Wednesday, December 19, 2007

Last supper on Mull


Mike had caught more mackerel and we enjoyed our last meal together on Mull here on the beautiful sands of Traigh Gheal, on Erraid. David demonstrates the size of the one that got away from his hook.


For the last time we carried the boats up Fidden beach. This was almost the first time that we had to carry boats from the low water mark. Up until now our daily schedule had been dictated by the tides and we tried to launch and land round high water. However, a new force was gradually reentering our lives, which was even greater than the force of the tide. Some know it as the "daily grind" and for us it was embodied by the Calmac ferry timetable...


The MV Isle of Mull docked punctually at Craignure and our expedition to Mull was all but over.

21/07/2007

PS
I have now been posting about our Mull trip since 20/7/2007. I hope you have enjoyed this virtual paddle with us and that, if you are able, you will one day paddle on these amazing waters yourself. :o)

Mysterious nocturnal "goings on" on Lady Isle.


The recent weekend weather in the West of Scotland has not been particularly conducive to sea kayaking. However, this week has been blessed with a high pressure system resulting in light winds, clear skies and hard frosts. Suffering withdrawal symptoms on one of the shortest days of the year, David, Gavin, Harvey, Tony and myself convened at the Ballast Bank in Troon on the Firth of Clyde. Our destination was Lady Isle which is only 4km away to the south west. Rumours were circulating of mysterious sounds, which locals had heard drifting over the bay from the direction of the island on still nights! We were set to investigate and report back to you, the reader, our findings.

How, may you ask, did we get caught out by darkness on such a short trip? Well we saw no daylight whatsoever. We set off at 8pm which was some four and a half hours after sunset! The temperature then was a reasonable -1.5C but when we returned at 10:30pm it had dropped to -5C.


Navigation was no problem due to the regular white flash (every two seconds) of the lighthouse which is situated in the middle of the island. This was built in 1903 in place of an unlit stone built tower. There is a smaller stone beacon nearby, which was built in 1776 at the same time as the stone tower. The Ayrshire ports were hazardous for sailing ships to enter in strong SW to NW winds. In these conditions ships could find safe anchorage in the lee of Lady Isle by lining up the two stone towers.

The night was clear with a near threequarter waxing gibbous moon. Mars, Orion, the Plough and Cassiopeia were prominent overhead but apart from the flash of the light, the island itself was just an indistinct shadow. As we approached we became aware of a curious bellowing and groaning coming from the island. The source of the mysterious sound was soon discovered. This is the mating season for grey seals and it proved to be in full swing. In the darkness we could see little of the actual events but the sounds were quite self explanatory. After a particularly prolonged roaring between two bulls, the defeated seal made off into the sea with a great splash. To Harvey's great concern he swam straight for us. To the recently defeated bull we might appear as slim and attractive newcomers that might succumb to his needs and desires (all 800lbs of them). We behaved as unseal like and as unfemale like as we could. Neither did we wish to rekindle his fighting spirit by giving more than a passing glance at the shadowy figures of the harem of females waiting for the master.

Last night we fortunately returned to shore as mere observers of, rather than as participants in, the ancient rituals which have been acted for countless generations under the winter moon on Lady Isle. Kayako intacto as they say.

18/1/2007


This photo shows Troon South Beach on 20/10/02. Last night we launched from the distant point. You can just see the lighthouse on Lady Isle at the left of the photo. There is a yacht to its left.

Monday, December 17, 2007

The Moa of Mull


Unlike the moai of Rapa Nui, which all turn their backs to the sea, the great moa of Mull faces resolutely towards the west and the open sea. This mimetolith can be found on the pink granite rocks on the coast of Eilean Dubh which lies to the west of Erraid.

21/07/2007

Sunday, December 16, 2007

The right shade of white.


Our last day on Mull was spent investigating the many stunning white shell sand beaches on the south coast of the Ross of Mull and Erraid.


Both these beaches are called Traigh Gheal. This is not particularly surprising since most Gaelic place names are simple descriptions. In this case, the English would be "white beach". Of course, the Gaelic is much more precise than the English. There are several Gaelic words for white that are commonly applied to places: gheal (geal), bhan (ban) and fionn. It's got to be the right shade of white.

21/07/2007

Thursday, December 13, 2007

The bonfire of Fidden.


A driftwood fire on the Fidden foreshore.

