Thursday, February 16, 2012

The Cannibal's Cave and Skippy the Bush Kangaroo!

From Whilk Isle, we paddled towards the cliffs of Balcreuchan Head. Almost immediately we came across this blow hole. Unfortunately the swell wasn't quite big enough for real explosions but it still made a satisfying "boom, whoosh!"

We now cut inshore of Balcreuchan Stack...

...on our way towards Sawney Bean's Cave in Balcreuchan Port when, all of a sudden, Phil gave a great shout. Half expecting to see the Great Cannibal himself, we looked up as Phil pointed high on the hill...

..."Look, it's a real, red kangaroo....why it's, it's... I think it's Skippy!". We all nearly fell out our kayaks with laughter, Phil had seen a roe deer leaping up the side of the hill on its rear legs. It seemed to have hurt one of its front legs, which it held close to its chest, while leaping away on the other three.  At first glance it might have looked, a....bit..., like a kangarooo. But...

Clearly Phil has been spending too much time watching "Skippy, the complete collection (vol 1)" DVD, which David had given him for Christmas.


As a somewhat red faced Phil paddled on, a chorus of "Skippy, Skippy,....Skippy the Bush Kangaroo" gently wafted after him. Clearly we were going to have a good day out and we had hardly started!

By the way, the entrance to the Bean's cave is in the middle of the above photo with Skippy. It is entered by traversing the horizontal groove above the sea, lower right, then climbing the slanting curved gully up to the cave.

16 comments:

  1. I used to watch Skippy as a kid and I'm sure this must be a close relative of his and not an injured deer as you appear to have mistaken it to be.

    If the English/Gaelic translator can be trusted, it'll become known in legend as the 'Cumhachdach Bocadaich Beathach of Balcreuchan' before long.

    ReplyDelete
  2. I've lived in Australia for nearly 40 years and that looks a lot more like a roo than an injured deer to me. It's entirely possible that someone has introduced them there.

    ReplyDelete
  3. Laugh? I could have cried! Please keep em coming, your posts light up my day!

    Regards Iain

    ReplyDelete
    Replies
    1. Thank you Ian, I hope you enjoy the "gift horse" post!
      :o)

      Delete
  4. "Skippy, the complete collection (vol 1)"
    Classic ROTFLMAO!

    Craig

    ReplyDelete
    Replies
    1. Well spotted Craig, there's gems in that there prose!

      :o)

      Delete
  5. Douglas, you are going to have to face it, your suggestion that it could have been an injured deer is preposterous, I'm backing Phil's Kangaroo all the way!

    Steve - as I recall from seeing the movement and not it's shape, the 'roo' wasn't even on that slope.... :-)

    ReplyDelete
  6. Hi Jim, Phil's new nick name is "Skippy"!

    :o)

    ReplyDelete
  7. Douglas, just seen this post; I'm guessing that a little delicate work has be done on the 'Skippy' image? One wonders where you found the source image of a 'Roo' with a red coat?

    :-)

    Nick

    ReplyDelete
    Replies
    1. Nick surely you do not suspect Photoshoppery! Phil knows what he saw!

      :o)

      Delete
  8. I would never dare to use that (now rather generic) term Douglas. Any fine tuning of the image looks to have been well done and would doubtless pass my client's scrutiny.

    Where did you find that Kangaroo though...?

    :)

    ReplyDelete
  9. Hello Nick and CB, "Skippy" knows what he saw, the fact that my brother lives in Australia is a pure coincidence!

    :o)

    ReplyDelete
  10. So....it was your brother in a kangaroo outfit?

    Oh well, never mind. 'Print the legend'!

    ;o)

    ReplyDelete