The FINish of Mingulay

Coming up the west of Pabbay

David being skooshed

 We'd had fantastic weather for our trip round the bottom, however, the forecast for today was mingin'.  Our plan was to make our way to the top of Mingulay on the east, then across and up the west coast of Pabbay.  As we came to the top of Mingulay, while we were watching yet another basking shark, David shouted out that there were more fins - a large pod of Risso dolphins, how special is that? What a display they gave us of tail slapping and breaching, they looked like they were having a great old time! Just as they went out of sight, through the fast flow came more fins, porpoises this time. Sharks, Risso's and porpoises, all before we'd actually left Mingulay! Wow, David had organised this trip well!

 

We carried on past Pabbay and onto Sandray for lunch, a cold, wet lunch. It was getting so miserable, we were starting to think of a plan B. We cut over to the east coast of Vatersay, passing another pod of dolphins, Bottlenose this time, and had another breather on our first beach. We decided to paddle over to Castlebay, where there was a ferry due in at 6pm. While we were checking on the ferry, that was the first of us finding out about the ferry work to rule. The ferry was coming in, but not leaving until 7am!

David now turned into a "Luvvy" being interviewed by STV news about what he thought of the work to rule, unfortunately, they didn't use it. We still decided to go for the ferry, the weather was getting worse. We pitched the tents in Castlebay and spent a rather enjoyable evening in the pub!
What a fantastic trip we'd had and I'm glad we finished early, rather than carrying on through really cold, miserable, windy, wet weather. We certainly had seen masses, basking sharks, golden eagles, basking sharks, sea eagles, basking sharks, puffins, basking sharks, risso dolphins, basking sharks, minkes, basking sharks, porpoises, basking sharks, bottlenose, basking sharks and basking sharks! 33 Basking sharks and 5 and a half (the dead one) minkes! not bad for a few days away.

1st in line for the ferry

David modelling Sandies new bag!

 Back in Oban, there was only one way to finish off a paddling trip - with a double icecream of course!