Day 5; June the 8th

On a Sunday St. Kildans didn't work, and neither do we.
We will make another excursion, this time to Dùn. Dùn is the island on the other side of Village Bay.

On our walk to Dún we pass the Lovers Stone. This is another rock above the sea. Young St. Kildan men who wanted to get married had to perform some dangerous pose on the edge of the stone. Had they done this, they could marry the woman of their choice.

This excursion is not too long. We have plenty of time to sit and enjoy the view on Dún and -once again- the lovely weather.

Martin wants to paint the door of the amunition store with green polkadots. I think it's a funny joke and I promise to help him. In secret we collect the necessity's; paintbrushes, paint and a pencil from the workshop. In the centrifuge we find a template we use for two sizes of polkadots.
Jut before dinner we slip off to the amunition store and we paint the door. The result is wonderfull, if I say so myself. We bring back the paint, the brushes and the template, wash our hands thoroughly and we are back in time for dinner.

Now the excitement of being discovered starts, although Martin can't really keep it a secret. He tells almost everybody, only not to David, Kevin or Paul.
Again we visit the pub and go to bed.

Day 4; the walk to the Cambir

On the 7th of June 1944 a Sunderland airplane crashed at Gleann Mòr; at this day exactly seventy years ago. The debris is still scattered all over the site. What a waste of young lives!

This was one of the three crashed airplanes on St. Kilda in WWII. In Februari 1943 a Wellington bomber crashed on Soay. With much effort we can see some remnants of this plane from our view on Soay.  In June 1943 a Beaufighter crashed on Conachair. This plane fell partly into the sea, and the bodies of the victims were never found. On another walk over the island we will find debris of that plane too.

None of the crew of any of these planes survive the crash. I am to polish their memorial plaque in the chapel within a view days. But I don't know that yet! 

The memorial plaque of the victims of the planecrashes during WWII

On our walk we pass the Mistress Stone. This is a big rock which leans on two other stones in the form of a door. If you look down, you look straight into the sea.

Mistress Stone

I have no fear of heights, but it is very windy, and I'm a bit reluctant to stand on the stone. Steve offers to hold me. This results in one of the funniest picture I've got. We call it "Steve's proposal".

Today was a very nice day. The weather has been wonderfull, the walk very pleasant and Flo prepares a lovely dinner again. We visit the pub a while and then go to sleep.

The Bonxie

The great Skua (Stercorarius skua) is generally called Bonxie in West Scotland. It is  a large gull and not a bird of prey, although they chase other birds. A very well known technique they use to catch fish is to assault Gannets and force them to drop their catch, which they will take for themselves.

The Bonxies on St. Kilda also eat other birds. We saw Bonxies chase Oystercatchers, Puffins and Pigeons. They try to wear them out over sea and then push them in the water until they drown. 

Only on St. Kilda Bonxies chase by night on Leach's storm petrels. This behavior is very remarkable for seabirds.

Bonxies were not on St. Kilda in the 19th century. The first recorded breeding on St. Kilda is in 1963.The breeding population increased steadily until 1990 and now the colony is the second largest and fastest growing colony in the UK.

Bonxies can be furious attackers to humans, especially when defending their nests or their young.
By crossing Mullach Mór and Gléan Mór, there were a lot of nests and small Bonxie chicks. We usually took a large stick with us, so the Bonxies would attack the stick instead of our heads.

Not a very good picture of a Bonxie attack

Despite their brigand reputation, I can't help to admire these birds. They seem intelligent to me, because they learned to adapt to an environment where they were not common before.

Day 4; June 7th

Today is Saturday. We have breakfast and will only work for half a day. In the afternoon we will make an excursion to the Cambir.

This time I will work together with Martin. We have to paint the sign and the bolt of the door of the ammunition store, and we are supposed to paint a sill of the church.
But since the door of the ammunition store is in a bad stage, Martin asks for permission to paint the entire door. It is not a matter of "no" or "ok"; we have to wait for official permission from the National Trust. In the meantime we gather the necessary tools. At teatime the only thing we've done is remove one screw from the sign! After morning tea we sand the door and put it into the primer.

I'm not sure who came up with the idea, but we are in a rebellious mood because of the bureaucracy of the work. We suggest to paint the door with a nice pattern instead of the prescribed green. First the primer has to dry, but the idea gets stuck in our heads.

We have the afternoon off and we are going for an excursion to the Cambir. From the Cambir you'll have a nice view over Soay.

It is a pretty brisk walk through the nesting area of the Bonxie. There are many nests with eggs or chicks, and the parents bomberdive us furiously.

In my next post I will tell something about the Bonxie on St. Kilda.

Day 3; June the 6th

I got up before breakfast to go for a run. I want to do the chimney challence; a race of about 200 metres along the road, then up a very steep hill called the chimney. On top of the chimney there is a cleith which you have to touch. Once you touched the cleith, your time is set. The people from Qinetiq will record the time.
But I am not used to running uphill, so I need training. I run about half an hour up the only road there is on St. Kilda then back again; I'm exhausted. I need more exercise if I want to do the chimney within a quarter of an hour!

On my way back I meet Steve who is doing an early walk. We talk a bit while walking back to the street. I got a warm shower and an sturdy breakfast.

Today my job is to help Steve to repair the roof of the school and the church. I wear an overall which is twice my size and according to Steve I look like a Teletubbie.

  

I learn how to cut slates. Even in Dutch I don't know many tools by name, let alone in English. And in Steve's Scottish accent the misunderstandings are hilarious! We have a lot of fun together. Steve is a real nice person: I like him very much.

  

This turns out one of my best working days on St. Kilda. I enjoy the slate cutting, the marvelous weather, the company of Steve and the view.

Today is Martin's birthday and Flo exceeds herself with apple cinnamon cake and coffee.
After dinner we hit the Puff Inn.