Sat 25th April
This morning we woke to a very cold atmosphere, I pulled my sleeping bag over my face to doze a bit longer, but after a few minutes I heard a loud thud. Ashley rushed from his bed to see what was happening, and we found Will picking himself up off the deck after slipping on ice trying to make his way to the toilet block. Blimey it had been cold overnight.
Another morning of pottering, in which I collected all my belongings together and transferred them to my van (excluding tings I needed for one more night on the boat). Ashley and Will inspected the water pump, which had been playing up throughout the trip. We thought it had got air in the system, but after inspection they found there was a hole in the tubing, caused from being creased for too long.
After another lunch on the boat we had decided todays walk would be to the north side of the harbour along a shoreline walk. It had started a little cloudier this morning, but was still sunny, so I packed my swim gear, as the shoreline looked like it may have a couple of shingle beaches. The path took us past some large old houses staggered along the hillside, including one that looked like it had recently been gutted from a fire, although it looked to have a huge amount of promise if someone was to take it on to refurbish. We then diverted through some beautiful woodland that took us around the shore, it gave off vibes of an enchanted fairy woodland. We then came across the beach, which was all pebbles, but looked like it had come out of a holiday brochure. The sea here is so clear and with the sun out it highlights the light blue hue of the shallow waters. I threw on my bikini and waded out, although this took a while as it appeared to be on a sand bank, so continued up to my knees for quite a while. After bracing the cold water and getting in for a swim, which felt lovely and refreshing, I went back for my snorkel kit. My friend Brian had given me some goggles, snorkel and flippers about a year ago, and I had hoped to make use of them on the trip. I spend a good 15 mins searching through the shallow waters, getting to grips with using the flippers. The water was very cold against my face, but I eventually got used to it, and I managed to see a crab scuttling along under the water. After getting changed and grappling through the stones in search of sea glass, while Ashley and Will basked in the sun, we went to check out the next cove. It was a bit rockier here, with the rocks being larger, and we decided to head back to the boat. Rather than head back along the stone beach we had just walked along, Ashley thought we should try work through the undergrowth to forge a shortcut to the woodland track. It turned out to be quite boggy, so ended up with soggy feet, but was a little adventure to end the day.
On the way back to the boat, we paid a visit to the Co-op for another ice cream and some steak for dinner. Will cooked us a lovely meal on the boat accompanied by a beer, a great end to a lovely chilled few days in Tarbert.