Sunset at Fidden: episode two.

 Although Fidden on the Ross of Mull is a commercial campsite, in many ways it really is like a a wild camp site with showers. After a nice warm shower we returned to the tents to discover that the wind had dropped and the midges had come out. Ian and I set up our chairs on a little knoll to eat our meal. A little breeze up there mitigated the midges somewhat and the view was excellent.

 After dining we set up a small fire (we had brought logs) below HW mark. While Ian and I opened cans of our favoured Irish sports recovery drink, Alan and Donald were already checking through their numerous sunset photos!!

 Not to be out done, Ian and I soon got snapping too.

As the sun dipped to the horizon it took on first an...

 ...orange glow before turning...

 pinkish red.

Of course living so far from the equator has its advantages. Very often the twilight after sunset is even better than sunset itself and so...

 ...it proved. This was an hour and a half after sunset.

Behind us the white buildings of Fidden were still illuminated with a delicate warm glow and were standing out against the inky black night sky behind.

East meets west at Fidden, sheng fui at sunset

 It did not take long to paddle back to Fidden from the maze of the Moai of Mull and...

 ...soon we had both kayaks and F-Rib above the HW mark in good time before...

 ...the sun started to go down.

 It did not take long to get dinner on and Ian shared...

 ...a most delicious venison stew and new potatoes with Donald and myself.

 The sun going down...

 ...beyond the Fidden reefs and...

 ....the Sound of Iona.

Once the sun had set we set about lighting a fire on the beach (we brought our own logs). Just as a few midges began to bite a strong NE wind got up kept them away and helped the fire get going. We were rather pleased with the sheng fui arrangement of our dark sports recovery drinks on the white sands of Fidden..

We swapped tales long into the night as the moon followed the arc already taken by the sun. The drumming call of a snipe echoed round the rocks as it flew overhead.. What a day it had been!

No room in the bothy and things that might have been...

 At the north end of the Sound of Islay the Ruvall lighthouse stands tall. It was built high so that it could also be seen from the south end of the Sound of Islay (see below). As we were discussing the lighthouse we noticed that the tide had turned in the Sound and it was now time to hitch a ride south.

The Jura coast line continued to amaze. At Alt Bun an Eas (burn with the waterfall at its foot) a deep V gorge has been cut through a raised sea cliff. the gorge is too big to have been cut by the current burn and dates from the days after the Ice Age when a huge torrent of meltwater made its way to the sea and the land rose as the weight of the ice sheet diminished.  The gorge has a series of waterfalls and infinity pools just above the beach.

Tony and I climbed up to these pools on a previous visit and Ian and I noted the possibility of a refreshing shower here the next day.

I never tire of this coastline and have paddled it 10 times now. This might not seem that much but considering how hard it is to get here from Glasgow it is a lot!

 At first the tide carried us gently down the Sound but the spring rate is 5 knots and...

 ...soon we were fair zipping along.

 The bottom of the Sound of Islay is very clean so despite the speed of the current, there are no overfalls and it only becomes rough if the tide is against the wind (as we would experience the following day!)

Although the water was like a millpond we passed the lighthouse at Carragh an t-Sruith (pillar of the current) at a casual 15km/hr!

We hit 16.4km/hr in the narrows between Feolin and Port Askaig where the Jura ferry MV Eilean Dhiura crosses. our destination was An Cladach bothy, which lies beneath the highest summit to the right of the ferry.

South of the narrows there were some great eddies which carried us off course but soon we arrived at...

...An Cladach bothy on the SE Islay shore (where Tony and I had stayed exactly a year ago). Unfortunately it was occupied by two couples and there are only 4 bunks. When we went inside the first woman said "Oh look they are all wet!" The second said "Oh look they are all wearing the same". It was then that I noticed the row of shiny polished boots by the door and a huge supply of food and drink including enough uncrushed loaves for a week. We decided to move on. One of the men followed us out and rather apologetically said he was the Mountain Bothy Association maintenance officer and they were up for a week to maintain the bothy.