At the end of a long day to the Carsaig arches, which are evidence of Mull’s volcanic and fiery past, we made a bonfire with driftwood, which we had collected from one of the beaches on the Ross of Mull. It was one of the best bonfires, ever. The well seasoned wood was dry and it produced only a little, pleasantly aromatic, smoke. We were untroubled by that frequent bonfire scourge of Scotland, the midge. Our last night on Mull was spent swapping kayaking tales and malt whiskies with a German sea kayaker.

20/07/2007

Wednesday, December 12, 2007

A tale of lamb chops, coal, caesium, sand, fog, wind mills, government and the environment.


One of my favourite launch spots on the Solway Firth is Dhoon shore on Goat Well Bay. Today I learned from BBC News that SEPA (Scottish Environmental Protection Agency) are investigating the sands for any evidence of radioactive contamination from the Sellafield nuclear plant on the other side of the Solway.

I have no strong feelings against nuclear power but I do expect the operators to run a tight ship and there have been lots of careless lapses both in the UK and elsewhere. There are areas of the Ayrshire and Galloway hills (north of the Solway) where sheep and lambs are still not fit for human consumption due to radioactive caesium fall out from the Chernobyl disaster in 1986.


Elsewhere today, 5,000 Shetland sheep have been slaughtered and buried. They were intended for export to England in the autumn for lamb chops but a government research lab leaked foot and mouth virus. The resulting restrictions on animal movement meant they had to stay on Shetland and now there is no pasture left to feed them.


Now it is not sheep but the wind that is farmed in these hills. Despite the government's recent enthusiasm for wind turbines (and there is a huge offshore development currently being constructed in the Solway) I cannot see that these will meet all our energy needs. Monday dawned in Scotland under clear cold and windless skies.

Cycling through the wind farm in the foggy but clean air of Sunday brought back memories of the smogs of the 1950's caused by burning coal for our energy needs. Of course all the cheap Chinese manufactured goods that are flooding into western Christmas stockings have been made by burning coal but that's on the other side of the world. Isn't it?

Tuesday, December 11, 2007

Fidden sunset


After returning to Uisken we loaded up the kayaks and drove back to Fidden on the Ross of Mull. We arrived just as the sun was setting.


One of the cottages in Fidden was momentarily bathed in this beautiful warm light...



... until the orb of the Sun sank below the distant rocks of Iona and the gathering darkness of night wrapped around us.

20/07/2007

Sunday, December 09, 2007

Wind turbines on Windy Standard


The weather has not been particularly conducive to sea paddling this weekend so Tony and I decided to go for a little bike run in Galloway instead. We planned to cycle over Windy Standard, a 698m hill in the Carsphairn Forest.


The clear sky of the morning gave way to mist and sleety rain. As we climbed through the clouds we heard a "whoosh whoosh whoosh" long before we saw the wind farm. It was quite surreal cycling along at above 600m in height with 36 turbines all round us. Windy Standard currently generates up to 21.6 megawatts but another 30 turbines are planned. My legs could have done with some of that power.


We got up to 685m which was above the snowline. Bob the dog had never seen snow before.


We needed to stop for a breather, below the cloud line, after a white knuckle descent.


We did 31km and ascended a total of 940m in just under 4 hours. I was quite pleased with that!

Saturday, December 08, 2007

Friday, December 07, 2007

Exsisto paratus on the Ross of Mull.


It was a long paddle back from Malcolm's Point to Uisken. We stopped at this deserted and unnamed white shell sand beach.


There was not a hostelry in sight. We had to wash our freshly caught mackerel down with what ever refreshment we had to hand. Exsisto paratus.


We did not want the day to stop so we took a little detour past Uisken, through the skerries, to Ardalanish Bay.


We turned back from Ardalanish as the sun began to sink in the west.



The skerries of Uisken are such a maze, it is unlikely you would ever retrace your wake.



20/07/2007

Wednesday, December 05, 2007

"I'm at the Arches"


Carsaig #1 from Carsaig #2


Carsaig #1 from the sea.


"I'm at the Arches."


Even the great Carsaig Arches are dwarfed by the scale of Malcolm's Point. mind you if this is the size of his point, what size was Malcolm?

20/07/2007

Tuesday, December 04, 2007

Carsaig Arches, Mull


Not far from the great slab of Leac nam Leum, there are even greater wonders of Mull's volcanic past.


The Carsaig Arches are now high above the sea but during the last Ice Age, when water levels were higher, Atlantic swells surged through the arches.


Hexagonal basalt columns teeter on top of layers of lava.


In turn the lava layers are interspersed with layers of volcanic ash. The ash is very soft and can be picked with a fingernail. As you can see, wave action is undercutting the basalt by wearing away the ash. One day, probably quite soon in geological terms, the whole lot will come toppling down.

