Backblip: Beached

Today we head north-east from Tarvin, to the Shiants, three small islands which lie five miles to the east of Lewis. It’s a lovely day, and we are protected from the big Atlantic swells by Lewis itself.

On arrival we set off on the tender. There is a pebbly beach connecting two of the islands, but only one of us wants to go ashore - that’s me. The captain joins me, the others do a tour of the bay in the tender (three of them land later). The captain and I head in search of the Bothy, there are evidently people here as there are a few small tents (we later see people who are ringing birds)..

Collected by the tender I am given a tour of the bay. There are hundreds of thousands of birds nesting here - puffins, razorbills and guillemots mainly. I take lots of photos of course, a few added temporarily in extras.

I would have loved to have spent more time at the Shiants, but the captain is keen to get ahead of the incoming weather and so we head to the island of Skye, and Portree where we anchor and go ashore before returning for our evening meal.