Dolphins

Its been a few weeks since my last blog and you can take from that the fact that I've been very much enjoying my summer! The weather has been patchy but the days are long and there's been enough sunshine to get out and about for adventures and I've certainly been doing plenty of that, with both of my favourite sidekicks - the four and two-legged varieties!

With kids school holidays lasting just shy of seven weeks, Harper's schedule needs to be carefully planned, lest she spends all 49 days completing YouTube and officially merges with her mattress, so a spreadsheet is created and circulated, in which all manner of fun activities appear. A week at each set of grandparents (go to my in-laws for some structured play and learning, go to my parents and get to spend the week doing whatever you want and eating fifteen breakfasts a day), a week at of summer school at a science centre, a few days of Gym Juniors, some Wild Outdoors, a handful of playdates with friends. In among those planned events, I block days out of my calendar and we find new adventures to engage in!

Last week was one of our best! I picked her up from a class on Tuesday afternoon and we drove for three ours from East coast to West, stopping for dinner on the way and arriving in our B&B on Loch Linnhe, in the village of Onich, in time for a cuppa, a bit of practice with the binoculars and a story before bed. The binocular practice was important. I'd use my trusty monocular to identify something out the window of our room and instruct Harper to find it with my binoculars and answer some questions on it. What colour is the car? What does the numberplate say? What's written on the sign? As is so often the case with kids, she picked it up quickly and we put the kit away and got tucked in for a good night's snooze ahead of an exciting day.

In the morning we headed north to Fort William for breakfast (pancakes for the golden beansprout, full Scottish for me), noodled about some of the cute little shops (picked up some lovely wool from the Caledonian Wool Company for her next crocheting project and a book each from the bookshop) and then drove south for 90 mins to a tiny place which could barely be called a village, called Clachan Seil, where our great voyage awaited us.

I had booked us onto a trip with a company called Sealife Adventures, in the hope of seeing some interesting creatures and we were not disappointed. Skippered by David and with wildlife commentary from Lisa, the little 12-seater boat headed into Balvicar Bay and were almost immediately greeted by a pod of Common Dolphins! Harper was very excited and I was EVEN MORE excited! Then we ventured further out and saw some chubby Seals chilling out on the rocky beaches of a small island and bobbing in the sea.

Further into the sea, we passed Luing (the largest of the Slate Islands) and ventured towards the passage between Lunga and Scarba. On the beaches of Scarba we saw some feral Goats sunbathing (there was a suggestion that the Goats had been introduced to the island to prevent the sheep who were farmed there from falling off cliffs. I'm not convinced that's true but Harper loved it!) and some Red Deer up on the hillside and a Heron passed nearby the boat. Anyone who knows me will likely have heard about my obsession with Herons, so needless to say that was (almost) my highlight...

White Tailed Eagles are four times rarer than Golden Eagles, with only around 130 breeding pairs in Scotland. I'd seen a nest (known as an eyrie), once, from a significant distance on a small island overlooked by a campsite we stayed at a few years ago called Sheildaig. I stared at that island for what felt like hours, desperate to see one of the pair heading out to catch its dinner, but to no avail. Here, however, sitting on a rock between Lunga and Scarba, awaiting the return of their mother with supplies, we saw two beautiful specimens, totally unperturbed by our little boat puttering by! All large birds are impressive, but Eagles are magnificent. They look incredibly cool. Powerful and dangerous. That moment was worth the price of admission alone!

We then ventured out to the Corryvrechan Whirlpool; a feature which apparently isn't technically a whirlpool (and which I'd first heard of because Ardbeg named a whisky after it, which won the world's best whisky in 2010). It's hard to explain what it's like, but I can absolutely understand why sailors have feared it for hundreds of years and why so much lore surrounds it. Lisa told us a great story of the Norse King Breacan and his attempts to woo a local maiden there. It ended the way you'd imagine it might.

Despite challenges with the lens caps, she was a dab hand with the Binos!

On the way back to the pontoon, we saw some jellyfish flopping past and finally, a pod of Porpoises (they're very dinky and cute, not what I'd expected) and then experienced a final performance from the Dolphins to wave us goodbye before we headed home. Overall, it was an absolutely magical trip and one I would HIGHLY recommend. Harper loved it, with her equal highlights being the Dolphins and the mug of hot chocolate that Lisa gave her! Her finely-honed binocular skills meant that she was able to pick out all sorts of interesting things to look at and even alerted our fellow sailors to the presence of a lone Seal floating along. She was very pleased with herself!

Common Dolphins saying hello!

A dinner stop at Tyndrum on the way home and a beautiful drive across the country as the sun set, capped off a perfect day. One day off work might not seem like much, but it is amazing how restorative it can be when you spend it in the right way. The scenery, the fresh air, spending time with my tiny bestie and introducing her to the recorded works of Big Country as we drove across Scotland. Seeing the majesty of the natural world and being reminded that there's a whole lot out there beyond the reach of our arms. It all combined to leave me full of energy and ideas and the passion to get stuck in and bring them to life.

View from the roadside, looking over Loch Lubnaig

I only hope that whatever you're doing with your summer holidays, it's bringing you as much joy as that day brought me!