Expedition 236 - 31st July 2010
The Forsy Track

 


The conditions were monsoon-like and I really didn’t expect anyone to turn up – how wrong I was, the cars kept on arriving and we finally had nineteen people and two dogs. The explorers were Benjamin, Billie, Calum, Ewan, Davie, Frederik, Jonathan, Marie, Matthew and Thomas, with Andy S, Christina, Christophe, Joanna, Mark D, Pamela, Philippa, Rupert and Simon, ably led by Ellie and Huzal as expedition official dogs.

I had planned to go to the high ground, but it was too wet and cloudy so we covered the old track from Glenuig to Forsy, parking by the pier and spending some time negotiating the dodgy gate. The track is rather rocky to start with and then became a matter of pushing through the bracken, so the smaller members were good and wet in the first ten minutes. However, the path was mostly firm and easy going.

I visited the track a month before and I was most keen that everyone should see yet another primitive plant, this time Selaginella growing beside the path. There were also butterwort and sundew and the explorers were told how these plants trap insects since there is so little nutriment in the peaty soil. As we reached the end of the track, Ben and Tom found a fine group of chanterelles, which were rapidly transferred to a plastic bag.

Finally we came to the Forsy Caravan Park and walked through for a short distance, where I pointed out two old caravans with clerestory roofs. We negotiated the gate and reassembled on the main road where we soon got a fine view of the big waterfall in full flow. The expedition paused for a while at the site of the old Forsy cattle grid and then moved down to the shore at the mouth of the Forsy Burn.

The sea was the main attraction of the expedition as far as Ellie was concerned and she spent a lot of time at the water’s edge watching the boys skliffing stones across the waves. While we were having our Tunnock’s wafers, two dolphins were seen between the shore and Goat Island, the first ever seen on an expedition.

Then it was a long wet walk along the road back to Glenuig, with some wild flowers and a few birds to relieve the monotony (including, unfortunately, a dead siskin on the road). As we neared the pier, we all saw a seal resting on a rock just offshore.

Back at the Blue Parrot, some imaginative drawings emerged. I have picked out Ewan’s nice sketch of the seal on its rock in the rain. I regret that the conditions were not right for an expedition photograph.

John Dye








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