Oronsay

The weather was brilliant (even though the rest of the UK was being lashed with storms and flooding) The "strand" between Colonsay and Oronsay is so shallow we could cycle across at low tide!

Colonsay

After a few days cycling on the mainland, we headed over to Colonsay and Oronsay (by Calmac ferry) with our bikes for the weekend.   Both are heaven for birders, with corncrakes croking seemingly from every meadow one passes. Great place for picnics too.

Ardfern

Back for a few days at Patrick and MAs "bothy" at Ardfern, with its fabulous view over loch Craignish....

CalMac

Lovely CalMac ferries take kayaks for free.  When Tom zoomed off to hitch a lift back to our car, 2 burly CalMac staff arrived to help me get all our stuff off the ferry, and the supervisor even came along too to make sure they did it right!

Port Askaig

Arrived Saturday afternoon and asked hopefully in the hotel for a room.... Unsurprisingly (as it was the long Jubilee weekend and the last day of the Islay whisky festival) they were full, but amazingly they took pity on us and let us bivi in their lounge!) We tethered our kayak beside their lawn and tucked into a wonderful meal.

To Islay

Continued gently down the West coast, past strange "easter island" rock formations to Port Askaig.  Crossing the sound of Islay needed careful timing, bacause the current is much too strong to paddle against, but even though it would be with us later, we had a slight head wind and didn't fancy the wind against tide effects.