It was with some reluctance that we dragged ourselves away from Balnahard strand on the NE tip of Colonsay.
Once we cleared the point, our flapping sails caught...
...the wind and fair breeze filled them taught. We made such good progress down the coast that...
...the distant Paps of Jura heaved ever higher above the eastern horizon.
Sam, being the youngest, had to suffer the handicap of not having...
...a sail...
...to help with his progress. Each rocky cove we passed seemed to have a cuckoo calling, which added to...
...the atmosphere of paddling this wild place. The NE coast of Colonsay is rocky and backed by rough heather covered slopes interspersed with scrubby patches of deciduous woodland. There are few,...
...if any, places to land. Maurice was remarking that despite sea kayaking for years, he had never seen a sea eagle.
"What, like that one? said Ian and only a moment later...
...David said "Or that one!"
Sea eagles are lazy big birds and they only flapped their great wings a few times before landing just 100m along the coast. Unfortunately for them, they landed beside a pair of broody oyster catchers who vocally and bravely expressed their displeasure by "pip, pip, pipping" as they fluttered above their giant but lethargic new neighbours.
"Well you can hardly top that" said Ian until...
...a golden eagle soared high over the ruins of the appropriately named...
...
Riasg Buidhe (Golden Moor). You can read more about this abandoned fishing village
in this post about our previous visit. It is possible to land at the head of a gully above high tide. Unfortunately it was low tide and the once cleared gully bed is now full of boulders. So we continued on our way to Scalasaig, the main port on Colonsay.
Read
Ian's account here.
