Urban Highlander (Or a Former New York Yank in Rural Scotland)

The Isle of Eigg is home of the famous ‘Singing Sands’ beach.  Basically, the sand is made of quartz crystals and when you shuffle along it makes a chirping sound.  The drier the sand, the better the sound.  This is Scotland however and though I heard the sand sing in August when the sand was still rather damp, this time around in October I could procure no sound at all.  Still, the beach with its rough and wild paradisal beauty is well worth visiting. That is why one morning I left the bothy at 8:30 and made my way there again.

It is simply breath-taking.

I cannot describe the elation I felt when I spotted the familiar Welly-boot Bridge and the sheer joy of being back on that shore even if the sand didn’t sing for me this time. I spent a good hour gazing through my binoculars and taking photos in total bliss.  

I visited Singing Sands beach several times in the past and found my way there easily enough again. Which makes what happened a bit strange I guess for I managed to get lost coming back. Perhaps the beauty of the scenery played against my usual directional impairment.

Sheep?  Did I pass sheep coming here?

Didn’t I pass these ferns?  I am sure I passed these ferns.

Wait!  I am sure I went over this stone wall…or did I go over this stone wall?

The trouble I had with finding my way back wasn’t because I didn’t know which direction to walk. The Isle of Eigg is small and the bothy was not that long of a distance away from Singing Sands. However, there was more than one route I could take.  The route I ended up on seemed to want to take me through somebody’s farm.  Perhaps it is because I was brought up a city girl but I just thought it would be rude of me to trespass…and I dunno maybe dangerous?  I kept envisioning old-time American movies I had seen of men with rifles protecting their land from trespassers (and Charlie had made a few comments about wanting to shoot things and I never knew if it was in jest or not).  The way I had always taken had been less cumbersome and had less boggy areas.   I didn’t want to go by just any route, I wanted to go via the same route I had previously taken which didn’t bother anyone and was less of a hassle.

After trying different directions, I decided to go back toward Singing Sands to get my bearings.  Only yet again I was coming at it from a slightly different direction and managed to fall going over some slippery rocks…into a cow pat.

Luckily, it was just one of my water-proof hiking shoes which went into the cow pat. I decided I was going to have to go back to the beach to clean my shoe.  Maybe that decision made me further careless as I then managed to get both my feet ankle-deep in boggy mud while beginning to lose my balance and caused me to instinctively reach out a hand for support… on a barbed wire fence.  My fingers were now bleeding and I was muddy and embarrassed and hoping that after cleaning my water-proof hiking shoes I’ll be able to find my way back to the bothy without passing anyone.

I washed my shoes by the shore as best as I could but as luck would have it (and I was having none that day) I misjudged the tide and managed to get my water-proof hiking shoes completely submerged.

After cleaning my shoes, I made my way back to the bothy with the help of some volunteers who I happened to come across.  It was now about 1:30 and I hadn’t had breakfast and I looked a state but I was glad to be back and not stranded in a land full of cow manure!

My state of mind at that point was one of practicality.  My shoes had gotten muddy again on my way back and my jeans and socks were muddy as well.  So I washed them and laid them out to dry.  I started a fire in the stove, made some lunch as there was no point having breakfast at this time and because I intended to have a much-earned glass of wine.  I think I had two.

After a conversation with a fellow blogger (dhammafootsteps) who is Buddhist about many paths which possibly lead to the same direction, I was able to reflect upon the day’s mishap in a more thoughtful light.  Why do we choose a particular spiritual path? Do we avoid other paths because of fears we may have?  Are we afraid a different choice might offend or lead us down boggy paths?  Did I choose my path because I thought it was ‘cow pat’ free?

Actually, I think I chose my path in spite of the cow pats I expected to find.  After a while, I learned to dance around the cow pats.  After more time, I realize there were never any cow pats to begin with. I wish that had been true on the Isle of Eigg that day though.

A Faolan Islander

Wow, to be a dog living on the Isle of Eigg!  They really have it good here.  These canine residents enjoy a sense of freedom.  I have not seen a single dog on a lead.  One often sees them playing by the sea bounding about with a lot of energy which I can testify is part due to the cleaner, fresher air on Eigg.  These lovable creatures are very trusting of everyone and are super friendly. Comically enough, they appear to be always smiling much like many of the human residents on the island!

We made friends with many dogs here when our family visited last August, but two dogs in particular stood out for me. First there was Moss.  Moss belongs to the owner of Eigg’s only shop and luxury restaurant.  Moss is a sweet small collie who never got tired of playing fetch or tug-of-war…or rather she got tired but refused to give up. She followed us to the house we stayed in and played with us for hours in the garden.

