Sunday 10 January

A brilliantly sunny day, which has seen the mercury up to 4C this afternoon. Last night, we had rain and as the night saw a slight frost, this has turned all untreated roadsurfaces into sheet ice. I encountered that problem when I set out to visit the cemetery at Sandwick, about 20 minutes' walk from my position. To cut a long story short, I was unable to access the graveyard. The path that runs in front of it was 5 feet of slippery ice which I was not prepared to negotiate. I had to walk along the beach (not easy with the pebbles there) as the path was impassable. Quite dangerous, really. Nonetheless, I got my breath of fresh air; I'll return to Sandwick when the ice has gone. Even within the graveyard, all the paths had iced up, and I would have been unable to make my way through.

The iced-over path

Sandwick Cemetery

View down the Minch