Tweet
pirates of the hebridean and the curse of the codling
up to that barra again for a bit, then some other islands for a bit, then ardnamurchan for a bit more, first week, barra, vatersay & eriskay, all a bit of a blur really.... none of it my fault honest, was taken under the wing of the Vatersay Boys, jeez can they drink. I've been around a bit and have had a tipple or 2 over the years, but those lads are several leagues apart, first couple of days sorta merged a bit (I think) seem to remember some strange 3am trout fishing expedition that didn't involve rods, can't remember much more. What a place though, and what a bunch of people, being boatless, by tuesday had the keys to 22' halmatic rib dropped off in case I wanted a spooch about on the briney, that from someone I'd only met 48 hours and 8 million pints earlier, sadly due to either being a: not sober enough, or b: way way too hung over only managed a blast out on it once. conclusion: want one
missed out on a few things due to inability to cope with the aftermath of alcohol. Had a couple of invites out on commercial boats, never made it. Suspect they may actually all be aliens as getting up at 5am to go to sea after you've downed a dozen pints of guinness and best part of a bottle of brandy is surely not possible for mere mortals, seemed the norm for them though. Luckily I managed to dodge the majority of beer that came my way and did not therefore go tot he party they were setting off for on thursday, I'd been invited loads, pestered to tag along, but managed to keep the presence of mind to side step it - the party was on Unst, shetland! Not sure even I could have explained that one to wor lass
not that I'm looking for another reason to shift up there, but, found out that Barra is exempt from MOT's, not a single car on the island needs one, like that feature a lot. As well as the fact that so many people just shove red diesel in their cars, and mostly legally too as the bit of road that goes from there croft to the shop or pub is is short enough to make it allowable as long as their vehicle is registered as agricultural for the croft!
Feel sorry (a bit) for the new copper that been 'posted' there though, apart from a fair bit of very friendly drunkedness there' is absolutely zero crime. speeding is impossible (or suicidal) apart from a 400 yard stretch in castlebay with a 30mph speed limit, best collar he can hope for is the odd drink driver, so he goes out parks somewhere and waits, a few texts later everyone on the island knows where he's parked so drives the opposite direction around the island to get home!
any hoo, a few gratuitous pics, gave the bairn her first driving lesson on the airport/beach, 3 miles of sand with nowt to hit apart from worms (and maybe the odd twin engine otter light aircraft if you get the timing wrong) she loved it, big spring tide so drove to an island
the place is missing only palm trees IMHO
blurry week ended with me lying comatose on the floor of the ferry back to oban feeling very very very poorly, but did manage to cause a small rumpus still. my phone was lying on the floor next to me, up in the nice quiet upper lounge when someone tried to ring me - my ring tone is very loud and is 15 seconds of ships alarm Klaxon, followed by 5 seconds of submarine klaxon which repeats. I didn't answer and let it ring, there were, according to the bairn, a few panic stricken faces for a while
on to ardnmurchan... was 4 days before I could even face another drink!
Interesting though, never seen as many codling in my life, between me and the bairns, one way or another, probably caught getting on for a thousand of the buggers in a fortnight..... ok before there's an exodus to the north west, these were more like codlingling or even codlinglingling
the rock pools were teeming with them, the kids came back with a bucket full of codlinglingling to show me:
spent many a happy hour feeding the wee lads, dropping weeny bits of chopped up worm or mack in a rock pool and watch a little shoal charge at them, but they were everywhere, float fishing in my usually haunts, float hits water, float dissapears, reel in, unhook weeny codling and repeat endlessly
even tried to avoid the rocks to get away from them but couldn't. gin clear water, 3 foot deep, bright sunshine, calm seas, middle of the day, flatty tactics 20 foot lob and guess what codlingling after codlingling
did mange one codling rather than ling ling in a fortnight though.
