Saturday 05/08/06

Today dawns cloudy and windy. A fatal accident happened on the A866 Stornoway to Point road at 3.20 a.m.. A lone motorist left the road at the corner outside Aignish and crashed into a retaining wall. Debris were scattered far and wide. Only one lane of traffic remains open; I know this as a treacherous stretch of road. A French fishing boat leaves port at midday, after a crew change. Leave for the Morven Gallery, just outside Barvas, at 1.40 and arrive there half an hour later. A slow campervan held us up on the Barvas Moor road. Was offered a glass of wine and a list of paintings, including prices. Very nice series of paintings, but the 2 hours there did grow tedious towards the end. Morven Gallery will be closed in 2007 to allow the proprietor to change it round to a more artist-oriented purpose, rather than a visitor attraction. Weather turns atrocious, with torrential rainfall on the Moor. Stornoway is broadly dry, but the heavy rainfall follows us from the west. The town had its carnival today, but there were only 4 floats in the procession. £3,000 was collected for charity. The carnival is being dismantled in the South Beach carpark as we pass through at 5pm. Supper consisted of a stir-fry. Four motorcyclists, of advanced age, came to stay tonight. We encountered their 'posse' at Newmarket. They had crossed from Skye to Harris in the morning, and had spent the day getting wet through Callanish and the Butt of Lewis. Weather dries up later in the evening.