Loch Etive and a night afloat

It was the first time that I had ever slept on a boat and it was a strange kind of experience. Although there was not a breath of wind, I was awakened by a steady shaking motion. I guess when the tide turned after I fell asleep, a gentle swell started to rock the boat. Because its just a small boat, it rocked quite a bit.

Once awake I then started to feel the cold. The clear cloudless sky meant the temperatures fell to freezing and I felt it. There was not a sound to be heard. I pulled back the boat cover and looked around just to make sure I was still in paradise. The time was one A.M. in the morning and it was still light.

The silvery moon helped illuminate the landscape in its eerie sort of way.



The sun was skimming just below the horizon, throwing red shafts of light at the underside of the few clouds left in the sky.



The gentle swell that rocked me awake also distorted the perfect mirror of the loch surface.



When the sun touched the hills at 4.30 am, I was already up and on land. I discovered I had parked the boat in a garden of sea pinks.



I never realised before that they thrived submerged under the saline solution at high water.



Breakfast was very basic. A coffee and some cereal then it was time for a walk along the shore.



If you wonder why I love this wilderness, just take in the beauty of the photos from my morning walk, they don’t really do justice to the peace and quiet of nature on a lovely early summer morning but hopefully you get the idea :-D









Then the silence was broken. I head a heavy thumping noise coming up the loch and wondered what on earth it was. Then the wood carrier came into view. Loch Etive now has a regular large ship lugging logs out by sea instead of transporting them by the narrow Glen Etive road. I decided to follow the logger boat to its source.