Almost the first nice expedition day of the year, the weather
was great, and no midges. We had a good turnout, too, with
eight explorers: Alexander, Alistair, JJ, Katie, Maighsi,
Parker, Roanna and Roscoe, plus five adults, John B., John
Dove, Kate, Liz and Sunny and two dogs, Brambles and Finn,
both on their very best behaviour.
Maighsi and Roanna had a strenuous expedition since they cycled
from Acharacle to Arivegaig before we started. In fact, most
of the team turned up at the Arivegaig car park and I was
surprised to see so many.
It took a little while to get everyone prepared and many explorers
had to be called back from the bridge since this was not the
route they were expecting. We crossed the salt march to the
shore and followed it all the way round to West Arivegaig
where we went back to the houses along the burn and then walked
down the road to the cars.
We don't cover this route very often, the last time was in
October 2009, but there was plenty to look at on the way.
The first things I pointed out were some scratches on a flat
rock made when a glacier had passed over. Parker was telling
me about a neighbour who had a sea pink growing in a pot and
flowering nicely. Most of the sea pinks we saw were past the
flowering stage but there were still a few to be seen, as
well as the first asphodels of the season.
There were lots of lugworm burrows on the shore and several
crabs were trying to run away from the disturbance. We found
quite a few sea shells and at one point there were lots of
oyster shells dating back to oyster beds in Kentra which might
have been laid down over a hundred years ago.
We stopped for a break on some nice smooth rocks and ate our
wafers, assembling with some difficulty for the expedition
photograph, many of the boys were off exploring on their own
account and had to be called back. Our only problem came when
we approached the stream because there were quite a few sheep
where we wanted to go, so I gave them a wide berth by crossing
the salt marsh. This was easy at first but later it was tricky
because of a lot of wet channels we had to cross. We were
lucky to get away with one wet boot and one welly almost trapped
in the ooze. JJ found two animal burrows but neither of the
dogs seemed interested so I assume they were empty of dragons
or other wild creatures.
As with last time, I watched the sky hoping to see and eagle
but we only saw gulls and oystercatchers and one rather alarmed
snipe. Eventually we reached the burn and made a perilous
crossing without loss.
The rest of the expedition was rather less interesting, being
on the road, and all of the explorers having important activities
in the afternoon, it was only John Dove and myself who reached
the Tearoom, so no drawings this time. We got two photographs
but I prefer the one where everyone was trying to sort the
dogs out.
John
Dye
|
|