Framedlight

After a good night on the quay in Castlebay we had some time in the morning to explore. Grosia was delighted that there was a supermarket available as she had not been able to buy any provisions for a few days. We were delighted too that she could maintain the standard of her galley wizardry. We spotted this chip van which was obviously named after our daughter Mairi! The moorings in Castlebay. Zuza is parked at the back on the right with the tallest mast. Neil had planned a trip for us around the islands south of Barra. Vatersay is attached to Barra, just, and after Vatersay is a whole collection of differing sized islands and stacks called the Barra Isles. Our main destination was Mingulay on the far south of the chain. We were to travel down the east side of Barra and Vatersay to the south coat of Mingulay and then turn north and look at the more exciting western coast of Mingulay. Here there is an impressive array of tall sea cliffs, 213 metres high, once thought to be the tallest ...

We were still staying near Stackpole, so the Monday morning saw us again at Stackpole National Trust car park. We parked at the far end by the picnic grass so we could pump the inflatable kayak up. It is not a light object and we had a good 500 yards to carry it down to the water's edge. It was to be Hettie's first excursion in it and she got herself thoroughly wet in the sea before settling on my legs in the craft. We had to take the spray deck off of the kayak to accommodate her, so we were slightly concerned that the sea might get up. I took the Fuji XE1 in a plastic bag, set on a fairly high ISO to combat the movement of the kayak. The limestone cliffs and caves in this area were really worth taking. I have 'grunged up' a number of the pictures to add to atmosphere. The first ones are selfies before we get to the more interesting bit. You can see how comfy Hettie is. Getting the kayak, heavy with water back to the car proved difficult, but we were helped by a ch...