Blogging at 21:30 on Friday 17th May from intended overnighting spot N 56.39876°, W 05.34257° / http://maps.google.com/maps?q=loc:56.39876%2C-05.34257
Things to remember:
- It was a sad farewell to Tiree. Spent the last hour there on machair watching dozens of ground-nesters ground nesting. Also the machair here supported more brown hares than I've ever seen anywhere.
- Random Tiree facts: it's the largest Scottish island to be totally rabbit-free and is apparently the sunniest place in the whole of the United Kingdom.
- The CalMac boat serving the Inner Hebrides is currently the MV Clansman. It was clean, well staffed and had lots of nice touches like baggage stowage and hand hygiene points; it even had recycling facilities on board. I had a long, hot shower on it, too. Top marks.
- On the flip side, there was some drama in the Sound of Mull when all of a sudden it dropped an engine and all the onboard electrical power went down. We had to wind and head for deeper water on one engine whilst the engineers did their thing. A huge billow of black smoke from the starboard stack half an hour later indicated they'd managed to restart the stalled motor and all then returned to relative normality.
- Once back on the mainland. I managed to squeeze in a totally spontaneous trip to the island of Kerrera using what is probably the smallest ferry in the entire CalMac fleet (pic). Spent two hours walking on the island in searing heat. It was pleasant enough but nothing like Coll and Tiree for wildlife.
- Headed back to Glen Lonan to overnight as I found it so enchanting on the way up. It's just so very pretty.
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