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Showing posts with the label Hebrides

Ten days on Zuza - 16th June - an evening in Lochaline

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Many of the residents of St Kilda were evacuated to the small village of Lochaline on mainland Scotland, and so Neil had thought it appropriate for us to spend our last night on Zuza moored up to the jetty in this rather strange place. We came into Locahline around 6.00pm and, needing to stretch our legs before dinner, Alan and I had a walk up the shoreline as there is a footpath that goes all the way around the edge of the loch. The plan was to meet at the community bar for a drink before going back to the yacht. The path had a steep bank on the landward side, thick with vegetation. The high bank and vegetation disguises a very large silica dioxide (SiO2) mine which has been here since 1940, producing high grade silica for optical glass. The mine closed in 2008 but reopened in 2012 and so mining still continues today, There were some relics of past times along the side of the footpath. We retraced our steps and walked the other way towards the pub and found that we were next to more m

Ten days on Zuza - 16th June - more time on Eigg

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We had another good night on Zuza. If anyone suffers from insomnia I can greatly recommend living on a yacht. Masses of fresh air and the gentle rocking motion certainly worked for me. Although I am not sure that any weather but the windless heat wave we were experiencing would have had the same effect. We had noticed a tern colony on an island opposite the bay where we were moored. In the morning Neil took a few of us in the tender over for a closer look. We could not really get as close as I would have liked but here are some tern pictures. I am not sure if they are common or Arctic terns, both species are very similar. They were wheeling over the rocks where there nests must have been but did not seem to find us too threatening, such graceful birds. A rock? pipet An oystercatcher We then went back to the main island and this time walked west from the pier over a headland to try and get a closer look at the caves on the southern coast. Again cliffs stopped us getting down to them but