puffins en iona

After my usual walk waiting for Liz to wake up, we decided to go to Iona for the day. I had a lovely morning, as I climbed up a small deer path, and came upon a whole group of deer grazing on a little patch of grass and shrubs that lay cosily between some huge boulders.
One thing I was very sad about was the fact that the Puffins, the beautiful bird on the picture, had already departed to wherever they depart to after raising their young. I would have loved to see this awesome bird with my own eyes!
But for now we were on our way to the small slipway in Fhionnport, where the short crossing to Iona started. It was quite a way, and we started early, after of course a bit of lip from Liz, who just is not an early riser, but we managed to get away by about eleven thirty. We had to drive all around loch Scridian, then loch Beg, passed Pennyghail and a lot of other small villages, all so pretty, and the landscape quite unbelievable!
We eventually came to Fhionport, where a group of happy kids were playing in the street, careering down the steep road in a homemade car made from old kist planks. It was a sight to brighten up everybody's day, as in present times kids just can not play anymore, well, they don't want to actually, as they get their excitement from the horrible computer games!
The wind was howling around the corners of the building from where we had to get tickets for the ferry, and the very nice man told us earnestly to please hold on to our tickets, as they have a lot of accidents where the wind blew the tickets from people's hands, and away over the sea. We thought he was joking, but when we got down to the slip, we knew that he wasn't joking, as the wind screamed through the small patch where we had to wait.I was a bitty scared, as the sea was angry! Big waves pushed themselves up from the depths, roll with amazing strength towards the land, then break with a huge splash and a loud roar over the slipway, and self was trembling like a jelly! Scared!
People were starting to arrive, and according to their rolling eyes and anxious peeps at the angry sea, they were as scared as me.
When the ferry arrived at last, I could see that the passengers emerging from the small ferry were all looking a bit rattled, their faces pinched and worried, but as soon as their feet were on land they relaxed, and started talking excitedly, maybe to camouflage the fact that they had thought back on the ferry, that their last hour had come!
When it was time for us to embark, everybody was holding back a bit, self and Liz included, and watching the different face expressions, it was evident that we were all unsure of our own sanity!