Although I cannot remember the details adc and JS are well amused by something I said
We make a note of where we are staying
After a well-deserved breakfast, we head to the east bank of Loch Gruinart. A few hundred metres outside Bowmore, we stop already, however. Not that the car has broken down; we have spotted many birds on the mudflats of Loch Indaal: a large gaggle of barnacle geese, to be specific. *** Hypnotised by the seasonal visitors from Greenland, we somehow manage to extricate ourselves, and continue to our destination: Gortantaoid. We park the car -- some ten kilometres too soon, we discover later. Larger gaggles yet, hundreds and hundreds of individuals, if not thousands, cover the fields and mudflats at the butt of Loch Gruinart. Mostly, they are barnacle geese, punctuated by some white-fronted geese, and whooper and mute swans. We stop every few metres to observe them with binoculars, and are very excited. It is not all, however: sharing the space are little egrets, a few grey herons, curlews, oystercatchers, auks, bar-tailed godwits, and what, in the distance, looks like a merganser. It is, in fact, a female goosander.
Colourful lichens
Barnacle geese
A stream by an oyster shed
A heron hangs out by the oyster traps
Female goosander
...aaaaand she's gone
Not everyone has our refined taste, when it comes to hiking beverages...
After about four kilometres, we realise we are not on the hike we were supposed to take and pull the plug. A happy accident it was: had we parked the car further north, we would have missed the geese, which were amassed on the southern end of the loch.
From the car park, we drive to Port Charlotte, where we stop for a bite at the Port Charlotte Hotel.
adc has the Carrot and Sweet Potato Soup
JS has the Fish Soup
I have Scallops
We round it off with a dram.
Bruichladdich 19yo d.2003 Port Charlotte Hotel (53.9%, OB Private Cask Bottling, Bourbon Cask, C#1377) for me
Kilchoman 9yo Loch Gorm 2024 Edition (46%, OB Limited Edition, Oloroso Sherry Butt, 18000b) for adc
JS has tea (ensues a discussion with the waitress about oat vs. cow milk)
From there, we drive north to Sanaigmore for another hike. It starts at the monument to the Irish migrants killed in the shipwreck of the Exmouth of Newcastle, and is supposed to take us to three beaches. Little do we know that the first one is further to the east, and the second one already in front of us: we do not have the map with us, and are confused regarding where to start -- for the second time today, in fact. Anyway, the second (sandy) beach, Sanaigmore Bay, is pretty, but the intermediary one, of shingles, is wilder and prettier, in my opinion. Prettiest is the sandy third one, Port Ghrille Grimhear, hidden from view until the last dramatic moment.
Monument to the Irish migrants killed in the shipwreck of the Exmouth of Newcastle
Sanaigmore Bay
What we mistake for the second beach
What have we here?
Port Ghrille Grimhear
Still convinced we have seen the first and second beaches despite the evidence, we press ahead for a little, completely lose the track, and trace our steps back, past the huge Highland cow that seems a little less anxious than at the start of our walk.
The traffic is now very bad
We then drive counter-clockwise around Loch Gorm. We never find Kilnave Chapel, nor Loch Gorm Castle. Looking at the picture on Wikipedia, it is easy to understand why: it is barely visible, atop the island it sits on. We briefly see the Kilchoman Parish Church from afar, though adc, who wrote it down as a place of interest, does not recognise it and rules out stopping there, convinced it is a military cemetery with little appeal. We bump into Kilchoman distillery, but it closed thirty minutes ago. We drive to the entrance regardless, and marvel at the countless bean geese and whooper swans in the fields. Some take off in numbers, among them thirty-odd swans, the most I have ever seen in one sitting.
Whooper swans
I cannot not think of Saint Seya's Cygnus
From there, we take the scenic route to Portnahaven (via Bruichladdich and Port Charlotte, since there is no road connection between Kilchoman and Kilchiaran). En route, we spot three deer and a couple of unidentified raptors, but we never find the stone circle of Cultoon, annoyingly enough (it is a day of misses, innit).
The traffic is bad there too
We reach our destination an hour earlier than our dinner reservation. Not to worry: they can easily accommodate us.
At An Tigh Seinnse (The Pub), the landlady tells us there is no langoustine today (another blow, since we have pre-booked a seafood platter that contains it), but they will stack crab, lobster, and scallops to make up for that lack. We order starters to share too.
Fried Scampi
Battered Calamari
As she brings us the starters, the landlady tells us the langoustine man has just arrived, and we will have them after all. Yay!
Fish Pie (adc)
Scallops (JS)
Seafood Platter (me)
We share all our food, which is delicious, if messy. The only complaint is the same as usual: when one eats crab, lobster, or langoustine, one invariably eats cold. So much time-consuming work that lets the heat disappear. Ah, well. JS kindly helps me break shells and extract flesh to shorten the agony. Truth is: we are far from where we are staying, and she would rather not go to sleep later than necessary. In fact, we skip dessert and have a dram instead.
Interesting place. Excellent food, and a mixed crowd of locals, who seem to spend their evening there because it is likely the only place to go, as well as tourists in search of good seafood. In the corner are three Germanophones who turn out to be Luxembourgers we will see again tomorrow.
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