Mud!

My earliest memory is of getting stuck on the track to Drumbuidhe. One fine, hot summer when I was just over a year old and my mum was heavily pregnant with my sister, we came up tyo Drumbuidhe with Kenny, a friend of my dad's. The landrover got stuck, as it was wont to do, on a flat portion of track near where we used to cut peat. Kenny had to spend the first few days digging the landrover out, spurred on by my mother's daily trips to see how he was getting on ... the sight of my heavily-pregnant mum wearing a swimsuit and pushing me in a pram drove him to frantic digging out efforts. Given my age at the time I suspect this is a manufactured memory but it's backed up by the regular, annual incidents of the landrover getting stuck. The portion next to the peat digging used to be the worst spot, partly because it was high up, above Drumbuidhe bridge, and getting the required volume of rocks to fill in the limitless bog was difficult. About 35 years ago almost the whole track (from Drimnin to Drumbuidhe Bridge) was refurbished and flattened. For 10 years after that it was possible to drive a standard car to Drumbuidhe and I can remember barrelling along on my bicycle back in 1985. Although the portion of track from Drumbuidhe bridge to Drumbuidhe wasn't improved, it wasn't either soft or heavily used so it's held up well with minimal maintenance such as gabions where it hits the beach. The track from Drumbuidhe to Dorlin is another matter and the portion where it dips down to sea level (and a burn crosses the track) has always been treacherous. It caught out our friendly neighbourhood potter who came on an outing to impress his girlfriend, got stuck and had to withstand being called every shade of stupid by my dad. He's still with his girlfriend and still making lovely pots but he's moved down south ... possibly to avoid the combination of mud and shouty old men.

The 35-year-old flattening of the track is now wearing off and every winter a new portion disintegrates. Inside the deer fence there's very little useage of the track so we're just prone to acts of god (cloudbursts and storm surges). Up on the high ground it's a combination of tractor and stock that churn up the damp ground in winter. Cattle are being kept up on the high ground and the tractor that takes their feed out weighs 5 tonnes, the fee trailer is another 2 tonnes so any soft patches in the track can disintegrate quickly. It tends to be a different patch each year but this winter is particularly bad. There are patches by Crow Gully and Auliston which are close to impassable. I got stuck on the way out to deliver soup & sandwiches for the Morvern Community Woodlands fundraising lunch. My contribution was not essential but the digging and cursing required to get me out did make it feel a fair bit more exciting.

I was able to introduce an innovation to the monthly 'Lets Do Lunch' session which was toasted cheese. Truly the food of the gods. Turns out that everyone loves a bit of toasted cheese but not everyone has the chutzpah to realise that this is what lunchtime needed. It may seem a bit unecessary but here's the method that I use for toasted cheese: