As it was now colder, the menace of the midge had disappeared, but I had anyways taken my Tabbard stick with, as their is nothing as annoying, when you pack out a wonderful lunch along a bubbling stream, and you can't eat, because every time you open your mouth, a couple of hundred fly in together with your food. It does spoil the moment!
If there is a slight breeze they are blown away, according to the know-alls, but I have found that it must be just about a gale force wind before this little pests disappear into the nothingness of the wide sky.I have found when having my barbeques along a loch or river, that as soon as my fire is lit, the charcoal fumes from my throw-away barby is a good deterrent, and I never really had trouble before, except if I parked myself on the grass along a wee stream, and tried to doze off a bit!
Their are a few outrageous stories about the super midge of Mull, but although they are told as the truth, everybody have to decide for him, or herself whether this stories could have the least bit of truth.
One story goes that the older midges always send the youngsters into people's tents to test out the blood groups, after having been taught the proper grip. If the blood from the poor fanatically scratching and arm waving people were the right kind, the old ones would follow up and have a wonderful feast, I suppose on their preferred blood group!
There is one story though, and apparently confirmed by bystanders, of a super midge landing on Glenforca airstrip, and this midge was filled up with twenty gallons of fuel before anyone realized that it was a super midge, and not a plane! Lol!!!
Our time was running out, and one day when we went through Craignure, we saw a group of huge white, and strange looking tents, so we turned off to see what it was. This tents are called 'sheilings', and it is for renting out, so we stopped at the little office, and booked ourselves four more nights, as there were still just too much to be seen on Mull.
'Sheiling' means the shelters that were built by shepherds and where they stayed while tending the sheep in the far off and lonely grazing fields.
I still wanted to visit the Nun's cave, but for that a whole day is needed, as the walk from where you start at I think Carsaig Bay, was quite hectic, so to be able to stay a while longer suited me fine, as I had five days on going back to Strathyre before my flight home.