Whatever the purpose of their visit, we saw no work clothes or maintenance materials. They had obviously been dropped off by boat rather than making their own way in. Parties using bothies for long term holidays seem to be becoming more common. When Ian and I visited Rum in the winter the warden warned us of two undesirables with bows and arrows who had set up residence in Guirdil bothy for two weeks. Exactly a year previously Tony and I had come across some Glaswegians in Cruib Lodge in Jura when we arrived after sunset. They told us they had been there for 10 days. Fortunately because it was outwith deer shooting season the estate side of the lodge was unlocked and they were in there. So we were able to stay in the MBA side. Another sea kayaking friend came across a man and two alsatian dogs who had been in a non MBA bothy in the Sound of Arisaig for 3 weeks! Whatever, I would only stay a night or two in a bothy as long term residence effectively decreases the number of people who  can take shelter there.

The sun had just set on the shore so we paddled down the rocky coast looking for somewhere to land and set up camp before dark. Mike and I landed in a little rocky inlet and were just about to explore when our VHF radios burst into life. It was the ferry MV Finlaggan warning the "warship in the Sound of Islay" to keep clear while she berthed at Port Askaig.

 The warship very politely assured Finlaggan that there would be no obstruction to berthing.

 The warship proved to be a Royal Navy type 23 frigate, HMS Iron Duke, which was also involved in Joint Warrior. This was her on her way south after live firing exercises at Cape Wrath in which she used her 4.5" front mounted gun. Unfortunately the wash of both vessels trapped Mike and I in the gully for some time and the sun...

 ...had well set before we were able to launch and found somewhere more suitable to set up camp. If you enlarge this photo, you will just see the light from Ruvaal lighthouse 17km away to the NNW up the Sound of Islay. The photo also shows what would have been a glorious sunset when viewed from the little cove between the dykes of Jura, where we had last stopped and were tempted to camp.

 It does not pay to think of what might have been, either golden sunsets or warm bothy fires, instead we concentrated on getting the loaded boats up the beach and setting up...

 ...the tents in the light of the gloaming and a full moon.

Not only had we brought tents we had also brought wood and a bag of charcoal, we soon had a warming fire going. What might have been a very uncomfortable night passed in great comfort, no doubt helped by some generous snifters of malt whisky. Another disaster was realized when I realized I had left the flask of Islay malt (Caol Isla) in the car. Fortunately reserve supplies of Jura and Speyside malts were available!

Sanctuary at Maclean's Skull Bay for the potato men of Glengarrisdale

The tidal flow along the NW coast of Jura always runs SW to NE so we were quite tired by the time we approached Glengarrisdale Bay. We really were in need of a break. There had been nowhere to land as the swell was breaking heavily on the rocks and sending spray high above our heads. to get some idea of the scale, you can just make out Iasn paddling to the right of the red roofed cottage.

 I had no worries about landing at Glengarrisdale as some islands and reefs protect the beach from the swell. Indeed former inhabitants had constructed a seawall of cobbles between the shore and one of the islands.

Glengarrisdale Bay was a Maclean stronghold in the mid 17th century. Their stone built fortification, Aros Castle, no longer remains but its site is marked by a solitary tree. The Macleans were defeated here by the Campbells in 1647.

The former shepherd's house was finally abandoned about 1947 and is now a well maintained MBA bothy. We hoped to spend the night here but as we approached we could see clothing airing on the line and a tent pitched at its front. We feared that it might be full.

However we found only a charming young couple, Tom and Frances, who were walking round Jura's coast (a grade 10 walk!!!). They had chosen to camp so there was plenty room. So we hung our own things up to air and...

 ...soon had our stoves on for an evening meal while...

 ...Tom and Frances climbed to the top of the hill behind the bothy to watch the sunset.

We three were so knackered that we delighted in just watching the sunset from the door of the bothy while a full moon rose high in the sky.

