I had no idea that a highland cow could be so shaggy. They look like buffalos with the manes of Kalahari lions, and can barely see through their fringes. They also stand defiant in the path of Land Rovers, as Tony and I discovered when we came across them on a single track leading down to beautiful Slaggan Bay. It’s a secret little beach that the Queen and her entourage once boated to for a picnic. We made a quick detour to see it after walking the Mellon Udrigle coastal trail through peat-bogs overlooking coves and bays, Hebridean islands and snow-covered peaks. Yesterday we climbed one of the peaks we could see from the peat-bog – Meall a' Ghiubhais it’s called, and we did it calf-deep in snow. It was spectacular to be up there in view of countless high peaks, lochs below. Actually we didn’t even intend climbing it but from the foothills of Beinn Eighe it seemed so inviting. Walking in snow is fabulous and peaceful somehow as you crunch through the still crispness leaving large footprints. We had no water so we ate the snow.
Tony has climbed all the peaks I could see. He’s a palaeaontologist who I hitched a ride with on the Isle of Mull in 2005. We’ve been writing ever since and it’s fun to be visiting his home on a hill in Gairloch in the north-western Highlands at the end of a long single-track road that winds through high mountains, lochs and the odd Scots pine. His home is full of interesting books, climbing equipment, easels, canoes, mountain boots, maps and music. My room overlooks the sea loch and there’s a telescope in it for looking across to the Isle of Skye plus an original 1970s fishtail surfboard, which makes me feel right at home.
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