St Kilda Part 2 - the return to Leverburgh

[Gordon Ballantyne]

The first pics here continue from Day one, due to limits on the number of attachments. They're below....

Mullach Bi later in the day photo by Mark Trengove

Mullach Mor & Conachair by Mark Trengove

Cloud returning to Mullach Bi

A wee flock of Soay sheep on Oisebhal

Cleits on Oisebhal

Enchanted Isle lying off in Village bay

Mon 23rd Sept

Subsequently there was a bit of a commotion in the early morn as the "Boreray adventurers " struck camp and sailed off into the mirk.
At daybreak I lounged around the village looking at the WW1 gun emplacement and the museum, where my wet clothes were slowly drying.

The Hirta campsite

Historical pics of the St Kildans in the Museum

Historical artefacts in the Museum

The feather store at the edge of the village

artillery piece beside the feather store

The workies demolishing the remnants of the of MOD buildings started up their machinery, filling a skip with building debris, ready for tranfer to the wee ship anchored in the bay and subsequent transhipment ashore. The next stage of the renovation was to the landscape around the new "sympathetically" wooden-clad building, which houses the MOD contractors manning the monitoring sytems for the Military rocket testing facility in the Hebrides.
The clag was so low, that you almost had to stoop down to get below it at this point.
By around mid-day, the Boreray teams returned, having successfully landed and ascended to the top of Mullach an Eilein.
We all boarded the boats and took our leave of these wonderful islands - all a-buzz with the day's exciting achievments.

Happy campers and adventures returning from St Kilda

We managed to get back to Leverburgh just as the weather was picking up - bonus !
At Leverburgh, quite a few of our party turned up at the Bunkhouse to try to find and un-booked bed, which gave Ruari quite a headache as 9 cyclists had arrived to take up their bookings in the bunkhouse. However, with good humour, it was sorted with some sleeping on sofas and John on the floor in his camping gear. Some us walked down to the Anchor restaurant for a celebratory meal and drink.
The Calmac booking people were obviously used to people changing booking times as they handled ours with grace and aplomb.
We boarded the ferry next day and headed homewards in our different ways.
An epic trip !