Week Two

Another week has past by and so on Saturday Maureen, Dad and I went to the Lochmaddy Hotel for lunch.  This was our second attempt at this.  The first was called off when we arrived just after 12 to find the power off and the cook in a stress as he had 200 people from a funeral being held over the road due at 2pm and no power for half an hour already.  We decided not to hang around.

On Saturday no such dramas and we had a lovely lunch of Haddock in the lounge bar with table service.  The most striking thing though was that the food menu was two sides long, the wine list one side but the Whiskey Menu ran to 3 pages.  Two and a half were single malts!

Lochmaddy is the nearest "centre" with a doctors, dentist, police station, ferry port, 2 shops and a museum/art centre/cafe.  Most of the tourist stuff doesn't open until mid March but that does mean that there are no crowds at the moment. 

Lochmaddy Hotel

 The wildlife here has not been particularly prominent.  There are "beware otters crossing " signs on the roads and the neighbours have seen otters in the loch behind our house.  So far the only otter I have seen was an old one that was brought into the clinic after being found on the road.  He was in a "fish bin" under a tarpaulin and I was reluctant to investigate as I didn't want to get bitten.  I needn't have worried as he was in a bad way; paralysed  from the waist down, so euthanasia was the only option.

We have seen Harbour Seals at the Loch a Bhaigh on Berneray and an unidentified large bird of prey (The local farmers are not keen on the Golden Eagles as they accuse them of attacking live lambs)  We have however seen the local bear, or at least a statue and grave site of Hercules, a pet Brown bear that was loose on the island of North Uist for 10 days or so back in the 1970's before being recaptured (Darted by a vet from a helicopter).  His memorial is on a small woodlot a couple of kms down the road to Lockmaddy from here.

Hercules's life is immortalized in a documentary from the time that I have seen but did not realise where it all happened.  (He can also be found on youtube)