Another Otterly Fab Day

What a cracking last day of the holiday (if you don’t count travelling home as a holiday day, or the fact I’m also off on Monday). The wind has dropped, the sun has come out, and waking at 7.25 there was no reason not to pop out on the bike. I headed out to Gallan Head, which is a former RAF base, but now owned by a community trust. The area there, and at Aird before the cljmb, is a weird mishmash of stone buildings and wooden or metal huts, and a mess all over the place. But it’s intriguing, and gave a great start to the day (and, naturally given I didn’t take the big lens, I heard a Cuckoo, and saw a White-tailed Eagle, en route).

After that it was a walk along the Mangurstadh cliffs, finding the stunning bothy built there as a memorial by the parents of a woman killed when working as an aid worker in Afghanistan. Even finding time to play with a dog called Magnus, who arrived with a couple of local lads out on a walk. The location is amazing, and must be a truly astounding place to stay.

But the day got even better. We headed out to the Carnish headland, intentionally at low tide so that Mel could carry out a Capturing our Coast survey on a rocky outcrop you can only get to for a few hours each day. With kelp forests all around us there was, in my mind, a hope of finding some otters. And while I was taken with watching a seal just off the rocks… Two otters appeared just in front of it. It wasn’t the lengthy encounter we’d had on Ardnish on our last day on Skye, given they both saw me, but they were still curious enough to stop a few times and take me in.

We were even treated to a couple of (very very) distant White-tailed Eagles soaring as we scoffed a couple of rolls.

Time still for a quick trip round to the Uig Museum (as Mel sat in the sun at the house reading), coming home with a chessman (it had to be done), and then a (sort of) triathlon completed, as the kayaks were blown up, and we took to the water for the encroaching high tide in the bay. Such a good way to round things off. Well, if you then don’t count the cracking dinner with a nice glass of red and the Masterchef final… Hoping for a clear night for some star trails as well (and it appears I inadvertently caught a faint aurora last night, with another planned tonight - not as dramatic as shapes dancing in the sky with twilight never quite disappearing at night this far north, but enough for an interesting green glow).


Yeah, that’s all rounded off pretty well.