Expedition 154 - 8th July 2006
Arivegaig

 


A very unusual expedition, with two helpers, two dogs and no explorers at all! This was partly due to the school holidays and a lot of the regulars being away from the district, but a fair share of the blame went to BT, who left me without a working phone for a week and stopped me sending round the e-mail reminders.

Anyway, it was a promising morning so Maureen and Philippa joined me for a circuit around Arivegaig village, a new route for the project. We had Ellie and Cora studiously ignoring the sheep and finding a selection of sticks too good to let us throw.

We were expecting showers but the rain was not troublesome and there was a nice breeze to keep the midges away. We left the car park and walked along the old route towards Kentra village, seeing a small group of dunlin on the sand as we passed. I found a butterfly as we crossed the headland and managed to get a photograph, but credit for its recognition should go to Ellie who managed to disturb it with her paw so that it showed enough detail to be sure it was a Meadow Brown.

We followed a well-engineered sheep track across the salt march and this led us up to the houses at West End. Just where we crossed the stream there was an exposure of what I believe were varved clay deposits from the last glaciation. Once on the road we walked back to the bridge and saw a group of deer on the moss.

We made a small diversion to see some Rhacomitrium hummocks on the moss - possible the oldest plants in Europe - and then carried on past the old standing stone near the MacNeil's croft. We turned left again and followed the side road down to the bridge and then walked down the river.

This is a delightful part of Arivegaig, with ash trees along the river and the grass close-cropped by the sheep so that it looks like a park. We took out time going down the river side and crossed the slippery gravel at the shallows by the car park. Without the explorers, it turned out to be a very quick trip, but I'm sure a bunch of younger eyes and ears would have detected more items of interest. Let's hope I have a phone by the next expedition.

John Dye


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