Home Journey

Saturday May 19

Always sad when a holiday ends, whilst pleased to be going home. We really could do with at least another week on Uist, if not more. This place has a charm of its own, maybe not to everyone's taste. A Marmite place?

This trip has been enhanced by the affable presence of the Griffins. I'm definitely not sociable by nature, yet have looked forward to meeting them daily, especially on Uist when our cottages were so near, as were the birding sites.

Beds stripped, car packed, we were at the ferry well in time for the 6.45 a.m. deadline. Pam didn't want to go on deck, we sat in a lounge and read. The long journey through Skye was not incident free. We had a half hour Traffic queue wait, Air Ambulance overhead, no cars coming the other way. We think it may have been a motorbike accident, there were certainly plenty of bikers on an appallingly surfaced road. The latter continued all the way to Fort William and beyond. Unbelievably frequent and deep potholes, a worse menace for bikers, life threatening for them. It probably contributed to our 'tyre pressure warning' appearing. We stopped and checked, all was well, 36 all round. Then Pam remembered a previous occasion when the garage had not re-attached the sensor (they didn't know about it) after changing a wheel. That makes the warning come up.

After a good night's sleep at Carlisle Todhills Travelodge, we made good progress in warm sunshine, home by 3.30.

The less said about the FA Cup Final the better. We caught most of the second half last night. It was embarrassing. How can talented players play with so little enthusiasm, skill and thrust. 

Here's to next year.