Lovers' Rock.

Tonight we’re camping on The Cambir, a protrusion that looks vaguely phallic on the map and the furthest extremity of Hirta. But first, we went past the Lovers’ Rock where one of our guides posed for us. I blipped it last year – but without the victim; he didn’t perform the ceremony - had he attempted and failed, there really wouldn’t have been any point in trying to collect the pieces, the 800 foot drop would have done much damage, and anyway, the rocks below would have not have been accessible. As I reported last year, there is a Youtube video of the ceremony which allegedly also took place at the Mistress’ Stone at the other end of the island and mentioned yesterday, though the evidence for this is rather slim.
 
We then moved on to the Tunnel where we observed that the 20 tonne boulder that had fallen from the roof during the winter 18 months ago had simply washed away! I had hoped for some pictures of the skuas in action on the way there, but they were rather laid back this year though we found quite a few chicks looking like small fluffy grey footballs – all of them in time to avoid treading on them.
 
On to the camp site, and another scary walk up a long steep grassy bank with little in the way of foot/hand holds and not even a sheep track to follow. Meanwhile, this year’s lambs were playing “tig” just to taunt us. The point  of the exercise was to capture the stunning views at sunset and sunrise, both of which failed to materialise; but I was impressed by the view of the cliffs that epitomise the islands; this final extra is looking south east towards Dun. From up here, it was blawin’ a hoolie which made pitching tents difficult and sleep impossible, though in did calm down in a little during the small hours.