Continuing on, I came to the RSPB Reserve on Coll. Here I stopped riding on tarmac or even through rivers, it was a track through a very sandy/ grassy area.
At times it was quite hard to ride as Bumble was fairly heavily loaded and his tyres would cut down into the sand and it was easier to get off and push. Don't tell my cycle mechanic that Bumble's been across sand dunes, beaches and left parked up by salty sea spray.
This is Hogh Beach and is a wonderful place. The beach is massive and you can only see a tiny portion of it here. I didn't have time to go further down, and couldn't turn my camera that way to photograph it due to a near gale force wind, that was carrying a perfect storm of near horizontal mix of sand, drizzle and salty sea spray. I would like to return here and spend sometime here on a nice day, it looks a fabulous place to take photographs.
Walking on, and the high sand dunes gave way to to more open grass and wild flowers. This is a hot spot for Corncrakes, related to Moorhens etc, they have become very rare or absent from most of the UK. They are very secretive and very well camouflaged but the males constantly make a very loud, strange, far travelling call, up to 3,000 times a night !!!
There are lots various ways of spelling its call, but you are probably best searching for it on-line and listen to it yourself.
I could hear numerous birds calling, some closer than others but couldn't actually spot one. Time was getting tight and I finally gave up and put my camera away. Out on to the road again I suddenly saw a tiny black ball of fluff run across the road. It was a baby Corncrake !!! In its first few days of life. I then saw two more adult Corncrakes cross the road. At least I had managed to see them.
It was then a mad dash past the airport and back to the village of Arinagour, called in at the B&B to collect the rest of my panniers and down the hill just in time for the ferry over to the Isle of Tiree.
I arrived there early evening, and upon finding my hotel and checking in was informed that they stopped serving food in 30 minutes. Rushed upstairs with all my panniers, unpacked, plugged in phone and camera batteries, bath, changed and back down for excellent food.
It wasn't a quiet night though as there was a party of 24 locals celebrating a 50th birthday.
To see what happened next, click on the link below.......
http://365project.org/markp/365/13-06-2017
