Back to Broubster for an enjoyable day fishing and stalking but without much success.
The National Executive of The Labour Party has opted for an early summer election for a leader to replace the late John Smith and Deputy Leader Margaret Beckett is also resigning to make it a dual election.
We had retired to bed at 9.00pm so that, by the time I got up early again at 4.00am, I had managed to get seven hours sleep. The weather was dry and sunny again to start with as I drove over to Broubster and started spying for deer.
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I have yet to see a roe deer but there are plenty of signs of them about. This morning, I walked across to the dulochan system and then back up to the road after sitting and spying across the estate for a long time. Sam walked reasonably to heel all of the time and was no real bother but I was attacked by a swarm of Highland Midges whilst sitting amongst the trees.
This was my fault as I had not applied the "Jungle Formula" insect repellent as I should have done. Even so, I was sporting a large number of blotches in an oval shape left exposed around my nose and mouth by my balaclava! A large breakfast with Diana again and then off to Thurso where I bought some sandwiches and cake for my lunch and then left Diana to spend more time shopping after joining her for morning coffee.
It was therefore quite late that I got across to Broubster and later still before I was tackled up and ready to start fishing. By this time, it had become dull and breezy and there was even a smattering of rain for my time at The White Loch. The breeze was from the north east and so I fished from the bank at the boat end of the loch and caught a couple of small trout before having had enough. It seems that the fingerlings that Ian McGregor had stocked it with are still growing but are not yet of a size to retain for the table.
I therefore gave up soon after eating my lunch time sandwiches and then set off on another stalking expedition. This time I went down "Deer Valley" but then cut off to the left and walked down to the Lime kiln Estate fence and followed it a while before coming back up Deer Valley again. I was interested to find plenty of markings on our side of this fence but disappointed not to see any of the deer.
Perhaps this was fortunate as it would have needed a monumental effort to haul the beast back up to the car if I stalked and shot it. Back to the hotel by 3.30pm so that Diana could take the car for a drive towards John O'Groats whilst I had another rest in bed and then updated another day's journal. The news is of more cases of the "flesh-eating bug disease" being reported.
The National Executive of The Labour Party has opted for an early summer election for a leader to replace the late John Smith and Deputy Leader Margaret Beckett is also resigning to make it a dual election.