Laid down at Bay of Laig

The west coast of Eigg is just as spectacular as the east side, great cliffs providing a backdrop to the shoreline. We had a spot in mind to camp and paddled steadily southward towards it.

A party of kayakers had set up camp on level ground above a boulder beach - a great location with a good view, but neither Mike or I thought it would make a good landing or launching spot with heavy boats, and would be difficult to leave if the swell got up on this exposed coast.

Our firs option for camping was at Camas Sgiotaig, but as we rounded the point which forms the north side of the bay, we became aware of a low but powerful groundswell pushing up the Sound of Rum from the open Atlantic.  The swell was roaring across the reef of Bogha na Brice-nis - which I didn't capture very well in this image.  We were already noting that the swell direction was straight into Camas Sgiotaig when we spotted that a lone kayaker was already camped on the shore above the beach.  A slight concern for the swell combined with not wanting to disturb an idyllic camp for someone else made our decision - we would push on a little further to our second potential camp,with the option to return here if necessary.

A couple of kilometres further on we landed at Bay of Laig in flat calm, the swell wasn't reaching around into this bay.  It had been a long day of paddling, some 36km and nine hours since leaving Glenuig, but what a great day it had been.  We quickly found an ideal camping spot and pitched our tents before the slight breeze died completely and the first midges we'd seen this year came out to play - the warning of the Yellow Flag Iris had been correct!

The houses in the distance are at Cleadale, and I was able to pick out Lageorna, the wonderful B&B which Douglas and I had stayed in on our winter trip.

As the sun set, the outline of Rum was reflected in beautiful shades below a soft cloudscape, just lovely.

We gathered a little driftwood to add to some logs we'd brought with us, and with the use of a Wilcox Ignition Aid(TM) we soon had a fire lit, the smoke going some way to deter the midges. 

We lit the fire well down the beach to avoid any risk of stray sparks igniting the tinder-dry ground; and due to the location of our other camps on this trip it would be the only fire we'd light. Fire lit, sports recovery drinks to hand and dinner consumed, life was particularly agreeable -  the midges even gave up after an hour or so to allow us out of our protective mesh jackets.

Our last view before turning in was the faint afterglow of a sunset reflecting on the wet sand in the late evening dusk.  I was asleep almost as soon as I lay down and slept soundly in this wonderful spot.