No long-distance shots of unelected Heads of State for you this week. Instead I've got something far rarer - a visual record of bright sunshine right in the middle of "The Year Without Summer". It may not have been the most exotic of locations (I've been to Cumbrae/Millport umpteen times before), but when I saw on the BBC forecast that approximately one square inch of Scotland was going to be enjoying good weather, I felt compelled to make a beeline for it.
In case you're wondering about the recent spate of photos, it's just the novelty of finally joining the 21st Century with a digital camera - I've been getting by with disposable cameras for years. I wish I'd had it in May, though - I got about 98% of the way up Goatfell on Arran, before having to turn back to avoid missing the last ferry of the day (again), and the views were spectacular. However, you can see Goatfell in the distance in some of these pictures - you can also, rather incongruously, see Hunterston nuclear power station.
(Click the photos to enlarge)
Do they not still have that rock painted like a crocodile?
ReplyDeleteI didn't see it, but I wasn't really looking out for it. There's a huge eye painted on a rockface round the back of the island, so that may be a continuation of the same theme.
ReplyDeleteThe "Face on the Rock" has been there for a very long time. My Dad, who was born on Cumbrae in 1904, said it was the Czar of Russia when he was a boy.
ReplyDeleteThe story about the Crocodile Rock is that some drunk came out of the pub (the Newton Arms) and insisted "doesn't that rock really look like a crocodile?" Nobody else could see it so he came back the next day sober with three pots of paint and painted it to show the scoffers what he meant.
I've several times had to put off an invite from a cousin in Millport to drive down and spend a day there, because each suggested day turned out to be a monsoon and what was the point.
I'm jealous.
Beautiful James. The water is so clear And what's that funny colour in the sky?
ReplyDeleteThanks for sharing them with those of us who have seen only grey skies for what seems like months.
The Crocodile rock was certainly painted that way when we were there last year. We would have been down this year but there's f all escape from the rain on Cumbrae. They don't have many shelters to dodge into and watch the ducks drown
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