Locomotoring

If going to Scotland during summer, you would be armed against bugs. Question is, does the armory work? The other question is, would it be a Scottish summer walk if the bugs don’t get you?

There are two primary categories of Scottish summer bugs that bite. A wee little gnat, called midge that swarms in shade. And a robust horsefly (or cleg in Scottish) that prefers a sunny heath or moorland. The first one can’t bite through clothes, it can’t handle wind. You don’t feel the midge bite, the bite sites itches later. The second one has vicious fangs, their bite hurts and itches at the same time, and not much gets in their way. I had read that midges prefer certain hosts, like mosquitos. That meant trouble. I already knew that I was a mosquito attractor. So I got heavily armed against the wee gnat since that was the only thing I could arm against. The armory, in addition to long sleeved shirts and ankle length trousers, included perfume – Avon “Skin So Soft” dry oil spray. Apparently, the midges do not like that particular perfume. Then, a deterrent, Smidge. The claim is to deter all biting insects including mosquitos and ticks and being water resistant. And finally, the battleshield, a superfine head net, especially designed so the wee gnats couldn’t get in.

During the Old Man of Storr walk, I got bitten by hundreds of midges. I was busy navigating the thousand steps that led to the old man. I didn’t notice the midges while walking, but later that night I noticed my neck, hands and wrist covered in midge bites. The midge forecast has suggested “moderate” number of midges. I had left the BnB after liberally smearing myself with Avon. By the time the evening walk to Storr had come around, many hours had gone by.

Then came the walk to the Steall Waterfalls in the Ben Nevis range while in Fort Williams. The Ben Nevis is the tallest mountain in UK. It is a wee little mountain when compared to Himalayas. And by that I mean, I can imagine myself climbing Ben Nevis with great difficulty (if you held a gun to my head? exoskeleton perhaps?). I can’t imagine climbing Himalaya. It was a hot day yet again and the forecast suggested massive amounts of bugs. This was a short 2 mile walk from the highest parking lot in the range. So I pocketed the net and liberally applied the deterrent. I wore long sleeve shirt and full length trousers. If it weren’t so hot, I could have worn my neck gaiters.

The Steall waterfall hike goes up a shaded mountain cliff on rocky steps and then flats out on a sunny meadow. The meadow is as perfect as a meadow can get – the waterfall, the bubbling stream. While going up, I could keep up momentum. When sunlight filtered through the leaves, I could see the midges. They look not much larger than dust particles. But unlike the random walk of dust particles, the midges swarm. Once we landed on the meadow, the clegs landed upon us. While the midges didn’t bother my spouse, the clegs seemed to love him. We didn’t hang around. The walk down the cliff was going to be slower, so I decided to try on my headnet and soon realized the problem – I couldn’t really see very well through them. So, down we went the trail, slower and without the head net back into the midge territory.

At the end of the day, I noticed more midge bites. They got me where sweat had gathered on my face and neck. It turns out that Smidge isn’t as water resistant as it claims.