Sunday 26 May - an encounter

Another very wet day so coffee and cake at The Paper Boat sounded like a good option. But first, we walked to the Crannog Centre in the hope that they had a book or two on standing stones and related matters. Yes, but not any that interested us.

As we returned to Kenmore along the stony beach, a swimmer, whom we'd noticed well out in the loch earlier in the morning, was emerging from the water. We engaged her in conversation making the obvious comments about it being cold etc (like the TV and radio reporters I criticise for asking the most stupid questions) and eventually she modestly told us that she was the first person to to swim 27 miles across the North Minch from the Western Isles to the Scottish mainland, taking under 19 hours. She only wore a swimsuit, hat and goggles in accordance with the rules of the British Long Distance Swimming Association and was stung many times by Lion Mane's jellyfish. Her many other achievements are online but she didn't mention them - like swimming the Pentland Firth when she was nineteen for example.

Modest and delightful. Unusual these days where celebrity rules i.e. "those known for being well-known".

The Paper Boat did not have any of their warmed banana loaf served with a pat of butter, but their coffee and walnut cake was not a poor substitute. Excellent.