Away to the NE, Scarba and the Corryvreckan brooded over the Glengarrisdale shore. Like many places in Scotland, today's peaceful Glengarrisdale had a bloody past. Its alternative name is...

...Maclean's Skull Bay. A gruesome skull and femurs sat on a rock at the edge of the bay for many years. They disappeared in the 1970's. The skull had a "sword" cut in it and allegedly belonged to one of the defeated Macleans from the 1647 battle. Modern legend says it was situated in Maclean's skull cave at the east of the bay. However, in John Mercer's book "Hebridean Islands, Colonsay, Gigha, Jura" published in 1972, the above photo shows the sad relics on a rock at the west end of the bay. Their current whereabouts are unknown.

 As night fell we got the bothy fire going, We had brought a bag of charcoal some wood and a saw. The estate had left some large logs which we warmed ourselves by sawing.

Tom and Frances joined us at the fire and we swapped outdoor tales. This was their second night at the bothy and both had had a strange dream the night before. Quite independently they had dreamt of men bringing baked potatoes for the fire. It was with some satisfaction that Ian, Mike and I produced sweet potatoes wrapped in tin foil and placed them on the fire, we had plenty to share. Our new friends were amazed! Nothing beats a baked sweet potato with butter and pepper! From that moment on we were known as "the potato men of Glengarrisdale"!

Absent, gone, about to go, reprieved, arrived and Google Photos app is worse than a Google car crash.

Absence: Well it has been a little while since I posted on my blog  Seakayakphoto.com and I have been off the water for over four months. I have not been well for some time but am fortunately now recovering. I consider myself rather fortunate as many have health problems from which there is no recovery. I do have a backlog of things I have meant to post so will shortly start with those.

During my absence some things have gone and some have been reprieved or arrived.

Gone:  Mark Rainsley's renowned SouthwestSeakayaking blog has been retired though he is still very active on Facebook. Here is an archive link to his former blog. I am sorry to see it go because Facebook is not indexed and it is difficult to find older posts. Thanks for many informative and entertaining posts Mark.

Gone: Sadly Lulu, a member of the British Isles only resident orca pod, was washed up dead on a Tiree beach.  Her fluke had become entangled in fishing gear and she drowned. I have seen this pod twice, once to the north of the Cairns of coll and once off  Rubha an Dunain on Skye. They have not reproduced for many years and the loss of an adult female does not bode well for the pod's survival.

About to Go: Picasa Web Albums. This was the free photo hosting service by Google. This hosted photos in Blogger blogs like this one. If you uploaded photos directly from Blogger they would be posted in an album that would grow to 500 photos then a new album would start. You could also upload photos directly to Picasa Web Albums and create more meaningful albums of any size. Links from photos in these albums could be posted directly into a Blogger post as in the photos on this page. The demise of Picasa Web Albums has been predicted since the launch of Google + Photos some years ago. Google are so determined to get rid of Picasa Web Albums that they have excluded it from Google searches.

Gone: The Troon Larne high speed ferry which ran during the summer season has been axed. I have used this ferry in the days that it went into belfast rather than Larne so I will miss it.

The HSC Express has been sold to a Swedish company for operation between the island of Gotland and the Swedish mainland.

However, it will make the 22km crossing between Ailsa Craig and Arran somewhat less exciting as the ferry blasted across this route four times per day at 42 knots!

Reprieved: The Ardrossan Campbeltown ferry operated as a pilot summer service from 2013 to 2015 after which it was rumoured that it would be axed.

It was served by the MV Isle of Arran which will thankfully continue the Thursday to Sunday service. Even better news is that the service will now be permanent (as these things can be).

Arrived: Late in 2015 Google Photos replaced both Picasa Web Albums and Google + Photos. It would be marvellous if the third incarnation of a Google photo storage app was a progressive improvement but it is not. For any serious photographer it takes away any control of compression and it lacks all of the indexing and tagging that Picassa Web Albums allowed. It is also so slow that it is like using an old dial up modem .Google Photos is a truly horrid app, it is worse than a Google Car crash.

