all sizes including one or two very big ones and strangest of all, they didn't have any legs!  How on earth do they manage to walk?  Again, Grannymac told us they are called 'seals' and they don't walk, but on land they have to haul themselves along which is difficult.  It is a different matter altogether when they are in the sea, where they live and where they catch fish, because they are expert swimmers, helped by their flippers which they have instead of arms.  What a lot we are learning on this holiday!

Further along the road a bit, we saw some more strange animals but this time they were a bit more familiar, in fact rather like our neighbours in the field at home, except that these have a lot more hair and some of them have very long horns!  Lady Helen was very pleased to be able to take some photographs of these Highland cattle - she always likes to stop when she sees them.  I can't help wondering how some of them can see where they are going with all that hair covering their eyes!  And just look at that cheeky black one sticking his tongue out at us!

The only other thing we have to write about today is watching the ferry (we know what that is now) coming in to Tarbert.  We stopped on a road above Tarbert - it was fun to watch it  and to think it was bringing more people and lots of the things people on the island need.  In no time at all, it would be unloaded and then loaded up again, and off it would go back to Uig, doing this twice a day, every day except Sunday.

After doing some shopping in Tarbert, we headed home.  I didn't know it then, but tomorrow was going to be the worst day of my life!