Canna(e) believe it

We booked on an exciting boat trip today, departing from the village of Arisaig. Fairly early doors I was on the bus from Mallaig, whilst Michelle cycled there. We met on the Arisaig harbour front and downed a coffee.

It turned out we were joining a recce sailing to Hyskier, a small islet with a lighthouse that was manned until 1997. This place is quite untested for visitors, which explained some of the confusion of being accidentally put on the ferry to Eigg, and needing to jump onto the correct boat when Michelle flagged the mistake and both vessels rafted together.

Hyskier was interesting as it abounds in birdlife, and the local residents were clearly excited to visit, after always knowing about it. Michelle was divebombed by aggressive skuas when she wandered too close to them. Two seals played in a pool on the islet, surrounded by squawking gulls, and that was a nice scene for me to sit and read for a while.

The boat also visited the cliffs of Canna, Rùm and Eigg and we got close to puffins at the first two, including at this wreck of a French fishing vessel. It was memorable as I think I’ve only seen them once before on Staffa. The trip did an excellent figure of eight route around Rùm and Eigg, so we could appreciate both islands from all angles, as well as enjoying the dolphins and porpoises which are common in these waters.

We drank a mug of coffee and devoured strawberry tarts on the return to Arisaig, and I had an hour in the sun awaiting the last bus to Mallaig.

A great adventure.