Part I: Seals teeth and whales ears - Scott Polar Research Institute ...

Scotland and the Hebrides, about my age and very lively. He drove me out to his
home, where we had an excellent dinner, of steak and kidney pie and a bottle of
Beaune. For desert a Pavlova. Winifred was obviously a good cook. We had a long
talk into the night and then to a comfortable bed.
Next day we made a fairly early start and Morton drove the Bedford
Dormobile, heavily laden (including two Antarctic tents borrowed from FIDS) to
Perth, where we lunched at the George. It was very good, with large helpings and
all for 7/6d. There I met Stewart Dalgleish, a fellow rugby player from student
days and had a brief chat with him; he was now in insurance at Singapore and on
home leave. I drove on to Aviemore where we had a cup of tea at the Deer Unit's
headquarters and Malcolm Douglas, the third member of our party met us there.
He was a tall dark, lean highlander, the Warden of a Nature Conservancy Reserve
at Braemar. He was rather quiet - dour is the Scottish word for him. He knew
much about red deer, but this was his first experience of seals. As the only smoker,
he ran out of cigarettes half way through and took to whistling highland dirges
and tapping his feet. But he was a tower of strength.
Then on to Inverness where we arrived at Jim McGeogh's home in darkness.
Jim was a Detective Inspector in the Inverness-shire Police. He was a specialist –
taking photographs the scene of the crime, or victims of it, and was a finger-print
expert. He was also a keen amateur photographer and cine-photographer. He has
worked his way up from the ranks, starting on the beat in the Gorbals, a very
tough district in Glasgow, part of his repertoire of rather startling stories about the
lower rungs of society. As one can imagine he had a lot of tales about his
experiences, some rather gruesome, others very funny, and told in a broad Scottish
accent. He was a very cheerful, very Scottish character. He had been on Rona last
year, and for six years before that he went out to Sula Sgeir with the Men of Ness.
He was the Honorary Warden of North Rona and Sula Sgeir Reserve and had
spent his annual holidays in this way for the past 6-8 years, mostly on Sula Sgeir, a
tiny island to the west of Rona. It's a bit hard on his family and his wife but she
came from Lewis and didn't seem to mind.
We had a good dinner and some of the creatur (whisky), and then drove on to
Kinlochewe, Loch Maree, the Anancaun Field Station on the Ben Eighe Reserve,
where we stayed the night. Jim Poulson was the Warden and his wife Maureen
cooked us a good breakfast. Then we drove on to Kyle via Strome Ferry to embark
on the Loch Seaforth for Stornoway. This was a rough crossing and we didn't get in
until late. Many people were suffering badly from sea-sickness. We saw our gear
aboard the Fishery Cruiser Minna and made ourselves known to Captain Murray.
Then we went along to the Caledonian Hotel, where we were to stay the night.
After sandwiches and more of the creatur we retired to bed. Next morning we
moved aboard Minna. Morton and I shared a cabin opening onto the deck, but the
others were below. We spent the day getting organized and doing some shopping
in the town.
On 12 October we went out to the Butt of Lewis Lighthouse to meet Archie
MacEochran and his family. He would be our daily radio contact from Rona and
transmitted messages to our families. He kindly phoned Maureen from time to
time to tell her my news. We went by bus to Barvas and along a rather dreary road
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