A medium effort walk and a super-sized horsefly!

Last night's sunset photo for your delight. Cuillins in the background.

Sunset first night 2210 hours

Have a quick conversation with our neighbour (from Cambridge) before heading off at a leisurely pace this morning. The chap is about to drive for many miles for the Sunday papers - what is it with men and their need for the papers? As we drive across the moorland road, we see two huge birds circling above the hills, but have no idea what they might be.
To get to the start of the walk just drive to the end of the road and park behind the church - sounds easy doesn't it? You have already heard about the roads here; imagine what the very end of one looks and drives like. This is as far south as it is possible to go on Skye.
The guidebook suggests 5 miles and 4 hours walking so a clue in the time required that this is not going to be on easy tracks. Starts off uphill for half a mile then winds up and down between the hills until we can see the sea. It is somewhere in this maze of paths that a huge horsefly takes a fancy to my arm, draws blood and is given the brush off by Gary. Within minutes I have an arm the size of a small car - OK exaggerating but it did swell up quite a lot. Do we have the anti-histamine pills or bite cream with us - no they are 10 miles away. So suffer but not in silence. 
We decide to climb the hill with the cairns, which means walking through someone's garden (with their permission) and scrambling over rocks, stones and boggy grass to get to the start of the climb. We climb to the top and perch on the top of the craggy bit of land for our lunch. The other side of the outcrop falls away very steeply onto rocks below. We are careful to tie everything down / sit on things to avoid losing anything. I have to report sunny, warm weather again and views to Rhum and Eigg that are just wonderful.

Eigg for lunch

On the way back down we stop and chat to the man who lives in the cottage whose garden we are tramping though - Gary admires his generator and he informs us that he is installing a wind turbine and is making / storing electricity from the PV cells he has already installed. He is living completely "off the grid" and will presumable make money from the government's buy-back tariffs. We decide that living at the end of the road and then two and a half miles down a rough track is a bit too remote for us! He seems very happy though.
Back up the track until we reach the turn off for the Point of Sleat. Half a mile it says so we decide it would be a shame not to, seeing as we are so close. We pass a glorious white sandy beach complete with turquoise water with people swimming in it, picnickers on the rocks and plenty of generally summery things going on. The switchback starts again and we go up and up then down into a ravine, over stones thoughtfully placed across the peat bog and end up on the "storm beach" where all kinds of things are washed up. Final up on springy turf (aka the machair) and we see the lighthouse and the end of Skye. The guidebook was correct, the views are stunning and you could play spot that peak for hours. The whole of the west coast and its mountains are available to view. We don't spy any of the marine wildlife described in the guidebook though and it feels like we have walked a lot more than half a mile.
A quick cup of coffee, a sit in the sun and we turn around to retrace our steps. It is at this point that I remember how steep the descents were on the way down; and therefore how steep the ascents will be on the way back. As it turns out, we tramp along quite well and make good time back to the car. Not as good time as the very old landrover that passes us on the track (J reg and looking it)
We decide to take the township road back to the cottage - 10 miles of single track that takes us past Mary's house - we only meet one car and see two others parked up. Go through two settlements before we spot Mary's house. She has suggested that we could walk to hers on Monday night. We clock the distance as just over a mile and a half but also clock the gradient of the two hills involved! We will be driving.
After a fine dinner cooked by the Aga and eaten on the deck, it is time to watch another fine sunset over the water and relax with a glass of something cool.