Day 3: Mingulay to Castlebay (4hrs, 12Nm)

Finishing the 1^st leg of my journey, it’s hard to say what has been the best bit so far! It’s all be been fantastic, the paddling, the camping on Mingulay, the wildlife. The circumnavigation was kind of like a warm up for me to get into swing of the expedition thing. It was a chance to paddle in a place I have wanted to paddle since I started paddling! Now my days not trying to get from A to B up the Western Isles will be spent trying to find and catch food.

The highlight of today was in the morning. The seal pups that were on the part of the beach I had camped, had over the 3 days got used to my presence. I didn’t bother them and they didn’t bother me - don’t know if we would have managed this with a group. When I got up in the morning there was one seal pup who didn’t mind me intruding on his beach at all…

I cooked my breakfast of duck egg and nettle omelette and Stornoway black pudding, boiled water for the flask (both on the MSR stove as I now had no wood to even try lighting a fire with), had a wee chat with the boat skipper who takes visitors to Mingulay, then headed off NE back to Castlebay.

Today’s food: breakfast - duck egg and nettle omelette; lunch - 2 x mars bars; dinner - local potatoes, Swiss chard, haggis, neaps, tatties.