Cows on the Beach
We really liked Coll. It seemed such a friendly place and also the sun shone the whole time, so everything looked particularly good :)
We spent two days there; the first doing our jobs like laundry (on board this time as Coll does not run to a launderette), filling up our water tanks (by rowing jerry cans ashore and filling up from the tap behind the toilet block (?) and buying some more food.
I also visited the plant and cake sale at Arinagour Primary School, which is Coll's only school and spoke to their Head Teacher, Mrs Aileen Cook. They have seven (!) children at the school and two teachers, Aileen and one other teacher. The children are taught in one classroom and are divided into two classes - younger and older. When they are twelve, they fly away to attend Oban High School and live in a school hostel for the weekdays and then fly home at weekends.
There are about 200 people living on Coll.
On the second day, we were lent bicycles by Jane and Tim who live on Coll and whom we met while using the Community Centre wifi area (the only place we could find a good internet signal on the island).
So we set off and were a bit surprised to discover how large Coll is by bicycle (we had been offered Jane and Tim's car but had declined this as we thought we needed the exercise!). The road took us to two bird reserves, dedicated to the needs of Corn Crakes (birds). We headed off down a sandy path on our bikes and occasionally got stuck in patches of deep sand.
We didn't come across any Corn Crakes but we did find a large beach where a herd of cows were cooling themselves on the wet sand.
This was a bit surprising but the cows seemed quite used to it.
There was also a huge sand dune or "mountain" said to be 45 metres high.
We cycled up the coast and stopped at the beautiful Hogh Beach - just like a tropical paradise, except for the chilly water temperature.
We were very tired when we finally returned the bikes and were very glad that Jane and Tim's home happens to be next to Coll's only café. So we rewarded ourselves with a much deserved cream tea.
We spent two days there; the first doing our jobs like laundry (on board this time as Coll does not run to a launderette), filling up our water tanks (by rowing jerry cans ashore and filling up from the tap behind the toilet block (?) and buying some more food.
I also visited the plant and cake sale at Arinagour Primary School, which is Coll's only school and spoke to their Head Teacher, Mrs Aileen Cook. They have seven (!) children at the school and two teachers, Aileen and one other teacher. The children are taught in one classroom and are divided into two classes - younger and older. When they are twelve, they fly away to attend Oban High School and live in a school hostel for the weekdays and then fly home at weekends.
There are about 200 people living on Coll.
On the second day, we were lent bicycles by Jane and Tim who live on Coll and whom we met while using the Community Centre wifi area (the only place we could find a good internet signal on the island).
So we set off and were a bit surprised to discover how large Coll is by bicycle (we had been offered Jane and Tim's car but had declined this as we thought we needed the exercise!). The road took us to two bird reserves, dedicated to the needs of Corn Crakes (birds). We headed off down a sandy path on our bikes and occasionally got stuck in patches of deep sand.
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The sand track through Corn Crake country
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Cows on the Beach
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| The Sand Mountain |
We cycled up the coast and stopped at the beautiful Hogh Beach - just like a tropical paradise, except for the chilly water temperature.
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The Almost Tropical Hogh Beach
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