Eigg time at a Kildonnan camp

This image, taken on our ascent of An Sgurr, shows most of the way down - across the moor then down through farmland and woods to Galmisdale which is to the right of the pier.  We went down quickly even though we were sweating profusely in the afternoon heat. We passed a couple of other parties on the way down, who must have wondered what all the rush was about......

.....until they arrived back at the Galmisdale Cafe and Bar and found us resting in the shade with containers of chilled sports recovery drink!  We felt that the level of dehydration merited two such containers apiece, after which we headed over to our boats, unpacked and pitched our tents.

Camp established, we wandered back to Galmisdale.  As well as a cafe and bar, there's a shop, a craft shop and information hub plus toilet and shower facilities and an outside tap to fill water containers. There's free wi-fi in the immediate vicinity of the building which is very useful for obtaining up to date weather forecasts as mobile phone coverage is somewhat patchy here. The toilets and showers are accessible 24 hours, there's an honesty box with a suggested donation for use of the showers which we were very happy to pay.

We collected a couple more sports recovery containers prior to the shop closing and walked back around to our camp.

The old part of the harbour has some craft moored up which have definitely seen better days.  Remarkably, the old passenger launch still floats, rising on each tide before settling back at low water.  The lines of this launch looked familiar, it was only after returning home and reviewing my images that I realised she is (or was) an Admiralty Harbour Launch Diesel (HLD), similar to this one.  A design which remained unchanged for decades, the HLD's were timber built, 52 foot launches powered by a Foden FD diesel engine and were used for transporting personnel around dockyard ports - I must have travelled on several of them over a period of time.

Mike and I spent a most pleasant evening at our camp.  Dinner was cooked and eaten, accompanied with the previously obtained sports recovery drink with a view across the Sound of Arisaig to the hills and sea lochs from Mallaig to Ardnamurchan.  A north easterly breeze picked up again during the early evening, keeping the midges away nicely.  We voted to postpone a decision on the following day's activity until the morning weather forecast and simply took our ease, enjoying the situation and the view.....we were operating on "Eigg time"!