To Kyleakin - 01/10/04

Went to the station to catch a train to Kyle of Lochalsh. It's still anice trip, and the weather has improved on yesterday's rain - at leastit's dry. Trundle my way west in 2½ hours, arriving in Kyle atlunchtime. I go into the stationbuilding to have a look in the museum.Have to be careful with my pack, which I leave at the door. Part of themuseum is without electricity as a result of flooding. Nice display ofrailway memorabilia. Walk into the village, after glancing out to thewarship that lies moored at the pier. Nipped into the TouristInformation Office for some ideas, and there is a tour with a glass-bottemed boat.Before setting out, I walk through the village to a viewpoint aboveKyle which looks out to Skye, the bridge and east up Loch Alsh.At 1.30,there is too little clientele in the tour, but at 2.30 there issufficient interest to warrant the man to set forth. It's veryinteresting to look out under the water and see all the junk on thefloor, the different types of fish and seaweed. We head out to a clumpof skerries in the Kyle to view a colony of seals that are baskingthere. Not in the sun, it's cloudy. Then we sail to the far shore toobserve the wreckage of a minelaying vessel which blew up in 1941. Afire had broken out on board, and it was towed across the Kyle. Had itblown up at the quayside, the village would have been devastated. Viewbeds of seaweed on the way back to Kyle. After the trip in theglass-bottomed boat, I walk over the Skye Bridge to Kyleakin. Justbefore the span of the bridge proper, you pass the cottage on EileanBan, where Gavin Maxwell lived, of otter fame. He died there in 1969.There is a gate to the bridge, and I believe you can stay there. At thebottom of the bridge, I turn left on the roundabout and wander into thevillage. Kyleakin has improved for the better since the bridge came, 9years ago. The big marshalling yard for the ferry is now a neatcarpark. I arrive at the youth hostel at 4pm, an hour early. Leave therucksack there and try to walk into a sideroad just off the bridgeroundabout. The farm at the end has everything fenced off, so noaccess. Try the main road to Broadford, but that only has limitedstretches of secluded old road. Have to double back to Kyleakin. Checkinto the hostel at 5pm and am allocated a bed in room 6, which has only2 beds in it, plus a sink. Go downstairs to prepare my dinner and havea nice chat with other hostellers. Who describes my surprise when Imeet up with some folk who were with me at Kirkwall earlier in theweek. Use the laundramat. Saw a musical event advertised for tonight inthe Saucy Mary pub, across the green. Go there at 10, but the music isno good, neither is the beer. Have a very poor night's sleep, onaccount of some heinous rattle and clanging in the pipes of the centralheating system.