The weekly struggle

September 20, 2007

The “weekly struggle” is a walk uphill of about 200 meters. The first part of the terrain is flat, through stone chippings, then a rough path with an ascent of about 9%, then an iron gate that has to be opened and then 20 meters to the finish. All this performed in a pitch black environment, hauling a large green container of about 1.20 meters height and an average weight of about 50 kilo’s…

You guessed it?

Yes, it’s the weekly emptying of the bin. The bins are emptied on Friday morning here in Skinidin, so Thursday evening the thing has to be wheeled to the roadside. During the summertime this is not much of a problem. During other periods of the year in gets really dark in the evening, and I mean pitch black! If you were to walk out without a light, you’d be lucky not to step into the burn and break a limb or hit your head against one of the trees.

But it’s not all trouble… This evening it wasn’t cold and the skies were clear. I have never seen stars like I’ve seen them here on Skye. It’s like traveling through space: the stars, the milky way, the moon - all extremely bright. It’s so clear it’s like you can almost touch them. The complete lack of environmental lights makes it a really wonderful experience….

Posted by roger | Filed Under Blog, Nature 

Comments

2 Responses to “The weekly struggle”

  1. Rob Ellin on September 21st, 2007 19:19

    Feel for you Rogier hauling the bin.We only have a few metres to the roadside for our bin but it is still a chore.
    Agree with you about the blackness of the night on Skye. We were completely overwhelmed when we saw a pollution free night sky on Mull 2 years ago.It was almost more stars than blackness.Amazing!!!!

    Thanks for the site.Will contact you soon via email .

  2. admin on September 22nd, 2007 1:01

    Hi Rob! Great to hear from you. Hope you’re doing both fine. Autumn is sort of upon us here, although it’s not too bad yet… We still find dry moments to do some garden work or just go outside for a stroll.

    Looking forward to hearing from you,

    Rogier

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