Walking Weather

Four - Eldrable Hill – I cross the Telford Bridge over the river and then the railway and follow the road up and around West Helmsdale towards a small farm where there is a track towards Eldrable Hill. At first the track is narrow and enclosed on either side by yellow gorse then there is turf and hill and sky, heather and peat, tiny bog flowers I have never seen before - and a whole herd of red deer which run as I approach, bounding away and springing over a fence then out of sight over Creag a’ Choire. Today the wind is strong and constant in my face the clouds in the sky hang low and rain threatens. When I have followed the deer I cannot see the path behind me and I move into a new place of land and sky all around – no sea or sound of the sea. The river is hidden in the strath below so I look over to the North over Caen Hill, Solus Craggie and Cnoc Meadhonach and I see Morven - triangular peak blue and pointing to the sky. The hills all advance and recede according to the light, sometimes they seem more sheer and close and at other times it is almost as though they are at rest – stilled - a vast stone sea, it’s motion so slow according to our vision that we can only sense it with another part of our being. All the colours of the world are muted, purple and green grey and brown and I can hear nothing apart from the wind. I try to find the track that cuts down past Creag an Taghain and passes through Gartymore before returning to Helmsdale but I cannot. So I climb no further, I finish - deafened by the wind and turn back home the way I have come – chased there by the rain.