Evenings in Wester Ross

Jenn, Russ and I also went to the Ceilidh Place for dinner one night, and thence to the Argyll Hotel where we hoped to hear some live music. On the way along the road the midges were pretty bad and Russell quickly found out that he is one of those people who are particularly attractive to midges! (This is a real thing!) They bothered me and Jennifer too, but not to the same horrifying extent. We then discovered that the Loveland Frogmen were in fact performing at the Calley (my mistake!) so we had to brave the midges again, but were rewarded with some really excellent Scottish folk music. There was a Spanish guy watching and he asked to borrow a guitar and started playing and singing Quant a la Mera. The musicians soon joined in and so did all the punters in the bar, singing along. As Russ pointed out, it was one of those amazing moments which can be remembered but can never be recreated. 

Flora got up to some mischief; she pushed the open window in our bedroom even further, walked along the roof and then into Jennifer and Russell’s bedroom, where she woke Russ up by miaowing! He had to get up and open the door to let her out. 

When James returned we all went for a pie run to Lochinver, where we went for a sunny walk and then had dinner in Delilah’s. The meal was great and the restaurant was very busy; the owner, who is also the head chef, had to run tables because they were so short -staffed and was briskly slapping down the dishes on the tables in a good-natured but quite funny way. Unfortunately the evening took a swift downturn for Russ, who was very sick all night. James was also in a bad way with a very sore back (incurred by pulling out tent pegs on his camping trip.) At one point during the night I could hear Russ rushing to the bathroom with Jennifer concernedly following him; at the same time I was assisting James who had found himself stuck at the edge of the bed, afraid of falling to the floor! 

Russ was better the next day, but we were all a bit tired due to lack of sleep so we took things easy. Russ was very suspicious that his sickness had been caused by the Cullen Skink at the restaurant the night before, but I had consumed it without any ill effects so it remained a mystery. 

In the evening we had the pies that we had chosen for tea, then we all went to the Arch Inn where we listened to Ru Mac, who was excellent and very funny.