The legendary midges reminds me of hot summer of 1971, when my big brother, his mate and I all piled into my brother’s almond-green Mini Traveller - reg BVD 744C (a woodless Mini-estate) and toured our way up to Skye (long before the Skye bridge). Camping at Elgol, we woke one beautiful morn to find a Harley and on the ground, a filled sleeping-bag with no head. It was all coated in midges !!! Eventually, the butterfly emerged from the cocoon – an American traveler, biking wherever his wheels took him. The midges rose and swirled around. He was a good guy, pretty laid-back and hippy-like. He told us he was touring around as opportunity took him as long as it wasn’t the USA. He told us he was avoiding the draft. Whether that was true I really don’t know, but he looked cool, not out of place in “Easy Rider” !
The previous year, my big brother, 3 of his mates and I had hiked through Skye and it started off at Broadford. My introduction to Sgianach midges ! They were so bad that we had to wear our army-green towels wrapped round our faces arab-shemagh style, just our eyes showing. We were frying sausages and the midges kept dive-bombing the frying-pan, so much so that you’d think the sausages were covered in poppy-seeds ! We ate them anyway ! Our tents were near the road leading to the YMCA. As we were frying, a group of YMCA’ers were walking briskly (scout-style) toward the YMCA, all heartily singing “Hava Negeila”. For tongue-in-cheek devilment, still wearing our shemaghs, we stood and started to chant “El Fahta ! El Fahta ! El Fahta !”. That caused a few heads to turn and stopped the singing ! Wuah Hah Hah !!
BTW – anyone come across clegs ? Now that is pain in a brown, fly-sized package ! They are relentless and almost psychopathic !! With their lifeless brown eyes, they even follow you into the sea to bite you painfully and suck your blood !! I hate them ! Argyll’s full of them !
Originally Posted by Lachlan09
The legendary midges reminds me of hot summer of 1971, when my big brother, his mate and I all piled into my brother’s almond-green Mini Traveller - reg BVD 744C (a woodless Mini-estate) and toured our way up to Skye (long before the Skye bridge). Camping at Elgol, we woke one beautiful morn to find a Harley and on the ground, a filled sleeping-bag with no head. It was all coated in midges !!! Eventually, the butterfly emerged from the cocoon – an American traveler, biking wherever his wheels took him. The midges rose and swirled around. He was a good guy, pretty laid-back and hippy-like. He told us he was touring around as opportunity took him as long as it wasn’t the USA. He told us he was avoiding the draft. Whether that was true I really don’t know, but he looked cool, not out of place in “Easy Rider” !
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