Might I be presumptuous and recommend that you visit the Carsaig Arches sooner rather than later?

20/07/2007

Sunday, December 02, 2007

Look before you leap.


We landed on extremely slippy green boulders at the foot of Malcolm's Point.


Mike is dwarfed by the scale as he casts a line from Leac nan Leum.

We were unprepared for the huge scale of Leac nan Leum, a great basalt slab, which stretched for hundreds of metres. This was testament to the violent volcanic past of the island of Mull during which, huge volumes of lava spilled down from the Ben More volcano. Even today, after some 50 million years of erosion, the lava fields are up to 1.8km thick.

Leac nam Leum is Gaelic for Slab of the Leap....


At its eastern end, the slab is riven by a great chasm over which one of our ancestors is reputed to have leapt while being pursued by an army of dreadful giants or some such terror.

Tony, who did not have the same constraints on his time, made a more measured judgement and, after a long look, decided not to leap.

20/07/2007

Picture problem in Blogger

Since November 30th there has been a problem with the way Blogger displays large pictures when you click on the small picture embedded in the Blog page. Blogger are aware of the issue and Blog authors can fix it by editing the html references to each picture on each page. If you have your own Blog, the explanation of how to do so is here.

I have now fixed my pages of 30/11 and 1/12 and I hope the Blogger team will have the issue resolved soon.

Saturday, December 01, 2007

Howling wolf rock (not the blues).


Shortly after leaving Uisken we passed "howling wolf rock". Rocks whose shape looks like something else are called mimetoliths. This mimetolith is the only grey wolf we saw on our travels. The wolves were native to Scotland but the last was exterminated in 1743.


We gathered the most wonderful seasoned wood from the top of one of the beaches. We filled all the hatches of our kayaks and took it back to Fidden beach which had been stripped bare of firewood. It was to provide the best sea kayaking fire we have ever enjoyed but it did not need to frighten off any wolves. The farmer's dog was quite unafraid of fire and made off with half of David's tea.

20/07/2007

Friday, November 30, 2007

Uisken to Malcolm's Point


After our circumnavigation of Iona we were looking for a more restful day so we ran the kayaks by car along to Uisken on the south coast of the Ross of Mull. We were bound for Malcolm's Point a mere 11km along the coast to the east.


Making progress along the first part was somewhat difficult given that there were deserted white shell sand beaches round every corner.


When we rounded Rubha nam Braithrean the bay opened out and Malcolm's Point lay before us.


As we approached, we were dwarfed by the scale of the cliffs. Layer upon layer of volcanic ash alternating with basalt lava flow soared over 300m above us.

20/07/2007

Thursday, November 29, 2007

End of a perfect day on Iona


After leaving Iona Abbey and Martyr's Bay Restaurant and Bar David and Mike headed straight back across the Sound of Iona for Fidden. Tony and I decided to do a little more paddling and found this amazing cave (complete with white sand beach) on the SE of Iona about 21:30hrs.


On finally leaving Iona, we took a last detour via Tinker's Hole. We eventually returned to Fidden at 22:30. We had covered a mere 34km but felt we deserved a rest.

19/07/2007

Wednesday, November 28, 2007

An Iona fishergirl


Leaving Market Bay on the Ross of Mull, we paddled back towards Iona in the still of a perfect summer evening. We passed the lovely hamlet of Kintra at the mouth of the Sound of Iona but the tide had now turned and we had to fight the increasing flood current which was flowing against us through the Bull Hole. This is a narrow channel between the Ross of Mull and Eilean Nam Ban. Ahead, some basking seals ignored us, they could see we were making almost no progress. We then ferried over to the island side and on across the Sound of Iona.


We landed below the village just as the last ferry departed with its load of tourists. A little local girl, sitting with her father in a beautiful white clinker built boat, asked “Is that a sea kayak?”

“Yes it is” I replied.

“I would love to do that” she said, wistfully.

“Well you very lucky, you are in the right place for it.”

Her dad then said “Aye, she likes the sea; she’s been helping with the lobster pots today.”



19/07/2007

Tuesday, November 27, 2007

Munching Mull mackerel in Market Bay


After Mike caught some mackerel, we needed to find somewhere to land. There can be no finer land fall than Market Bay (Traigh na Margaidh) on the Ross of Mull.


Straight out of the sea into the pan and fried with a little salt and dill; what a feast!


We also had time for a swim and some climbing on the granite torrs before heading back to Iona.

19/07/2007