 

Then there is Faolan (pronounced Foo-lan and is Gaelic for Little Wolf).  Faolan would meet us at the top of the path leading to Laig Beach and accompany us down to the beach to play fetch.

However, he didn’t do this with just us.  He seemed to play with every visitor who went to the beach.  Faolan is an interesting dog.  He wasn’t affectionate, he just wanted to play.  I guess he was used to people coming and going that he didn’t allow himself to get too attached.  There was a look of intelligence about him. His beautiful amber eyes would gaze deeply into my eyes as if he was trying to communicate telepathically. He and I would play for quite a while on the beach until he would suddenly decide he had enough and then quickly leave me.  He’s a sort of independent dog who seems to make his own decisions and everyone else just has to work around him.  I love dogs in general but as crazy as this may sound, he almost seemed like an evolved dog or even a dog who chose to be a dog but on his own terms. I found him quite fascinating.  So you could imagine how I felt on my first day back on Eigg, when I saw Faolan again by the road near the Laig Beach path.

This time however, it was a whole different story.  When he saw me, his tail began wagging and he walked over to me with a grin (I am not kidding!) and greeted me with a nuzzle.  I like to think he actually remembered me and because I came back, I no longer had ‘stranger’ status. We were now old friends.  After meeting again for the first time in two months, I was now permitted to pet him.

I had the privilege of playing on the beach with Faolan a few times last week.  However, a couple of times, I would find him already engaged in play with some other visitor.  Which leads me to the reason why I see something a bit more in Faolan than other dogs.   On one particular day, I went down to the beach and Faolan was playing with a man and his little girl.  When Faolan saw me, he bounded up to me smiling (again dogs do smile!) and stood in front of me looking me in the face for a few seconds and then turned around and bounded off to play with the little girl and her father.  I understood what Faolan was saying to me.  It was so well communicated that I am sure he said something like this:

‘Hi there!  I just came over to make sure I greet you so you don’t feel I am ignoring you or anything, but I have a promise to keep to these other people.  You see I have already started playing with them and it would go against my sense of loyalty to abandon these nice people.  However, I see you and acknowledge you and maybe we can play later if we’re both free.’

I understood of course and I caught up with him on another day.

Return to Eigg

Simply put, if my spirit says GO, I must go. That isn’t the only way to explain why I went back to Eigg but it is the best way.  I could go into long narratives as to what I was thinking and what I had hoped to gain by re-visiting Eigg but in the end I went for no reason at all except that I felt I should.

As I was travelling alone this time, I decided to economize as much as possible.  The payoff is beautiful natural scenery so where I stayed or how I got there had only nominal importance. Here’s a tip I learned if you’re travelling from England to Scotland by train: book each train separately to save on costs.  Why?  I don’t know, but doing it that way saved me hundreds.

I caught the 6:20 Virgin train from Milton Keynes and arrived at Glasgow about 6 hours later.  How cool is that?  Much quicker than driving.  I did have a two hour wait in Glasgow between trains but I managed to get my first pumpkin spice latte of the season from Starbucks (Yum!)- one of life’s little pleasures which I look forward to every year.

The journey by train was super.  I saw beautiful scenery through my window including Ben Nevis and Lock Eil and we went over the Glenfinnan viaduct, otherwise known as the ‘Harry Potter’ viaduct.

At one point, the train was zooming by a lake with trees in front of it and bright sunshine bursting through at intervals. The effect was simply dazzling.

I arrived at Mallaig about 5:30 and checked in for an overnight stay.

I boarded the ferry the next day just after 2 and decided to stay on the top deck to see the views. It was warm enough that I didn’t mind the wind whipping through my hair.  I had been hoping to see dolphins and I wasn’t disappointed.  I saw several in the distance diving in and out of the water.

As we neared Eigg, it was so exciting to see the familiar shape of An Sgurr.

When I arrived on Eigg, I gathered my bags, disembarked and began to walk quickly down the pier avoiding the temptation to skip…which would have been difficult to do with a backpack on my back and a duffle in one hand and a bag for life in the other. In no time at all, I spotted Charlie (y’all remember Charlie from my previous Isle of Eigg post right?) coming to meet me.  It was at that point that I should have reminded myself that besides refraining from skipping, I should have also tried not grinning quite so boldly! Seeing Charlie the local taxi driver, was like seeing an old friend as he had made our family feel so welcomed when we were last here.

He drove me to the shop where I picked up the goods I ordered ahead of time.  Afterwards we drove to Cuagach Bothy, my home for the week.

Views from Eigg look quite different in Autumn and I couldn’t get over how beautiful it still is and how the Isle of Rum seemed closer than I remembered.