Just when we thought it could not get any better, we came to Eilean Chalabha

It was with some reluctance that we left Port Ban on Iona's west coast.

Our course now lay up the NW coast of Iona and it was not long before we spotted...

...the Treshnish Isles on the horizon.

I really could not believe how benign the conditions were. This is my fourth visit and it is not always like this. On my first visit it was so windy we had to stay in the Sound of Iona and though the second visit was in light winds there was a huge swell and we had to stay well out the whole way round and could not land.

As we paddled north we began to catch glimpses of distant Ben More on Mull then we caught sight of...

...Donald waiting for us on Eilean Chalbha (calf? island). The tide was running strongly over the...

...shallow sandy bar and it was a surreal experience paddling hard against the flow in just a couple of inches of luminous green water.

Then we were through to the deeper water of the north coast beyond.

Some stink over the sobriquet of a stunning shell sand strand in Iona.

We paddled north across the expanse of Camas Cuil an t-Saimh on the west coast of Iona. This is commonly translated as "bay (or beach) at the back of the ocean" which sounds delightfully romantic and tourist guides love it. However, Roddy (who was the last native Gaelic speaker in our family) said it was much more likely to be "bay with a stink at its back". He said the Gaels were not known for using much romance or imagination in naming places. The word "saimh" is much more often used to mean "stink" than "sea" which is an unusual use of the word. Roddy also said if it was used to mean sea it would be used to describe a fishy smelling sea. Given the huge piles of rotting seaweed at the back of the bays I have a feeling Roddy is right.

We all spotted the splash of white sand at Port Pollarain (Port of the Dunlin) and it looked a great place to stop for luncheon, indeed I had stopped here for such in 2007. However, based on past experience, I had other ideas. I thought I could do better.

 So I led the way through a maze of skerries to the...

 ...simply stunning Port Ban (white port). Despite the beauty of the surroundings, I was initially somewhat disappointed. On my last visit...

...this is what we found. Our caddies had travelled ahead, by a variety of means, and assembled our social and refreshment tents prior to our arrival on this pristine cockleshell sand beach. Why, they had even scoured far and wide for some small pieces of driftwood just so that we might enjoy a little late night incendiary activity.

 On this day our support team had badly let us down and as we paddled one by...

 ...one over crystal clear turquoise water we had to content ourselves not with tents of...

 ...pleasure but with a totally...

 ...empty beach!!! Oh the hardship!

 At first we wandered about somewhat lost but we soon settled down to enjoy a view of...

...unparalleled beauty. As the others tucked into their sandwiches (rather than the hoped for canapes) I even went for a short swim. No wonder St Columba chose Iona, this really is Heaven on Earth.

PS Note the crescent of stinky seaweed at the back of the bay!

Tides, blow holes and rock gardens on the west coast of Iona

 We were now paddling north up Iona's west coast. Grey slabs of gneiss dip into the Atlantic forming...

 ...headland after headland.

 The ebb tide was now running against us and inside Stac an Aoineidh (steep stack) we had to paddle rather hard but...

 ...we were soon back to more relaxed steady paddling until we came to...

...the Spouting Cave which was heard well before we saw it. The cave is a blow hole and was in fact breathing very gently when we passed by. It must be awesome in a storm.

After leaving the booming Spouting Cave behind, we continued along the coast while...

...Donald zoomed off to explore some offshore reefs in his F-Rib.

At Port Ceann na Creige (port of the rocky headland) we came across this beautiful wooden yacht, Wild Rose. We had seen her the previous evening anchored at Tinker's Hole on the Ross of Mull.

I have passed Wild Rose quite a few times on my travels and have seen her moored at Carsaig Bay and also Tayvallich. The owner is obviously a proper sailor. Not only is she beautifully maintained and fitted out but this bay is a rock garden. Wild Rose's davits were empty and her dinghy was by the shore. Talking of which, it was about time we stretched our legs on the shore...

Saint Columba's tears on Iona

On the second day of our trip to the Ross of Mull and Iona we awoke  to a splendid morning at Fidden. Actually we had been awake for some time. There was an order to the ornithological choir that entertained us through the night. The drumming of the snipe had started before we went to bed only to be followed by the rasping repetitive call of the corncrake which was interrupted only by the equally repetitive call of the cuckoo at first light but thankfully dawn brought the more subtle calls of the meadow pipit and skylark. It was wonderful.

 We set off across the Sound of Iona with the Abbey of Iona on the horizon. Iona is a place of pilgrimage for hundreds of thousands each year. Most pilgrims think that it was St Columba (521 to 597) who first brought Christianity to Scotland when he landed in Iona from Ireland in 563. However, this is nonsense as the earliest Christian relic in Scotland is the Latinus stone at Whithorn in Galloway. It dates from about AD 450. Whithorn was established by St Ninian (c.360-c.432) in 395 which predates the introduction of Christianity to Ireland. Columba had been effectively exiled to Scotland after copying St Finian's Latin bible and starting the Battle of Cúl Dreimhne which resulted in  the death of 3,000 people. However, the religious settlement founded by St Columba on Iona went on to serve as a beacon of Christian learning and spread enlightenment through both Scotland and Ireland. Indeed the famous Book of Kells in Ireland which is described as "Ireland's greatest cultural treasure and the world's most famous medieval manuscript" was actually made in here in Iona in Scotland!

Starting in 795 Iona suffered repeated sacking by the Vikings and some monks escaped with the Book to Kells in Ireland. What is less well known is that in 1204 the bishops of Tir Eogain and Tir Connail and the abbots of Derry and Armagh sacked Iona and razed it to the ground as they resented its continuing influence over the church in Ireland and its popularity as a religious shrine for pilgrims. They wanted the pilgrim business for their own shrines so they then spread propaganda that Iona had been a simple satellite of the church in Ireland and this misconception has lasted down the centuries, particularly in Ireland.

Whatever your reasons for visiting Iona you will fall in love with the place as soon as you set foot there. We landed on on this glorious shell sand beach on the SE coast.

We could not resist beachcombing and I was delighted to find two cowries and a small pebble called a "St Columba's tear". It is green translucent serpentine marble. They are quite hard to find these days as every visitor to Iona wants to find a piece.

Ian has the best eye for cowries I know...this was his haul!

It is not just the Iona marble that is green...

...the seas round the dark rocks of Lewisian gneiss are also...

...luminous green.

This pink boulder of Ross of Mull granite is an erratic, brought across the Sound of Iona by ice during the Ice Age. This is not the only place we have encountered an erratic from the Ross of Mull. We recently found one on the Mull of Ross on the Solway coast.

Thy dark grey of the Lewisian gneiss on the...

...south coast of Iona is quite a contrast to the pink granite of the Ross of Mull which is less than 3 miles to the east. We came to a gully where lighter metamorphic rocks have been forced through the surrounding gneiss. This is the Iona marble which was quarried and used in the building of churches across the world. Rusting machinery can still be seen above the rocks.

The complex and varied geology of Scotland...

...is one of the reasons it is so good for sea kayaking.

We had now reached the southernmost point of Iona at Rubha na Carraig-geire (headland of the sharp pinnacle) where...

...we turned to the west and came upon Port na Curaich (port of the coracle). This is where St Columba is reputed to have first set foot with 12 companions on Iona in 563. He reputedly climbed a knoll and looked back towards Ireland. When he had reassured himself that Ireland could no longer be seen he turned his back to that land and settled on Iona where he would atone for his previous sins with a life of piety.

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!