Expedition 119 - 4th September 2004
Gorten


Having had an awful day the last time we tried this trip, I thought we would try again while it was still quite warm, but it wasn't a sunny morning and the sands were silent once again. There were not so many explorers, partly because some were active at the Moidart Produce Show in the morning, there were seven young participants: Abbie, Alexander, Allan, Christopher, Ritchie, Robin D., and Sarah; with five adult helpers: Becky, Chris, John Evans, Philippa and Sandra and Ellie as expedition dog and stick-finder.

Before we set off there was a short detour to look at a small toad which lives under a piece of wood just inside the churchyard wall.
I knew that several of us were attending the show at Kinlochmoidart in the afternoon so we set a cracking pace to cover the ground quickly. The did pretty well, about an hour and a quarter each way with twenty minutes at the beach and a few short stops and points of interest on the way.


We stopped for a few minutes near Gorten bridge to look at the small pool which had lots of whirlygig beetles swimming around. As we climbed up through the woods quite a few large dragonflies accompanied us, hunting over the track.
The most memorable part of the expedition was certainly the beach, even if the sands were damp and silent. Some of the boys climbed up the dunes and the rest of the party spread out across the shore. Quite near the end of the path there was a fine growth of Stag's Horn Clubmoss, there was even a patch showing the double clubs of spore bodies, but once more I failed dismally to raise much enthusiasm for these fascinating plants. In fact the star of the visit appeared to be a long-dead and rather smelly guillemot which was discovered on the sand and duly brought up for inspection.

John Dye


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