Blogging at 21:15 on Sunday 29th December from intended overnighting spot N 55.62223°, W 06.21527° / http://maps.google.com/maps?q=loc:55.62223%2C-06.21527
The wind got stronger and stronger overnight and by the time morning rolled around it was genuinely difficult to open the truck's cab doors. I'd intentionally faced the cab into the wind to keep overnight buffeting to a minimum (a trick we learned many years ago) but it can make cab door entry something of a challenge. It almost makes the case for a crawl-through!
We've mainly bumbled today with no real destination or purpose - other than to try to pick off some casual wildlife sightings. To that end we've spent quite a bit of time looking over rocky shores for otters but with no luck. We have, however, seen good numbers of brown hares and a handful of roe deer (a bit unusual to see after spotting so many red).
An extended lunch saw us managing a short and extremely wind-buffeted run each, and thereafter we bumbled to the south of Islay where we plopped fairly naturally into the spot we're now intending to kip.
We've had a walk out from here and taken in the Carraig Fhada lighthouse plus the initially slightly incongruous Kilnaughton military cemetery.
The cemetery is very well maintained and its boundary walls form what seems like a perfect square. The initial incongruity strikes because there are only a very few headstones dotted around seemingly randomly, leaving large tracts of land free (pic).
The information board, however, makes everything clear. I'll post a picture of it as a random image...
No rare or unusual wildlife sightings from the camp but there have been a few grey seals and I spotted a lone gannet to add to the trip species list. Residents hereabouts have mentioned locations where we might see both white-tailed and golden eagles, so tomorrow we'll give those a try.
Sent from my mobile device