Then it rained!

Sunday in Machrihanish was quiet. A few golfers were on the course and we walked past some nice ‘links’ houses to the beach around the corner.

There we disturbed a herd of wild goats who put on a fence jumping display, with the coolest of the lot ambling along and effortlessly clearing the bar.

I found plenty of washed up rope for my collection of ‘useful bits’ and we loved the mix of rocks and deep sand.

Later we walked for two miles north along the main beach, which is alongside the dunes separating it from the airport, although nothing seems to happen there in these sad CoVID19 times.

Someone has already been here...

All good things come to an end and as predicted by the Met Office app a few days ago, it started to rain in Machrihanish on Sunday night.

We had already decided that rain or shine, we would move north. However very wet rain is troublesome and we had to do as much prep as possible the night before. Actually ‘moving off’ with our setup only takes about 30 minutes but you can get very wet in that time.

The bbq was packed away in its grab bag, one of two that I took to Japan in 1991 (that’s detail for Mark Moore 🇯🇵), the firewood box was inside too and nothing left to make a wet start more difficult than necessary.

At it happened there was a dry slot around 9am and we ventured out to the showers and got packed away in the dry.

We visited Tarbert on the way north and had a coffee and bun in a harbour side café. It’s a very picturesque place. Apparently it was handed to the Norwegian King Magnus Barefoot in 1098 after he managed to ‘sail’ around an island of his choice.

In this case it was the entire peninsula, around which he ‘sailed’. His men had managed to pull him across the narrow bit of land at Tarbert, from Loch Fyne to West Loch Tarbert, whilst he remained at the helm of his ship!

Back in the 110, we turned off the main road and headed west along the northern side of West Loch Tarbert and then around to the north into Knapdale and Loch Caolisport.

We headed for a pull-in overnight spot as indicated by one of our ‘apps’ that are good for this sort of thing. We found it, although it was rather soggy, right next to a rocky beach and miles from anyone else. The ground would cut up easily if I were to spin the wheels on exit but we decided it was worth a try.

The rain was relentless and we couldn’t go outside at all. The heater was on and we carried on regardless. Chores take time and simply dealing with wet stuff, as well as eating and chatting, fills the time.

Unfortunately a tiny water leak manifest itself and it became a ‘serious’ problem. A modified plastic milk container acted as a bucket to catch a steady drip from a specific place. It was more than half full when I checked it in the early hours.

In the morning it seemed a little less stressful and anyway, it wasn’t a bad place to stop.