A bit of a catch-up, we were completing the expedition we
started two weeks before. The forecast was a bit iffy - they
thought it might rain but I expected it to be dry. What I
didn't expect was a rather warm day, but that hasn't happened
often this summer and we weren't complaining. We didn't have
so many this time: just Alexander and JJ as explorers with
John B, Mairi and Phil as helpers, plus Brambles and Monte
as pathfinders and expert noses.
It took us a long while to get to the Whale Skull and then
we set off along the shore, past a succession of roofless
but very well-built houses. Smirisary must have been a big
community at one stage. A problem I had forgotten about was
the bracken - it was above my head in places and there were
times when it was difficult to follow the path, but we had
the dogs to help us and we soon reached the cave. I have known
this cave for fifty years but it isn't much visited since
it is well back from the shore.
I had one good torch and one feeble one, so the explorers
took the good one and made a full examination of the cave.
It is big and dry and, apart from one bit near the entrance,
high enough to stand in comfortably. We all had a good look
round but we didn't find any cave spiders with black and red
legs this time.
When we got out we started off on the coast path again, but
Mairi saw another cave close by and this turned out to be
even better: it was a tunnel which came out higher on the
hill with a good view of the collection of old houses. A long
time was spent examining it.
We set off again, but, again, I took the wrong route and Mairi
put me right and we were soon back on the well-made coastal
path. I have been told that the two MacDougall brothers of
Egnaig originally maintained the path but they died years
ago and bits of it are now rather tricky. Eventually we got
to the next settlement of Polldhu, where a group of sheep
were clearly rather annoyed at having their quiet Saturday
morning disturbed. We settled down on the warm rocks near
the shore and had our Tunnock's Wafers while the sheep scowled
at us.
After our break, we made our way carefully across the stony
beach and the burn and finally followed the path through a
gap in the cliff. We then reached a point where half of a
previous expedition had taken a wrong turn so I was careful
to get everyone together before we turned right and fought
our way through the bushes and bracken to reach the path up
the ravine.
Some parts of this route are really beautiful and it deserves
to be better known, but the problem has always been at the
top where crossing the burn is rather tricky. This time we
managed to get past the old house, which was once the home
of a champion piper but is now a sheep dipping and clipping
hut. Once everyone was safely past, it was just a short climb
to the gate and the car park before the drive back to Acharacle.
JJ and John were busy so we were a small group in the Tearoom,
which was rather quiet, and Alexander didn't feel inspired
to complete a drawing, so we just have the photo, and even
that was not as crisp as usual.
John
Dye
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