John and Kay Ure's home in a former lighthouse keeper's cottage at Cape Wrath on the most north-westerly tip of the UK mainland sits on the edge of 900ft-high cliffs and has been cut off by the winter weather for almost a month.
Mrs Ure left before the “big freeze” to buy a turkey and the trimmings in Inverness and until yesterday had been forced to live with friends in the village of Durness, 11 miles away. Mr Ure spent Christmas and New Year on his own and celebrated his 58th birthday last Sunday with a tin of baked beans.
Yesterday, for the first time since mid-December, he managed to drive 11 miles to a small jetty and cross the Kyle of Durness by boat to collect his wife and the turkey. The couple run the country's “most isolated tearoom” at the end of an ungritted army road and were forced to spend their first festive season apart in 35 years.
Mr Ure tried on several occasions to drive his flatbed lorry down from the highest vertical cliffs in mainland Britain, but got only half mile before the vehicle started slipping on ice.
During their separation he ran out of coal, his generator blew and he was reduced to a diet of beans and pasta. His six springer spaniels were his only company and he had to feed them on emergency army rations.
No comments:
Post a Comment