In which Sid and Doris ignore a warning and get their comeuppance.
Next week Sid and Doris are going walking so as there is no sailing wind today this is a good opportunity to get some miles on the feet.
Doris has found a hill route using forestry roads joined with Ordnance Survey footpaths. There is some doubt about one of the paths so we go round in the direction that puts that early in the day.
Swinging along the road gives views over the Sound of Mull.
Next is the Savary Glen path which is not much used but is easy to follow, and features the Right Sort of Bluebells, according to our friend Tim, who knows a thing or two about bluebells.
We cross a logging road near a bridge where we are due to turn off to follow the two kilometre maybe-path by a stream to an upper road. Here we find a sign that says the path is shut due to logging but should be clear by December 2020.
We have successfully ignored so many such signs over the past year that we press on even as the track loses its identity, giving ourselves false courage by seeing blurred old footprints in the earth. In the end the track is not blocked by logging but a chaos of fallen trees. We start to navigate the random wreckage. Progress is very, very slow and the sound of logging equipment gets gradually closer. As the rain drips through the leaves we reluctantly conclude that even if we did ever manage to get through the woods we would be turned back by the loggers. We turn back to have lunch by the bridge, two hours after we were last there.
Back on the lower logging road we come to another work site. The machinery is still while a driver and manager are chatting. We stop to ask about the machines. The Buffalo tracked loader and trailer (Forwarder in forest speak) is by Ponsse. Up in the forest 25 year old trees are being harvested [we counted the rings because that is the sort of thing that Sid and Doris do – D]. A hydraulic harvesting head on a crane type arm is snipping trunks like Fiskars secateurs through roses. No lumberjacks with axes. Not a lot of employment.
We then have a while on forest roads where we play writing rally stage pace notes. We carry on down the stage, cross the maelstrom of the main road and down to the pier where 200 tons of logs are waiting for another 1,300 tons to fill a freighter.
Despite seeing the excellent logging kit, conveyance of the day is a tilt rotor CV22 Osprey aircraft doing some fast low-level practice. This has twin lifting rotors for take off and landing which can then be turned to propellers for forward speed, leaving their stubby wings to provide the lift. Two are based not far from home at Mildenhall, maybe this one has come up for the day. It could do if fitted with extra tanks. Ferry range is 2,500 miles, normal range about 1,000. They have much longer range than helicopters though have been difficult to maintain and development went hugely over budget. That does not detract from conveyance of the day potential. [I wasn’t quick enough to get a photo, so thanks to the US Air Force’s fact sheet for this pic – D.]
Rather footsore after only a modest walk we settle back on the boat to watch a heron fishing. Tomorrow promises plenty of wind, and perhaps too much, for the run back to Dunstaffnage marina.