Jura Duty

No blogging last weekend - I was over in Jura for a short break. Jura was known as 'The Island of The Deer' by the Norsemen, and even today the human population - around 200 hardy souls, and I think I may have met half of them - is heavily outnumbered by deer. They believe there are 5 - 6,000 deer on the island, and with vast tracts of Jura only accessible by foot there may be more.
It's a wonderfully unspoilt wilderness; tiny hamlets and crofts sprinkled here and there but in the main it's sea, huge open skies and vast swathes of lush green landscape.
George Orwell wrote 1984 there, and you can see the appeal of Jura for someone who wanted to get right away from people to write in peace. It's not an easy island to get to anyway, and even today the house in which Orwell wrote his classic novel can opnly be accessed by foot after a rough 4X4 track comes to an abrupt end - I think there's a three mile slog after that. Other than tackling that I decided to just re-read the book instead. Not because of the walk itself, which I could have handled - it was the inevitable accompaniment of a million midges that put me off.
Two hundred people, five thousand deer but there must be a billion midges out there - and it seemed that every last single one had an appetite for cosmopolitan flesh and blood! Hotel, bar, restaurant, out walking - they were never far away, loitering with murderous intent ... evil little bastards. I think I can now see why Orwell's novel was so gloomy - I'm sure he too was plagued by them when he ventured out for a stroll.
Anyway, midges aside Jura is a magical place - perfect for peace and solitude, stunning scenery and a walkers delight. I do hope to return one day - but it won't be during midgie season!