Lagg to Whiting Bay+Brodick July 04+05

The combination of challenging and boring continued today but with new levels of difficult.  Bennan Head and Dippin Head, two large boulder fields, had to crossed.  No, they did not.  There are alternate routes, but it was not raining and the tide was right for both exertions, so I undertook them.  It was V E R Y  S  L  O  W going, especially through the second and larger one. One is warned by the almost useless guide book, "Do not underestimate the time it will take you to navigate these boulder fields." It was not so much scary—well, just a little—as nerve wracking because it was hard to know if you were making a good choice every time you took a step. This was not as beyond all as was Worm's Head last summer, but at least at Worm's Head there were lots of other people around as opposed to none today.  There was no escape route, so once committed, you have to get on with it.  Anyway, stepping, lurching, hopping, jumping, sliding, sitting, thinking, balancing with the poles, cursing the poles when they got in the way,  grabbing, and all manner of delicate (!) footwork got me through the pair, between which and after which there was much jungly stuff like yesterday, too, and it was hot, so at the end of it all, I spent seven hours walking ten miles, a record slow time.  There were two more miles to go to get to the B and B where I almost collapsed on the doorstep, and, to revivify,  immediately bought a sparkling water, with two little ice cubes, from the proprietress.

An odd sighting in a desolate spot:

Lone Tree Beach:

Gateway to the boulder field:

Cave with Yawning Mouth:

That there yonder is Holy Island where there is a Buddhist Monastery and Buddhist monks.  People go there to take meditation courses and that sort of thing:

Swans and cygnets:

This fellow was in my way as there was a stile just there:

AND he had friends!  But they all let me pass probably because they were just too hot to move:

Whiting Bay, 6:45 a.m., parents' morning out:

Look at those ear tufts on this little fellow!

The walk started out on a beautiful path up to a waterfall:

Waterfall:

 View of Holy Island when you are much closer to it.  It looks just like Arran Island only smaller:

The low tide route from Lamlash to Brodick was lovely and the tide was out, so it was all good......until I got near a stile that had to be climbed that was blocked by bovines, youngish frisky ones.  There was nowhere for them to go nor did they have any interest in letting me pass.  "Well, at least there is a high route option," I reasoned, and that route was lovely too. In fact it was the prettiest walking of the whole island.  Get to the top, find the path to descend and in a few minutes, see this:

"Bother," thought I.  "I am not going to be deterred.  "I'll just crawl under those trees:"

After "those trees," it was obvious that the route was no longer a route, and I had no idea what to do.  But who should be coming the other way but a family of four.  They had encountered a similar problem and were just avoiding the whole thing and heading back whence they came, but they very kindly helped me figure out a way on to Brodick, which was not difficult but it was long.  This is how a 12 mile day turns into almost 17 miles.

Would I return to Arran Island?  There were some memorable stretches, but on the whole, not a particularly interesting or beautiful walk, and much too much road walking.