|
This time we kept to the sheltered ground and it wasn’t
one expedition but three, or four if you count the hide. I
thought the previous outing might have put people off, and
it’s always chancy between Christmas and New Year, but
we got a fair turnout, six explorers: Daibhidh, Fern, Isabella,
JJ, Rowan and Zack, with six helpers, Adam, Fiona, John, Kathryn,
Sharon and Simon plus four dogs, Cody, Basil, Bramble and
Fizz.
The wind was in the northwest so I decided on the Sunart Woods
this time and we made several short excursions from the road.
The first of these was at Port an Uamh, Cave Harbour. I had
hoped to go down the beach but once more the tide was against
me, we seem to get very few low tides for our expeditions.
Instead of looking at the diminishing beach we set off through
the woods to find the old cave. The ground was very wet and
I had my doubts, but it worked out well and some of the older
explorers were already familiar with the site so they were
all snug in the cave by the time I finally made it up the
slippery rocks. I gathered everyone round and explained that
in the time when charcoal was being produced, there were boats
calling along the shore to pick up bags of charcoal and also
cargoes of bark, much of which went to Ireland. After a search
we finally found the jagged remains of an old beer bottle
from the Phoenix Brewery, Belfast, and carefully put it back
for the next visitors.
We returned to the shore by a different route and assembled
on a bit of rough ground where I told everyone that it was
the site of the graves of two sailors who had died of fever
and were buried quickly close to the shore.
Then we drove a short distance to the Hide Car Park and everyone
dashed down to see if there were any otters or seals to be
seen. Fortunately there were binoculars available but unfortunately
there was only a solitary merganser in view. We had our wafers
in the Hide and walked back up to the new forestry track and
climbed up onto the hill. The big attraction, for the boys
at least, was a forestry harvester parked on the road, but
we pushed on as far as the rough road went. There was a small
oak wood at the top and later on we will go back to see if
we can find any houses there.
We still had some time to spare so we stopped at Sailean na
Cuileag, Midge Bay, and made a quick visit to the beach to
look at the old stone bowl carved into the rocks. The tide
was coming up and the rain had started so we didn’t
hang about and were back in the hotel before the rain got
really hard.
Once they were in the warm, not everyone was in the mood to
draw, but we still got three very nice drawings. Fern did
a study of the rock bowl at Sailean na Cuileag, Zack drew
the hide and Rowan made a drawing of the forestry harvesting
machine, including an owl for luck.
John
Dye
|
.JPG)
.jpg)
|
.JPG)
.jpg)
