The Wild West Coast
Late October most of the boats stop for the winter season, but I was lucky enough to gat a place on one of the last ones out of Ellenabeich, hoping for some good views of the White-tailed eagles that inhabit this area of Scotland in fairly good numbers.
We headed south down the Sound of Luing past the former slate miner’s cottage that we were staying in, along the southern end of the island before heading across to Scarba and through the Gulf of Corryvreckan. The whirlpool was not running today but it bought back memories of a very memorable early morning trip to the whirlpool on a powerful rib, that was able to enter the pools and more importantly get out of them! More on that in the next post.
Once through the Gulf we headed back north hugging the rugged west side of Scarba and then Lunga before returning past Cullipool on Luing and into Easadale Sound. We managed several sightings of White-tailed Eagles as we skirted the east side of Lunga and Scarba. Shags are numerous around these coasts too. The weather was fine and visibility good as we looked over towards the Paps of Jura on our way out and Ben More on Mull on our way back.
Rounding Scarba with Jura on our port side we were moving through the famous waters of the Corryvreckan whirlpool, today as flat calm and innocuous as could be. As mentioned earlier, I had visited the whirlpool about ten years earlier with my brothers on a tide that was perfect for a white water ride through the whirlpool and rapids of the Grey Dog. The next post looks at this day and the dramatic waters that very nearly put paid to my new Nikon D4!! Luckily I managed to dry it off without any noticeable damage to the electronics, it took three days of slow natural drying off before I got anything from it. I was very surprised and not a little relieved as I had really given it up, particularly as the soaking it had endured, in an obviously not ‘dry bag’, was salt water!!
Red Deer, Wild Goats and Common Seals are all residents of Scarba and add to a sense of wilderness that prevails on these shores.
Once again the visibility was excellent giving fine views both north and south.
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