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This was our first visit to the Camus Choirce croft for a
long while; we won’t leave it so long again. We had
eight explorers: Alexander, Daibhidh, Fern, JJ, Maighsi, Roanna,
Robbie and Rowan, plus five helpers, David, John, Kate, Mairi
and Sharon. No dogs this time in deference to the expectant
ewes.
We all managed to park next to Donnie’s house and set
off down the track towards the shore. The sheep watched us
go by with a certain degree of suspicion and decided to move
to the other side of the field. We carried on down and followed
the path past the house right down to the shore where there
were two boats pulled up. Almost immediately we were off again
along the shore since I had seen that the tide was well out
and we managed to cross the dry sand and reach Eilean Mor,
the big island.
We had never been able to reach this island in the past and
I was keen to see if we could locate an otter den since I
knew someone doing research on otters who needed fresh spraints.
We found lots of otter runs and even a possible den, but only
Kate found any spraints and they were unfortunately too old
and dry.
However, there were lots of other things to find, several
small sea urchin shells were collected. I got everyone on
a small hillock to get a picture and we rather quickly went
back to the sand and crossed back to the mainland.
When we got back to the field we climbed through a sheep fank
and crossed down towards the beach, stopping to examine a
piece of bog oak by a drain. I explained that a section of
it had been sent away for analysis and it was over four thousand
years old. Unfortunately it was now drying out and wouldn’t
last much longer. We carried on to a bigger fank and crossed
to an old house by the shore where everyone was pleased to
stop for a wafer break and, this time, something of a sing-
song.
After the break we climbed into a little wood and found the
remains of a small hut with an old cauldron nearby. I first
saw it years ago and thought it might have been used by a
witch; but Donnie had told me they used to keep a pig there
and the pot was for its food.
We cut through the wood to the shore were some interesting
stones were collected and then made out way back following
the river, noting the goose droppings on the grass.
The sheep had been moving around trying to avoid us and when
we got back to the field, they were all right next to us again,
this time with a baby lamb, which had been born since we started
the expedition.
We followed the path back up to the house where we saw the
base of the old Lister generator, which was used before the
power lines came in. Fortunately the lady at the house came
out and let us cross the bridge so that we had a quick route
back to the cars.
Not everyone was able to get to the Blue Parrot, but I got
three good pictures. I picked out Alexander’s view of
a big fallen tree on the island with many of the explorers
climbing in the branches.
John Dye
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