Blogging at 21:00 on Wednesday 1st January from intended overnighting spot N 55.59944°, W 05.14232° / http://maps.google.com/maps?q=loc:55.59944%2C-05.14232
We were lucky enough to spot the same white red deer at first light. This time we managed to get closer so could see it appeared to be a hind. There were also two other red deer with it, one other hind and one stag.
From that point on, the day's essentially been spent leapfrogging between outlooks over rocky shores / seascapes. Emma was determined to do her best to spot a daytime otter but, once again, concerted efforts have resulted in a fail.
There was plenty other wildlife of interest to be seen, though, and amongst it has been common seals, little egrets, treecreepers, redwings, and a great spotted woodpecker.
We've pretty much done all the roads of Arran now and our initial impressions proved reliable. Civic pride is obvious and even today, a bank holiday, public toilets were being cleaned and public litter bins had fresh liners in them. Impressive!
We're close to Brodick now and hoping to sleep at the spot shown. It's another forest track chosen for it's proximity to the port for tomorrow's early sailing (fingers crossed). It also helps that we're extremely unlikely to be joined here (pic).
One bum note to end the trip, the blown-air diesel heater has always been a bit temperamental, but, by the same token has never let us down; in spite of almost 14 years in regular use. Well, it has now. It's fully failed and is currently refusing to be be coaxed back into life. Of course, we're OK for now as we still have the gas heater, but I can see this malfunction occupying a fair chunk of life over the coming weeks.
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