April Fool's Day was a sopping wet and very windy affair. At one point, the wind rose to galeforce, with gusts to 70 mph at the Butt of Lewis. I spent this Friday collating information regarding the islands of Ensay and Killegray in the Sound of Harris, south of Leverburgh.
I am currently enjoying the Island Parish series on BBC2, which is featuring the islands of Barra, Eriskay and South Uist. These are the only Roman Catholic islands in this archipelago, with the boundary with Protestantism straddling Benbecula. The final episode will be on Friday 15 April. The series focuses on the life and times of three Roman Catholic priests, as well as some of the islanders. Tonight's instalment showed an American couple (named Macniel, after the predominant surname in Barra), who came looking for their roots. The gentleman found it rather hard to cope with the history of Kishmul Castle, in Barra's main town, Castlebay.
Another television series I am watching on Channel 5, is Ice Road Truckers, showing truck drivers on the Dalton Road in Alaska, which links Fairbanks to the oilfields at Prudhoe Bay on the Arctic Ocean. In last night's episode, one of them crashed off the carriageway after taking his eyes off the road to hang up his CB mike. Fortunately, he was uninjured and his rig basically unscathed. But he will be facing some form of disciplinary action.
