Sammy the tour guide

During one sightseeing day on the island I met a couple of Chinese tourists who decided that since my English was better than theirs and I seemed to understand the cryptic bus schedule, that I should be their tour guide. I explained that during the 4 hour gap when the buses on the island stop running, I was planning on walking along the coast between towns until the next bus could be flagged down. They nodded in agreement.

Our first stop was a hike to the old man storr, a number of wierldy shaped rock pinnacles, which are actually the remains of ancient volcanic plugs. It was a pretty foggy day so the view from the top was unspectaular however the rock formations were really interesting to see up close.

We descended and jumped on another bus to the northern tip of the island where the remains of Duntulum castle sit. It may be difficult to understand why a castle's remains can be interesting. It is a combination of witnessing history, learning about the interesting battles of ownership and remarkable feats of architecture, respecting the accomplishments of extreme manual labour, and basking in the romantic setting of castles on hilltops towering over dropping cliffs and pounding water.

After taking in the beauty I was surprised when one of my companions asked when the next bus would be arriving. After 10 minutes of me responding "no bus" to their query of "no bus??" they expressed their disapointment and frustration and we started our walk. I strapped on my walkman and entered my own world after explaining the concept of hitchhiking. It was interesting wathching them literally stand in the middle of the road and stop the occassional passing car after nobody responded to their original attempts using the common thumb gesture.

I was in heaven. On my right the sun's rays struck the water of the Minch as the waves crashed against the rocks below. To my left the vast hillsides were scattered with grazing sheep. It was perfectly silent and aside from the rare passing vehicle not another soul crossed out path the entire time. It was difficult for me to understand how, with billions of people walking this planet, my two companions couldn't appreciate that for these brief hours we had this piece of untouched glorious nature to ourselves.