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Colonsay - a voyage and arrival

Last Wednesday we drove from one side of Scotland to the other, to check in at the ferry port in Oban, for our trip to the Hebridean island of Colonsay.  It was a perfect day for the two and a half hour crossing.

As we travelled towards Colonsay, the long mountainous island of Jura ran along on our port side, but ahead we could see smoke rising from Colonsay, which was reminiscent of our last visit, when a large area of moorland was on fire.  A repeat performance, which, I discovered later, was a planned burning off of heather which became unplanned, and got a bit out of control!

Here is the first glimpse of cottage, home for a week.
On the other side of the burn from the cottage there is a lovely reed bed, still sporting last year's stems.  The birds enjoy the cover they provide, including the elusive corncrake, whose grating call I could hear, but with no sign of the bird, who likes to keep itself to itself!  Good to know it was there, though. 
Once we had unpacked the car, put all the cold stuff in the fridge, and lit the woodturner, we went for a walk along the track which passes the cottage and continues on and up to the top of the hill. There were wonderful views across the island, to Jura and Islay to the east, 
and away to the west, there was nothing between us, the sea and Canada! 
 Beautiful views, setting the scene for our week on Colonsay.

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