Blogging at 22:00 on Wednesday 22nd May from intended overnighting spot N 56.89517°, W 05.85972° / http://maps.google.com/maps?q=loc:56.89517%2C-05.85972
Things to remember:
- Cold and windy today, but at least the ship ran. It's apparently often cancelled because of adverse wind / tide combinations.
- Dolphins swam with the ferry for a couple of minutes on the way over to Rum.
- Rum was by far the least inhabited of the Small Isles I've seen. Once out of the harbour-bay town of Kinloch there were only two more dwellings as far as I could see, and both uninhabited.
- In spite of it, the vanity castle and mausoleum were as incongruous as they were impressive.
- Roads were all just dirt tracks laid over a bedding made of large stones. In many places the dirt had just worn / weathered away (pic). It made for 'interesting' cycling. It really needed at least 50mm nobbled tyres, and front suspension would definitely have been worthwhile. I didn't have any of those, which was one of the contributory factors to an unpleasant downhill stack. Painful ribs are my greatest concern.
- Red deer are all over the island and form a long-term study sample for Edinburgh University.
- The topography and flora were massively different to the other Small Isles I visited and were mainly upland peat bog. I suspect different geology.
- Notable bird species were greenshank, whimbrel and a small flock of golden plover. The bay at Kinloch was especially good for birds and looked like good otter territory, too. It was nice to hear eiders calling here.
- Got very, very cold on Rum and on the way back mainly had to stay inside the ship to avoid problems. Even so, on one brief trip outside saw a close-up Arctic skua. Result.
- Late finish, especially as I had to clean and tend injuries.
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