Well life seems to be full of trips out at the moment. It's another lovely day today, so another trip. For a change this time Pam came aswell. I think that this was mainly because no walking was involved.
The RSPB had organised a boat trip to see the breeding sea birds around the cliffs at Deerness including going into a couple of sea caves. It had originally been organised for a couple of earlier dates but was postponed each time because they need really calm weather.
We met down at Sandside bay in Deerness where Sydney the boatman has his house and boat. A lovely place next to St Ninians Chapel. The chapel was up for sale a couple ofyears ago and Barbara looked at it when she was thinking of moving up here but it was eventually bought by a group of people from Deerness (The friends of St Ninian), and is now used for the community. I am sure that this is better than turning it into another converted chapel for housing. It seems to have given a boost to the Deerness community and they are very active now.
Anyway, back to the plot.
There were 3 boat trips and we were on the second one. there were about 10 people aboard the boat and when I saw where we were going I understood why we needed perfect calm weather.
The boat cut across the bay to the base of the cliffs and went in very close, dodging rocks both above the surface and just under the water for most of the time. (On occassions like this you just have to believe that the skipper knows what he is doing.)
Sydney, the boatman was very good, not only did he manage to steer the boat safely into many very risky looking places but he was a mine of information about the coastline, the geology, the wildlife and the people of Deerness.
He took us right into The Gloup.As you can see, the entrance is very narrow and normally there is a good swell so it would be a bit dicey if it was not perfectly calm.
I have seen The Gloup from the landward side and it is an old sea cave which has had most of the roof collapse leaving a deep,narrow inlet which is accessed through an arch that still remains from the cave roof. I did not realise that the cave still goes a lot further back than you can see from the top. Sydney took us right in with very little room on either side of the boat at the entrance and then through The Gloup and into the cave at the other end.
This photo is coming back out of the cave into The Gloup under a little waterfall so it was "hoods up" for everyone.
It was a bit reminiscent of the boat trips round Blue John mines in Derbyshire. It feels really unnatural being in boat in the pitch dark inside a cave.Then it was back out into the Gloup, through the arch and out to sea again.
I was surprised to see that in the three sea caves that we went into there were shags nesting on ledges inside the back of the caves where it was almost dark. As we approached they just slid off their nests and dived under the water. I suppose it is a really safe place for them as all the predators hunt by sight and you can not see a nest in a cave from up in the sky.
Round the cliffs by Mull Head there were Black Guillemots, razor bills and a few puffins nesting.Some of the guillemots have a spectacle marking around their eyes and according to Sydney, who knows everythi, the further north you go the more of the birds have these markings. The day is not wasted. I have learnt something.
Finally we returned to Sandside bay where we had started from but on the way we went close to some skerries where there were a load of seals and some pups.
As always seems to be the case, there had been some killer whales in Sandside bay the previous day, presumably looking for careless seals or pups but of course there was not a sign of them while we were there. Pam is normally dead keen to see some killer whales but this time she decided that she did not want to see any fish that was bigger than the boat that she was in. (For Barbara, my pedantic daughter. I know they are mammals)
When we landed, Pauline, who organised the trip asked if I wanted to go on a trip to Westray on the 12th. I considered this carefully for 2 seconds or so before saying yes but Pam chickened out as there was a fair bit of walking involved.
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