We had lunch and continued on our way to Iona. The home of St. Columba's church. St. Columba was an irish monk who fled from Ireland in 563 to practice Christianity. It was pillaged by vikings in the 800s and continues to be a Christian pilgrimage site.
We returned to the ship for dinner and as we were dining, Lucho, the activities director, announced that the conditions were right for boarding zodiacs to Fingal’s cave. Thank goodness I had just taken my last bite of food and although the dessert looked delicious I passed. I excused myself profusely from a table conversation about Girl Scouts and Scottish music and walked briskly to my room to put on my warm jacket and waterproof gear. I grabbed my camera, put on my life jacket (which we must wear on every zodiac outing and went straight to the mudroom where I got on the first zodiac off the ship. I am usually in the later zodiacs, but not too many people had made it down that fast on short notice and they needed one more passenger to balance out the boat!
Approaching the island was unreal. The columns got larger and larger and the edges sharper and sharper. We unloaded on a simple dock that hugs the island and immediately started taking pictures. We followed the “handrail” which helped us navigate on the path with a long drop to the left, while still being able to look up and take in the amazing view. The rail was a metal rod that was covered in some rubber material and in some parts I held on so tight that if my hand had rubbed up on bird poop I would have not cared.
The views were spectacular near and far. Little flowers had grown in the cracks between the columns. Some columns were vertical, others were horizontal, some were perfect hexagons and others were messy hexagons. Some were golden while lit by sun, others covered in barnacles, other seaweed. All beautiful. And then, you go around the corner and see the mouth of the cave. It was magical. The vertical columns were lit and bright, the top was dark and hexagonal. The echo magical of course, after all it was the inspiration for Mendelssohn’s Overture. I asked a guest if he sang opera, he said he sang, but not opera, so I asked him to sing and we started to sing Drunken Sailor! Where did that come from! But, we sounded great!
We then boarded a zodiac to return to the ship, but some guests convinced Eric Gush, a naturalist/photographer, to look for puffins! Yes, puffins the bird! So we started our circumnavigation of the island in search of puffin burrows and before we knew it, the mouth of the cave call us in. Eric turned right, and we were transported into a narrow passage deep in the cave. The ceiling pitch black and only inches of space on either side of the zodiac. We took in as much as we could and backed out setting out to complete our puffin quest.
The sun continued to set giving the sky a beautiful orange tone. We carefully scanned the water for jutting rocks while staying as close to land as possible and as soon as there was no chance that we would see puffins we FLEW back. What a rush and what an ending to a spectacular day.
I am not sure this expedition can get any better than today. But be my guest Scotland, I dare you!