Phun Cruise 2012: Thursday 24 May

The forecast is for warm sun and no wind, so it’s an ideal day for exploring the island. We went ashore complete with bikes and landed at the very convenient pier. The tidal range is so small here that landing is generally easy. It turned out to be an ideal island to try out the bikes, with good roads and hardly any traffic. After visiting the N end of the island and looking at other beaches which you can land at we returned by the same road – there is only one – and went to Achamore Gardens. They were founded by Colonel Horlick (of the hot drink) and are very fine. The gardens contained a great variety of rhododendrons and azaleas and are generally informal and quite wooded. The trees suffered during the gale in January, so there were piles of firewood in many places and a lot of work will be needed to restore the ground where trees were completely uprooted. The garden was very quiet, with only a few visitors and no tea shop! We stopped at the hotel for tea and scone on the way back.

Using the bikes was a success, though we will have to be careful taking them ashore in windy conditions. Returning to the boat there was no wind at all. Tomorrow we need to move to somewhere close as it looks as if we will have to motor all the way, possibly the Ardmore Islands off Islay.