A place to play and pray.

Where to begin?  Its been an amazing few days here at Shore Lodge, with so much hard work and creativity from the team. The most appropriate place to start might be the end, as we have been enjoying an evening of exploring the life and work of John Muir. Luke, one of our participants put his thoughts into a poem, which he has agreed we can share with you.

The Celestial City- Luke Randhawa

When the mountains called he went, 

In search of a place to play and pray, 

And when the temple opened its doors, his pilgrimage began, 

And he never looked back. 

It was an empire of granite, 

A flurry of trees, 

Great wide valleys, 

Home to the birds and the bees. 

And with only his quill and an open mind, 

He carved from this wilderness a home for anyone to find, 

Still to this day he stands on Pacheco Pass, 

Looking over the disciples who wander in search, 

Of Yosemite- a place they call their church. 

Looking back, there has been a tremendous amount of work.  Yesterday we joined Jackie from the National Trust for Scotland for a day of clearing invasive Rhododendrons from Brodick Country Park.  This invasive plant is a bully that threatens the diverse, nature-friendly woodland around the park, and spreads readily out into the wider habitat of Arran. It was hard work, but there was time for some relaxing around the bonfire at the end, and marshmallows, of course. 

Today we headed to the beach at Kildonan.  This was the perfect opportunity to spot some wildlife, including seals, seabirds and a dog otter hunting in the shallows. After lunch, the team took on a Marine Litter Survey and beach clean, recording the plastic and other items they collected from the beach.  In all, 17kg of rubbish were recovered, including dozens of cotton buds, rope, and a balloon. 

Sunshine on Goatfell

Wow, residential 2 is in full swing and we have been blessed with some sunshine!  We took advantage of the good forecast yesterday and headed up Goatfell with the hopes of getting a view. It was hot and muggy on the way up, but thankfully not too midgey, so we were able to spend a bit of time exploring the flora and fauna of the mountain environment. One highlight was seeing a couple of  big fat juvenile cuckoos being fed by their diminutive adopted parents- little meadow pipits, working hard to feed their greedy charges. 

The team did well to get to the top in good time, and beat the encroaching clouds to get a misty view from the top. All in all a great day out on the hill. 

Conservation time

Our team members get involved in a range of different activities, discovering, and exploring Arran. We also do a fair amount of conservation work, and this week has been no exception.
Yesterday the team met Jeremy from the NTS in Glen Rosa, where he furnished us with some fairly mean looking tools, and we headed on to the hillside to an area where the NTS has been planting native trees.  The trees have been planted amongst dense bracken, which is both a blessing and a curse.  The bracken favours terrain with the deep soils and nutrients needed by the trees, it's often an indicator for areas where there used to be woodland, but bracken also shades out the young trees, competes for nutrients, and can smother them when it dies back. Therefore, our conservation volunteers have been working in this area for many years now, helping to control and beat back the bracken and encourage the young trees to shoot up.  There are real and tangible changes happening each year that we go back, and it is starting to look like a mini forest!

Adventure Expeds John Muir Award teams also have the chance to really get to know the flora and fauna of Arran, so we spent some time looking at the plants that are found in Glen Rosa. We love the midgie eaters (carnivorous plants) such as the round-leaved sundew and pale butterwort below. 

Pale Butterwort

Round-leaved sundew

Today we headed out of the mountains and to the coast, to meet Jenny Stark from the Community of Arran Seabed Trust for a beach clean and marine litter survey in Lamlash. Adventure Expeds teams have been cleaning this beach for a number of years. We find a range of fishing waste, and domestic refuse washes up here, including sewage-related debris. The coast here is also an important area for special breeding birds such as eider ducks and we are happy to do our bit to try and clean it up for them.

Misty Goatfell

Welcome to Adventure Expeditions Arran residentials 2019! We have three teams coming up to the island over the next three weeks and an action-packed programme as they work towards their John Muir Awards. Our first team is already here and have been keeping busy exploring Arran and finding out about the local environment. Today we all headed up Goatfell, in the mist and a few midges, which sounds tough but as the weather forecast was for rain, we were pretty happy to be dry.
Here's a photo of everyone on the top. Note inquisitive Herring Gull waiting patiently for someone to drop a sandwich...