Journey's End

Lewis Castle has commanding views across the waterfront at Stornoway

Stornoway is the capital of the Outer Hebrides on the east coast of Lewis. The town's true beginnings are now lost in the mists of time, but it is known that it was founded by Vikings in the early C9 under the norse name Stjórnavágr. You feel as if you are well on your way to the top of the world, next stop north across the ocean being the Faroe Islands, Iceland, then Greenland.

Harbour reflections

A bronze statue of a herring seller on Stornoway waterfront  

The island women will vote "YES" to independence. I respect their choice but personally, I am hoping the majority vote is "NO" - it would feel like a bereavement in the UK family. Scotland is a part of my life, it is where we lived for several years, and where my eldest son and youngest granddaughter were both born. Now, however, that I have travelled to these far distant islands, I do appreciate just how remote from London they are. Indeed, they are also a very long way from Edinburgh as this journey back reveals.

But what's this notice in the window upstairs? - it seems not all islanders agree - "UK OK better together - A stronger Scotland, a United Kingdom"

Gaelic street names

Colourful fishing nets drying in the sun

The ferry has arrived, and

the end of our eight island adventure. So it's farewell to this beautiful archipelago of islands formed in the Precambrian period some three billion years ago

The journey takes almost three hours back to Ullapool on the Scottish mainland

On the return journey we saw dolphins, porpoises, guillemots, cormorants and a huge variety of seabirds flying overhead - some people also spotted cute little puffins

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An overnight stay near the pretty packhorse bridge in the Cairngorms, a familiar spot if you follow this blog, and then a final journey down through Perthshire

 a walk along the riverbank, then over the River Tummel back into Pitlochry

More than 5000 Atlantic salmon swim up this river each year where they negotiate a salmon ladder installed by the Scottish Hydro Electric scheme to enable them to spawn higher up the river

Salmon Ladder

next stop Edinburgh, and a quick plane ride home 

The Poignant Dance of the Mayflies

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The river rises, flows over its banks and carries us all away like mayflies floating downstream. They stare at the sun, then all at once there is nothing.

Utanapishtiu, The Epic of Gilgamesh - a legend from ancient Babylon and Akkad. 

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There are no two ways about it the Mayflies life is short, lasting from 30 minutes to one day, very occasionally two days. It often occurs that an entire population of mayflies hatch together during a couple of days around the end of May or beginning of June. Their primary function is reproduction, but as their journey begins and they emerge from the rivers and streams they face dangerous hazards from hungry fish such as trout, ducks, and birds who are on the look out for insects to feed their fledglings.

Before becoming Mayflies they live as nymphs in the riverbeds, hiding under rocks in the sediment and feeding on algae. The nymph stage can last for several years during which time it will shed its body skin more than 20 times whilst maturing and developing.

We have both seen the Mayflies dance, just once, when we were visiting the Highlands of Scotland last June. We had finished our evening meal and were taking a stroll along the river bank during the dying embers of a warm June day. It was twilight, a deep orange sun was sinking rapidly behind tall trees on the horizon. We were admiring the River Dulnain at the spot where it is crossed by an ancient packhorse bridge .

Suddenly, we became aware of huge flies dancing just above our heads, glinting and shimmering gold in the dying sunlight, their performance greatly enhanced by their long surreal tails. We were delighted and amazed as we admired their balletic movements but were unsure as to what exactly they were. As we watched our growing anxiety was whether they might be a giant species of mosquito who would relish making a meal of us. How wrong could we be? It wasn't until we watched a BBC nature film shown recently that we realised just what a special and magical scene we had witnessed. We had been party to the dying, dancing, moments of the female Mayflies. They were judging where would be the perfect spot in the river to lay their eggs before plunging themselves down into the flowing waters to deposit their precious cargo and die.
If you would like to view four brief BBC videos about the life of the Mayflies you can see them here.