Plus: One good thing is that all your personally created albums in Picasa Web Albums have already been ported over to Google Photos.

Minus: The bad news is that they have been compressed on the way over. A typical photo in my blog like the one below is 1024x683 pixels.

This one (which is stored in Picasa Web Albums) was reduced in size and saved from the original camera RAW file in Lightroom as a jpg file with 70% compression. The compressed file was 207KB in size. By the time it was transferred to Google Photos it was further reduced to 90KB. That degree of reduction might be fine if you upload an uncompressed original but when a file is compressed twice the results are not good. I am not going to post the Google Photos version as I really do not like it and it spoils my memory of this beautiful sunset.

Minus: I suspect the photos have not only been compressed but have also been "improved" ("auto enhanced" in Google speak) by altering the exposure, contrast, saturation etc. Maybe I am fussy but the compressed, improved photos  have that garish "turn up the picture" look that someone who has just discovered the sliders in Photoshop might produce.

Minus: The Blogger photo albums of 500 photos which are stored in Picasa Web Albums have not been ported over to Google photos.

Minus: The coding is bloated. This is the link for a photo in Google Photos:

https://lh3.googleusercontent.com/Y41QDpD6aZHubgWQGq8MXJz7qstXiUwFtkwb8eR4krXZhmmbqtfG5tP_YT8ZB8KgzIoDwAZbMRmwPJBburJGhQ3xKccb2e_vcMJO5oHOo_E2genKZIZOIpPky9mwBfEh87pgALdS5eeEayXHFmTX1zbLmEdl33BLmJTifCt3KTAAhvOX-BNkojfh2T85cTb3e1lFOgyl0ELYxRIHZqkB1nJiFdgXKOgOdcjmNU4oDJBSvxgS5OcwKTD6dnlWcA_dgxWj1M7eXwi4FxYJT2nXlmiAdgu1f61zU9z9yE400J4Yq37zSOyIKtBHNIqKC4rLAPIieXKS99Ad6fRNqCRlW6D68W95HQImC9TEa6ndLwU8EvlMOx-CJtRl2p6haGn4viL7uzRZyDcVGAdF30nsbu_glKzPrFqFLiCHX8sd84xG9c_kTx5tCn5eFMIB_sDU3jBGQQYTA5c_Efv4XPb4M0AaaXI8P_8Qtek39Tgx0Pq_5FdeSHAjqxV1V1kVwLcD5rYdL_7c8LnFb5rD1JVuXzlkBR4P7JmLVPo_BhrGpNtCTT3CJU6P3kWmbpwu7eFt=w1024-h683-no

No wonder Google Photos is so slow. In comparison this is a link for the same photo in Picasa Web Albums:

https://lh3.googleusercontent.com/-1XXVgV-XJEY/VtiItTRLxtI/AAAAAAAAw5k/RVhRUSIrsog/s1024-Ic42/20160228-IMG_0989DEW100.jpg

Not only is the "old and redundant" code more compact (!!!) it also contains the original filename and note the "s1024" which allows you to set the maximum size of the downloaded photo (in this case 1024 pixels) which is very useful if you want to paste a photo into a post in a forum that restricts the size of photos.

When Google programmers resort to bloatware like this it is little wonder the Google car crashed. Indeed if the roads were filled with Google cars there would almost certainly be the mother of all traffic jams! Having said that, if Google Cars are as fast as Google Photos then the collisions will not be so much a crash, they will be more like the kiss of a down feather landing gently on the floor.

Lastly if you think it is unfair to criticise a "free" app, it is of course not free at all. Google sifts through all your stuff and targets you with advertising which you pay for in the things you buy. Despite it being several years since my knee operations and my retirement my browsing experience is still filled with adverts for knee potions and retirement investments. Even worse the day after I emailed my mother's brother to say that she had not long to live, I was targeted with adverts for funeral plans and directors. Thank you Google. No doubt I will now be bombarded with adverts for pick me ups and health tonics.