CDrive At Rest

C Drive Moored

Hannah and Eve Bronze Duke of Edinburgh

Today, 21st April 2012, Hannah and her good friend Eve, set off on their practice expedition for their Duke of Edinburgh Bronze Award

They are walking along the shores of Loch Garry towards Kinloch Rannoch with a nice over night camp.

The Start of Hannah's Bronze Practice

Wednesday 11'th April 2012

Up early to catch the tide and to make the most of the weather window before we have to go home.

Took C Drive around to Arisaig and then up to Morar.

Have a look at these:

Easter Monday 2012

As the weather was very wet this morning and the tides were not favourable, I decided to take the dogs for a walk and shot these;

Did you know that Scotland has it's own caribbean  island??

All images and video copyright Keith B Fergie NO image or video element may be used without permission

Easter Sunday 2012

As High Tide was at 0730, it was an early rise to see to the dogs and to see if there was any possibility of some sea time as the shipping forecast for the rest of the week is looking phish.

The good old lovable unpredictable nature of the Scottish weather saw a very grey start to Easter Sunday 2012

In the far distance you can just make out the Southern tip of Skye. The wee hill to the right of the bay is known locally as Monkey Island.

The origins of why Monkey Island is called that is lost, but I suspect it's because that is the favourite haunt of the teenagers at night!!

With Scot's Mist aplenty on the hills, the sea scape was looking reasonable especially as the wave hight had dropped

So warmed with a cup of coffee and 4 layers under my dry suit, C Drive and I headed up the coast towards Mallaig. Not sure that the nautical equivalent of the saying "The bear went round the mountain to see what he could see" is but basically that's what I did. Took to sea to see what I could see!!

Just up the coast and a very pleasant run before the wind and waves is Morar. 

The approach from the sea takes you up the River Morar and round into the very sheltered bay that gives the imposing Morar Hotel stunning views westward.

It's not easy to shoot a photograph while helming in a wee swell!

The return journey eventful was the weather took a distinct turn for the worse as per the forecast. It was a scuttle back to home mooring and a most welcome coffee for despite 4 layers, a dry suit and a hat I was chilled to the bone.

It's 11.30 am and I've had some great ribbing, taken (in my view) some nice photos, updated the blog and my good lady wife is cooking a full Scottish breakfast followed by Choc Eggs!!

Happy Days!!

Even in the rain and mist,the crag is a thing of beauty. The rain brings out the green to stand against all the other drabness.

Cathy, who is very arty & crafty dropped in with an Easter present for Liz. Alas Cathy is camera shy so the only image I was allowed was of her hand made bag:

The Easter present was an exquisite hand made and decorated card box containing grapefruit soap.

The detail is fantastic with the raised relief

So with the weather being miserable, I decided to take the dogs to the Silver Sands of Morra for the afternoon

Traigh Golf Course is a challenging course at the best of times but in this weather only the very brave venture out

The weather was so bad when I passed that the golfers had abandoned their game and rushed for the shelter of the club house or a local was buying a round!

Because the beach at Morar is so sheltered, even in all the rain, a young lad finds a use for a snow shovel

To try and give you an idea of the sheer scale of the Morar sands, the Morar hotel is the white building topish right and the wee dots along the water line to the left are people and yes those are rain drops on the lens!

Looking west out to sea

The only real colour apart from the stunning sliver sands, was the splash of yellow from the gorse.

A couple of large sail kites being flown in the gathering dusk, taking advantage of the marching winds blowing in from the sea.

A Very Busy 2nd Day of the Easter Holiday

As the weather had calmed down, the first order of the day was to launch our rib which is called C Drive. For those in the computer trade the name might be obvious, but for those who are not, C: is the first addressable hard drive of a PC :)


High tide was at 0640 so the whole operation was over and done by 0900!

C Drive moored at Invercaimbe

Hats off to Liz who not only managed to extract the Disco and trailer after launching the rib, but she managed to reverse manoeuvre the trailer, unhitch it (the trailer is very heavy) all on her own and on her very first time of doing this!!

The weather closed down and with without any water, ribbing for this part of the day was over :(

Returning to the caravan, we discovered that we only had battery power. I spent probably an hour testing all the cables, in, out and shaking them all about but to no avail.

Luckily, a good neighbour, Drife who is a motor engineer had a volt meter that would allow us to test all the cables and connections etc to hopefully trace the fault. Alas said volt meter need a battery. So off to Mallaig where I went to very single shop from the garage to the Spar and everything in between . Much head stratching and locals saying "Aye, lad you'll no get one here" we had to admit defeat.

Drief called over on our return proudly announcing that he had found a spare so the hour in Mallaig was totally wasted :(

We applied all our man logic to try and trace the fault but to no avail. We called in Terry, a retired Sparky, who listened to our man logic diagnosis patiently and without testing any thing, pronounced that the fault was most probably with the Neutral. We asked how he knew and he just tapped his nose.

"Watch this" said Terry and he poked some of the Blue wires. "Try it now" Terry continued and it worked!!!

So the old Scottish saying of "A wee wiggle works wonders" was proven true again!!

By now it was lunch time or perhaps later but here time seems to stand still except when the Sun Goes Over The Yard Arm!!

Liz decided it would be good to take the dogs to Camusdarach beach. This is where they filmed Ben's Beach Hut scenes for the cult film Local Hero staring Burt Lancaster.

This house has stunning views over beach towards Eigg. Rhum and the South of Skye.

Camusdarach Beach is smooth wind swept affair looking towards Skye with very little in the way of shells (read Cowrie Hunt for Liz) but lots and lots of room for the dogs to run and run and run some more!

Dogs were puggled after this wee walk

Wonderful to see an impromptu game of football on  Camusdarach  beach

A lovely way to end a truly delightful visit to  Camusdarach  Beach:

Once again, Liz is hunting for her missing marbles, sorry Cowries!!

All images and text copyright Keith B Fergie @ 2012

Visiting Triagh Beach Good Friday 2012

A cold and damp visit to the beach provided some great entertainment. While Liz Fergie was hunting for cowrie shells, I took the dogs off for a wander to the shore.

I am pleased to report that Liz was successful in her Cowrie Hunt!