Day 10: Going Nowhere

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Day 10: 9th October 2009
6:40 PM

It’s difficult to describe just how strong the winds have been today, but I’ll give it a go. The ducks on the pond outside were blown sideways this morning and disappeared not long after. The pond itself resembles a particularly stormy ocean, the wind whipping up waves that crash against the sides. Even the sheep, those most hardened of weather-beaten animals, have taken refuge outside the front door of the hostel where they are sheltered from the worst of the wind. Perhaps the best way to describe its power, though, is by describing the waterfall in the distance, which appears to actually be travelling upwards, or at least it has stopped and the water is doing nothing more than spraying about at the top.

After our cup of tea we decided that, being stuck in the middle of nowhere with nothing to do but play board games with pieces missing, we might as well brave the weather and head for Vik. The car was bouncing up and down like an excited Herbie as we packed up (this was the wind blowing it, not actually the result of our car possessing a life of its own), and we were just about to leave when Hannes beckoned us over from the front door of his farm house. He gave us an updated weather forecast, which essentially said ‘if you leave now you are very stupid’, so we drove the 100 yards or so back to the hostel and accepted that we were stuck here for the night.

We have spent the intervening hours enjoying a completely free reign of a hostel that only contains the three of us now. We had a look through what other people had left behind to add to our tea, but just ended up finishing the last remnants of our own supplies, a tea of broccoli soup with salt and pepper crisps standing in as croutons. We discovered that, as we had suspected, all of the board games have missing pieces barring the chess set, which grandmaster John always wins without fail. The electric organ in the dining room has at least kept me entertained for a while though. Maybe I should write a song.

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