good to see though, and here's hoping a few years time sufficient number have grown on and survived
had loads of fun with these lads on the fly rod though, well at least when you could get past the cursed coley's
lots of good sized ones and all with weeny little pollack in them, hardly saw a single sand eel, either alive or in any fish either
had some interesting wildlife for company, this fella was ever present at one spot, drop a fish on the rocks and the little sod would nick off with it
and this one took to sitting on the caravan roof or windowsill
lots of canny sunsets
ho hum, back reality now though, need to get me finger oot and find some work before the kids get sold to the workhouse
missed out on a few things due to inability to cope with the aftermath of alcohol. Had a couple of invites out on commercial boats, never made it. Suspect they may actually all be aliens as getting up at 5am to go to sea after you've downed a dozen pints of guinness and best part of a bottle of brandy is surely not possible for mere mortals, seemed the norm for them though. Luckily I managed to dodge the majority of beer that came my way and did not therefore go tot he party they were setting off for on thursday, I'd been invited loads, pestered to tag along, but managed to keep the presence of mind to side step it - the party was on Unst, shetland! Not sure even I could have explained that one to wor lass
not that I'm looking for another reason to shift up there, but, found out that Barra is exempt from MOT's, not a single car on the island needs one, like that feature a lot. As well as the fact that so many people just shove red diesel in their cars, and mostly legally too as the bit of road that goes from there croft to the shop or pub is is short enough to make it allowable as long as their vehicle is registered as agricultural for the croft!
Feel sorry (a bit) for the new copper that been 'posted' there though, apart from a fair bit of very friendly drunkedness there' is absolutely zero crime. speeding is impossible (or suicidal) apart from a 400 yard stretch in castlebay with a 30mph speed limit, best collar he can hope for is the odd drink driver, so he goes out parks somewhere and waits, a few texts later everyone on the island knows where he's parked so drives the opposite direction around the island to get home!
any hoo, a few gratuitous pics, gave the bairn her first driving lesson on the airport/beach, 3 miles of sand with nowt to hit apart from worms (and maybe the odd twin engine otter light aircraft if you get the timing wrong) she loved it, big spring tide so drove to an island
the place is missing only palm trees IMHO
blurry week ended with me lying comatose on the floor of the ferry back to oban feeling very very very poorly, but did manage to cause a small rumpus still. my phone was lying on the floor next to me, up in the nice quiet upper lounge when someone tried to ring me - my ring tone is very loud and is 15 seconds of ships alarm Klaxon, followed by 5 seconds of submarine klaxon which repeats. I didn't answer and let it ring, there were, according to the bairn, a few panic stricken faces for a while
on to ardnmurchan... was 4 days before I could even face another drink!
Interesting though, never seen as many codling in my life, between me and the bairns, one way or another, probably caught getting on for a thousand of the buggers in a fortnight..... ok before there's an exodus to the north west, these were more like codlingling or even codlinglingling
the rock pools were teeming with them, the kids came back with a bucket full of codlinglingling to show me:
spent many a happy hour feeding the wee lads, dropping weeny bits of chopped up worm or mack in a rock pool and watch a little shoal charge at them, but they were everywhere, float fishing in my usually haunts, float hits water, float dissapears, reel in, unhook weeny codling and repeat endlessly
even tried to avoid the rocks to get away from them but couldn't. gin clear water, 3 foot deep, bright sunshine, calm seas, middle of the day, flatty tactics 20 foot lob and guess what codlingling after codlingling
did mange one codling rather than ling ling in a fortnight though.
good to see though, and here's hoping a few years time sufficient number have grown on and survived
had loads of fun with these lads on the fly rod though, well at least when you could get past the cursed coley's
lots of good sized ones and all with weeny little pollack in them, hardly saw a single sand eel, either alive or in any fish either
had some interesting wildlife for company, this fella was ever present at one spot, drop a fish on the rocks and the little sod would nick off with it
and this one took to sitting on the caravan roof or windowsill
lots of canny sunsets
ho hum, back reality now though, need to get me finger oot and find some work before the kids get sold to the workhouse
Comment