The area North of Ardnamurchan around the Small Isles is riddled with lochs, bays, and islands to explore. We had a few days planned with friends joining us, so sailed from Arisaig back to Loch Moidart, the tricky entrance to which is always repaid by sensational views in this intricate and varied sea-loch. Sun and warm breezes made our further explorations all the more pleasant, albeit the sailing rather slow; the profusion of hills, mountains to climb and open wilderness had whet our collective appetites to cover some miles ashore.
The yoga deck, Loch Moidart
The first expedition started at the improbably beautiful ruins of Castle Tioram before heading up into the hills above Moidart, a tremendously varied landscape bursting with history, and the remains of several old settlements. After saying a sad farewell to Ella, we were keen to further explore Rum, in particular the impressive-looking Cuillin Ridge, to make the most of the incredible weather we were having (not to be confused with the considerably more arduous Cuillin Ridge on Skye). We enjoyed a gentle sail back over to Rum - an excellent way to persuade our somewhat reluctant new crew member Claire that sailing doesn't necessarily need to equate with vomiting!
Further exploration of Loch Moidart hills with Ella and Claire
Loch Blain above Moidart
With Marcus rather laid low by hideous lurgy, Claire and Hazel headed off to tackle the ridge in glorious sunshine. Although certainly a much less daunting proposition than its Skye neighbour, the route still makes for a long day, but with interesting scrambling and incredible views along the way. The hot shower at the Rum Bunk House and dinner waiting on board Contour was extremely welcome after some 10 hours on the hill!
Kinloch Castle on Rum - slowly falling into a state of disrepair
One of the many ups on the Rum Cuillen Ridge
Claire finding the hardest possible route to ascend by
The Bothy at Dibidil on Rum
Further explorations of Rum included a run/walk out to the other side of the island to check out the bothy at Guirdel Bay. Having rather optimistically assumed there would be a linking path between the two footpaths actually marked on the map, it is perhaps not surprising that the middle section of the route turned out to be an 'interesting' foray through heather, bracken and loose rock! However, Guirdel Bay was a wonderful place to explore and hopefully somewhere we'll get back to in the future with provisions for an overnight stay.
Bothy at Guirdel Bay
Looking down over Guirdel Bay
On a still evening we left Rum to motor South to the Bay of Laig on Eigg, to revisit this spectacular end of the island. About half-way across we noticed a great line of trails in the water which turned out to be a 'super-pod' of common dolphins making their way North a few hundred yards away. Before we knew it they were playing around the boat, leaping free of the flat sea, and generally showing off. Having seen dolphins reasonably frequently, this was no normal sighting - they swam with, around, and under Contour for the best part of an hour, providing a spectacle surpassing anything we had seen before! We eventually turned back towards Eigg to anchor just in time to enjoy a spectacular sunset behind Rum.
Enjoying the sunset behind Rum from the Bay of Laig, Eigg.
As we were minding our own business at anchor a voice was heard astern; this turned out to be a chap in a Kayak. Whilst on holiday in the nearby bothy, he had painted a scene of Contour at anchor in the Bay and had very kindly decided to paddle out and give us the picture! Happily there was a frame in the guest cabin that we had yet to personalise and this very unexpected gift has therefore made a perfect addition to the boat.
The next stop was Gallanach bay on the island of Muck; we enjoyed a smooth and quite fast reach South from Eigg and sailed to anchor in this shallow, confined but well sheltered bay. By this point we were doing a reasonably good job of persuading Claire that sailing might not be so terrible after all! Exploration ashore enabled a late hill walk, a sunset swim and the discovery that there is an awful lot to like about this, the smallest of the Small Isles.
Gallanach Bay
Gallanach Bay - who needs the Bahamas?!
Aird nan Uan, the promontory West of Gallanach Bay
Beers in the evening sun (Marcus's beard is getting particularly out of control!)
Exploring Muck
Looking over Eigg from Muck
Evening at anchor in Gallanach Bay, Muck
Our (now really quite urgent) need for Diesel meant the next stop had to be Mallaig, a busy fishing town with a small marina to the North West of the Small Isles. We enjoyed the fast down-sea reach past Eigg and got to Mallaig in no-time flat. However, in the back of our mind was the need to re-unite Claire with her car in Arisaig and the resultant requirement to bash our way back in to the wind to get there! With fuel and an excellent Mallaig lunch obtained, we set out for a further fast and exhilarating sail South. Marcus was unfortunately stuck to a keyboard for much of the afternoon having to deal with 'stuff' and grateful for his extremely tough stomach. As the wind started to regularly gust to 24 kts Marcus had to be disturbed to assist with the inconvenient task of reefing - Claire not particularly loving this part of the trip! 30kt wind against tide off the entrance to Arisaig was the final cherry on top of this rather less than idyllic sail, unfortunately undoing much of our hard work in persuading Claire that sailing is more than just a relatively inconvenient means of moving between mountains to climb! There followed what has become somewhat of a practised routine of hiding in Arisaig whilst the weather cleared.
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