The secret beach at the centre of the marvellous maze of the Moai of Mull.

Once we left the shelter of Balfour's Bay we were soon back in the wind. Donald in the F-Rib went on ahead as we were going to be  exploring some shallow channels.

 It did not take long to reach the maze of islands and reefs of the west coast of Erraid.

 It really is a maze and I had to reassure the others that we were on the right track and there would be a stunning secret beach at the end of it.

 I knew I was on the right track when I spotted the guardian of the beach, one of the Moai of Mull (I had been this way before back in 2007).

 A couple more corners and there it was, the secret beach of the Moai of Mull. As the sun dipped towards Iona in the west our long shadows moved over the bottom of the sandy bay as we...

 ...slid into land on the strip of white shell sand.

 We set off in different directions to explore...

 ...the natural amphitheatre  of pink rocks.

We were grateful our kayaks had allowed us to explore this wonderful spot. But do not feel sorry for Donald in the F-Rib, he was off to the other side of the Sound of Iona exploring the Iona coastline/

 Ian and I climbed to a rocky knoll and surveyed the maze of the Moai of Mull we had just paddled through.

The sea pink looked marvellous against the pink granite rocks.

 Lengthening shadows of sea shells on the sand meant it was time to...

...return to the boats, if we wanted to find our way out of the maze in daylight.

Taking the plunge in Balfour's Bay

On the south coast of Erraid we came across a breach in the pink granite walls of rock. It led in to a dazzling...

 ...white sandy beach called Traigh Gheal (white beach, the Gaels were an imaginative lot!) though it is better known as David Balfour'sBay. Robert Louis Stevenson experienced the island while on visits with his father who was constructing the Dubh Artach lighthouse on the edge of the Torran rocks. Unfortunately RLS was the black sheep of the Livingstone lighthouse dynasty. He had no interest in following his father's footsteps and became an author. He later used his knowledge of the island in his novel "Kidnapped". The hero David Balfour was shipwrecked on the Torran rocks during a storm and was washed up on this beach on Erraid. He spent several hungry wet days eating limpets before he realised it was a tidal island and walked off at low tide!

Unlike Balfour we arrived in a flat calm and a May heatwave. The air temperature was 24C but the sea was still only 9C.

One by one our little flotilla landed and we...

...drew our boats up the beach for an extended luncheon but first...

Photo by Ian Johnstone.

...I wasted no time in diving straight into the freezing cold water. It was extremely refreshing and so I did not stay in long but enjoyed the zing as I dried in the sun afterwards. After lunch Ian and Alan also joined me for a post prandial swim and again we dried in the sun. Later, I could not resist going in for a third swim. I have found this to be the secret of sea swimming in Scotland, several short swims are better than one long one.

After the swimmers had dried we all explored different areas of the bay before making our way...

...back to the boats. I had in mind a visit to another stunning beach, much less well known than Balfour's Bay, but could I remember how to find it?

Erraid and Tinker's Hole

 We set off from Fidden campsite through a maze of...

 ..pink granite skerries.

Donald kept well out in his little RIB but we...

 ...were able to paddle through the shallows where the water was as clear as green glass.

We reached the rocky shore of Erraid. Alan is looking at the cottages which were built for the keepers of the Dubh Artach lighthouse and later the keepers of the Skerryvore lighthouse joined them when the Skerryvore shore station at Hynish in Tiree closed. The lighthouse engineer was Thomas Stevenson, father of the author Robert Louis Stevenson (more about him in the next post).

 High above Lorna on the skyline of Erraid, the white dome of...

 ...the lighthouse signal tower looks out over the  Sea of the Hebrides to the distant lights.

As we paddled round the pink granite shore of Erraid it was baking hot especially when we entered the narrow windless channel of the Tinker's Hole. Ian is down to a T shirt but was still too hot.

We caught up with Donald who had stopped on a tidal sand spit to photograph the signal station.

He passed us again as there is a deep channel through the gap.

 Tinkers Hole is a well known yacht anchorage as it is well sheltered given the otherwise exposed position of the Ross of Mull.

 We took our time as we were...

 ...in no hurry to leave...

 ...this magical place of cool green sea and...

 ...and warm pink rock but all too soon...

 ...we left the confines of Tinker's Hole and...

...exited onto the exposed south coast of Erraid.

En route to Erraid and the Ross of Mull

The road and ferry trip to the Ross of Mull is a long way wherever you live on the mainland. Ian and I had talked about returning here for ages and on the 11th of May we finally set off in the company of Donald in his little RIB and Alan and Lorna. You will be able to follow this trip in trivision on Ian's blog here and Donald's blog here.

Donald and I met up in Oban for a coffee and a stroll before setting off. I wanted to photograph the various slipways near the main ferry terminal. The nearest is the Calmac slip for the Lismore ferry but there always seems to be a reserve ferry sitting in there.

The next nearest is the slip in the ice factory yard. I do not think you could offload a car here but if you arrived by ferry and wanted to launch or if you arrived by kayak and wanted to catch a ferry this might be possible. The RNLI Oban lifeboat is the RNLB "Mora Edith MacDonald" a Trent class boat.

 The public slip is furthest away. You might be able to avoid the busy Gallanach Road by trolleying round the path in front of the lifeboat station and through the ice factory yard to the ferry terminal.

 We walked back to the town past the fishing pier as we had some time.  This is OB151 FV Orion. the quayside restraunts were doing a brisk trade selling sea food platters to Chinese tourists who certasinly seembed to be enjoying the food and the sunny ambience of Oban.

 We had plenty of time and the first ferry to Mull was the MV Coruisk which has recently been transferred from the Mallaig Armadale run to Mull due to the explosion in traffic caused by the introduction Road Equivalent Tarriff which has meant the ferries (and the roads) are full of camper vans. If I was transport minister I would only allow camper vans on the road between the hours of 1 am and 4 am.

 We did not have long to wait until our ferry the MV Isle of Mull came in and soon...

 ...we were aboard. While we were loading, Marine Harvest's brand new 70m well boat the Ronja Challenger berthed at the ice factory quay.

 Soon we were off passing the north end of Kerrera where this rather splendid house is for sale for around a mere £1,000,000.

 The channel to the north of Kerrera is rather busy with shipping and the MV Isle of Lewis which serves Barra from Oban...

 ...came in as we were leaving closely followed by the returning

 ...MV Coruisk. As you can see a fresh NE wind was blowing.

 Half way to Mull we passed Lady's rock where Lachlan Maclean of Duart left his wife to die in 1527. She was rescued by a passing boat and he was later murdered by her brother.

 The bottom end of Lismore is marked by the Eilean Musdile lighthouse.

Then we passed Duart castle on Mull. If you are paddling rond the coast here it might be worth keeping further out. The water close to the coast is often very disturbed,

 Soon we landed and the ramp came down on Mull.

 The road to the Ross of Mull isost 60km of twisting single track, fortunately it was quiet and it was a magnificent drive through the mountains to Bunessan where we had arranged to meet the others. One option was to launch at Bunessan and camp at Market Bay on the north coast of the Ross of Mull but I had an updated weather forecast on the ferry which was for F5 northerly overnight which would make a difficult launch from Market Bay (a surf beach).

 We decided to camp at the excellent Fidden Farm camp site which has a fantastic view...

 ...over the skerries to the Sound of Iona.

 We wasted no time in carrying the boats one by one...

 ...down the dazzling white sand to the...

...sparkling water's edge. We were bound for the magical tidal island of Erraid.