A wee night out
I am faced with a choice. It is late June and the summer afternoon is beginning to wind into early evening. The sun is slipping silently into it’s long descent towards tomorrow. I say long descent because this far north and at this time of year the days are long, with barley a smudge of darkness blended between the evening and the dawn. The choice that I am deliberating over is do I also roll into my end of day winding down activities. Do I head indoors, make some dinner and settle down watching the evening unfold through the window. Or do I shove my sleeping bag and tent into my drybag and grab my board for a night of exploring and sleeping under the stars? I say deliberate, but the internal debate lasted barely a heartbeat before I found myself loading up the camping gear and pumping up my board.
Boards ready, we headed south out of Craobh Marina. Glancing up at the rocks of Eilean Arsa, I caught fleeting movement of large wings out of the corner of my eye. Maybe it’s a gull or even a heron I thought. We watched and waited. More large wings silhouetted against the sky and as we watch the imposing outline of a white tailed eagle appeared. It took a couple of turns around the island before a handful of leisurely wing beats took it soaring south along the Sound of Jura. Effortlessly covering the distance that we were planning to paddle in mere moments.
Brimming with post-eagle excitement we continued on our journey south past the Lunga Estate. Wending our way past gently rounded rocks of the coastline occasionally disrupted by intrusions of vertical rock jutting out like castle battlements. We spotted a flat and dry looking spot which turned out to be a cracking campsite, perfectly lined up to watch the sun set between to small islands accompanied by the gentle sounds of a calm sea.
We awoke to a calm and peaceful morning. The sort where it feels as though the world holding it’s breath in a moment of pause before the day begins in earnest. We packed our campsite quietly so as not to disturb the world from her slumber and slipped silently back out onto mirror calm water. The morning sun was already gathering some warmth as we arrived back at our launch site. The world was only just beginning to wake up. I greeted an early morning dog walker and wondered if they could guess for my smile where I had spent the night.