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I expected this to be a long trek and it turned out to be
very hard going. We had ten explorers: Benjamin, Alasdair
C., Edward, Dawn, Faith, Fern, Grace, Robbie C., Rowan and
Thomas with six adult helpers, Andrea, Claire, Johnny, Howard,
Pamela and Sharon, with Ellie and Honey helping to drag people
up the hills. Dawn, Faith and Grace were 'new' explorers and
this was a difficult one to start on.
At first I thought it would be a poor turnout, but the Salen
crew turned up just as we were leaving Acharacle and there
were two cars waiting at the top of the Causeway Track. We
made good speed to the causeway but I had some misgivings
when I saw that the tide was high. This meant those of us
without high wellies had to make a strenuous detour round
the first point.
Before then, however, we had found the old mine and several
explorers had a good look inside and got fairly muddy since
it had been raining hard during the night.
Once we had got around the first point we carefully crossed
the slippery stones at the top of the beach and walked through
the first of many patches of high bracken which became a feature
of this expedition. It didn't delay us and we were soon at
Aultigil, looking at the ruined house with lots of fireplaces.
We carried on towards Egnaig along the forestry fence. The
boys were in front finding a path but when they said it was
impassable we took to the hills again to get around the block.
This got everyone good and tired and we hadn't even reached
Egnaig yet.
Finally we regained the path and continued to the stile where
we paused for pictures before getting ourselves and our dogs
over, Honey making heavy weather of it again. Then we pushed
through the another lot of high bracken to the first old house,
where we stopped for a few stories.
We hadn't had our wafers yet, but I carried on and, after
a brief stop at the tiny graveyard, we entered Egnaig proper.
The growth of vegetation put me off and, failing to find a
stone house, we finally stopped for our break under a big
oak tree, which most of the boys climbed into.
All too quickly we were back on the move, finally finding
a series of old stone houses, most of which were almost hidden
in bracken and brambles - it's best to visit Egnaig in the
winter. We found a nice grassy slope in the woods, which a
lot of explorers still had the energy to roll down.
Since the tide was high, I decided to go back over the hill
and it was a very tough climb back to the top but finally
we could see the road and the causeway track once more. Unfortunately
I had forgotten there was no convenient stile, so the boys
spent some time looking for a Honey-sized hole under the forestry
fence. With the dogs under and the rest of us over, it seemed
just a stroll back to the cars.
It turned out to be very hard going indeed, and eventful too
since we needed the first aid kit before the day was out.
But we all survived and even our injured explorer managed
a lunch at the pantry, although there were few able or willing
to hold a pen at that stage.
John
Dye
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