It’s a lovely, sunny morning. I decide to head back to Reef Beach, once again passing Cliff on the way, where there’s a decent swell and quite a few surfers in the water.
The water at Reef is once again turquoise, and feels a very similar temperature as it did on Tuesday at Luskentyre. I am the only one in the water. I float on my back, and drink in the view to the north where there is the beginnings of a rainbow rising out of the water and disappearing into a dark cloud, just to the west of the island of Pabaigh Mòr. Just then it feels like stingy seaweed wraps itself around my right forearm. I fling it away. Realise it was the tentacle of a jellyfish. It isn’t particularly sore and am not quite sure what to do but I don’t want to continue swimming so I leave the water and get changed.
I take a couple of antihistamines, and some medicinal hot chocolate from my Isle of Harris flask. Great hot chocolate is, I reckon, more about the context than the contents. The best hot chocolates of my life have been at the top of a snowy mountain towards the end of a great ski day, and from a flask after a swim in the sea.
After a visit to a pharmacy in Stornoway, where I am assured that antihistamines will take care of the jellyfish sting, I carry on up to the the Butt of Lewis, which features a Stevenson Lighthouse. The Butt of Lewis is the most northerly point in Lewis, and reputed to be the windiest place in the U.K., but there’s not a breath of wind today.
After a nap back at the Pod, I drive to Crust, a shipping container in a field near Leurbost which has been converted into an excellent pizza kitchen, with a fabulous view of the Harris hills.
Tosh and Ged come out to meet me to say goodbye on my return, as I have an early start in the morning. “Watch out for deer,” they warn.