Expedition 337, to the Arivegaig Shore, 25/7/15

 

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











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