It took us a while to discover what do we actually like most or what we would like to do most on this holiday. Well, yesterday we found out. As I said earlier the paddle along the coast of Ross of Mull, however beautiful and stunning it was, was ok. But it was just that, ok. Today was great.
We woke up early as we know that we aren’t the fastest ones to get ready and left Iona by 9am. It was just that we got ready early since strong rain started midway through our packing, and if we weren’t up, we might not got up in the end. The Abbey appeared and then disappeared in a fog and we followed a bearing towards Staffa.
Staffa and Fingal’s cave, visited for centuries by tourists and recently kayakers. The former thanks to Railway Company, the later thanks to its fame and position. We had the pleasure to experience Fingal’s cave while many yellow puffins were watching. Ahhhhh:-)
The rain stopped and the fog lifted just there, and we were granted the view of Treshnish islands, our next destination. Treshnish islands are wonderful, one looks like a sombrero, later we found its name to be Dutch man’s cap, one is flat, one, Lunga, has few big hills, and so they go. We landed at Lunga to have lunch and to listen to forecast. “Strong wind warning, Gale 8 soon” and so on. Again I did not got to go to explore the island, neither we climbed the hill, anyway, we are not walkers, we are climbers turned kayakers. We left, direction Coll.
We were in a bit of hurry, to make it before the “soon” in the forecast. And here, during this crossing it is that we discovered what we like. Island hopping, the excitement of leaving one behind, arriving at another one, that’s what it is. Besides if you can see it, you can paddle there; something we remember from last year, is still on our minds. The Lunga – Coll crossing was entertaining. We saw Treshnish Isles and Gometra, Isle of Mull, a bit of Iona and Coll and far end of Tiree. Later we could see Muck and Eigg, Rum and light house at Ardnamurchan point. Of course, lots of memories came back. And on top of that, we saw a fin. As in black fin sticking out of water and it was Basking shark. Sadly he choose not to come too close, but at least he was there.
This trip was actually full of wildlife. To this date we have seen many gannets, yet, they were always far on rocks or flying high. This time one was flying so low that I finally saw its yellow head, hurray, actually we almost saw eye to eye. Then before Staffa and before Coll we saw porpoises. There were few other animals around, including jelly fish, but those named really made our day. However, no fish was caught and yet again own imported food was cooked.
