Another astonishing week of spring sunshine on Rona, our fourth and possibly final season. We arrived on Skye in brilliant sunshine with the Cuillins still dusted with snow and crossed over to Rona in Kevin and Pam’s splendid new boat, the “Aspire”, a converted East Anglian fishing boat, to be met by Bill Cowie and Lorraine. Afternoon was spent walking over our original stamping ground of Dry Harbour, in which one keen team plunged into old woodland and confidently led by one member, got themselves temporarily lost and found themselves sclimming up rock faces to get out, the Health and Safety sheet having been signed up just two hours previously. No names, no packdrill !
With fine weather holding for all five days, the team split generally in two groups – one went faithfully down the long but lovely track to the chapel at An Teampull for three days to complete the elevations and a better plan of the area; and a second group began the survey of the bay and harbour of Acarseid Mor. This proved quite exciting with more than 40 features and structures recorded and suggesting that the occupational time depth so singularly lacking in the main from the sites of Braigh, Dry Harbour and Doire na Guaile, may well be here around what must always have been the main anchorage for the island.
Highlights of the week were more scrumptious meals every night from Libby and Margaret, evenings sitting out on the decking watching the sun go down over the Sound of Raasay with libations in hand, slumped in front of the wood fire reading books or watching old films on the brand new DVD recorder (the old one would geriatrically expire every 10 minutes) and random chunterings about what we had picked up that day, including the evening tick counts to be compared (winner was 31).
A great week in good company – will we be back, who knows. “I go. I come back”.