Look at the plants!....Oh, and there's puffins too: A daytrip to Lunga and Staffa

Puffins! They were quite calm and fine with us getting quite close to them. I was within four feet of this group and there were clouds of them just off to the left of the picture. They nest in little rabbit holes along the cliffs. The pink-flowered plant  in the foreground is a species of thrift, Armeria maritima.

My first order of business after finishing exams was to get out of Edinburgh! My friend Camilla told me about the puffins on the islands off the coast of the Isle of Mull, so I thought that would be an interesting vacation. I was on the train out of Edinburgh the Friday evening after the exam.

Wild Primula vulgaris with a hint of morning rain

growing out of the grass on Lunga.

Saturday morning was an early start, getting my tickets at the office at 7 a.m. and then running to get some snacks before the ferry left for Mull because we'd be out all day. The weather was grey, but the clouds were high, so the visibility was okay. The tour left from Tobermory, so it was a bus ride before we actually got to the tour boat, but the bus trip along the east coast of Mull was really beautiful and I got to see a flock of ADORABLE black and white baby lambs (*melt*).

The hour and fifteen minute trip out was a bit uneventful because of the weather, but we did see a white-tailed eagle and a group of harbor and common seals.

Our first stop was to Lunga, one of the Treshnish Islands off the west coast of Mull. It is home to one of the largest puffin colonies, as well as a host of other seabirds, such as the guillemot, razorbill, and shag. The tour let us off there for two hours and I was able to hike along the cliffs, see the heart rock (pictured below), and hike over the tallest part of the island and across the entire length. It was pretty precarious getting back on to the boat though. The tide was the lowest of the year and we were scrambling over some slippery, algae-covered boulders. Adventures!

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Hundreds, if not thousands, of guillemots gathered on the Heart Rock on Lunga. The noise was astounding. Never had I seen so many birds in one place in my life! The puffins are nesting on the cliffs just out of the left of the picture.

Our last stop on the trip was to the famous Staffa, home to Fingal's Cave (pictured below). It was incredible to see the unique geological feature featuring tetragonal, pentagonal, and hexagonal rock columns formed by the quick cooling of lava about 56-66 mya (well, except for the Giant's Causeway in Northern Ireland), as well as the really neat natural rock gardens at the top, starring several species from the extreme Caryophyllales and lichens of all kinds and colors.

It was time to head back after an hour there, though. The boat trip back was full of spitting rain and chilly winds, so I hung out inside.

The mouth of Fingal's Cave as we came around the south of Staffa.

You can see the people on the bottom right for scale.

I finally got a place at the comfortable Craignure Bunkhouse (which I highly recommend!) in Craignure for the night so I'd be ready for my hike up Dun da Ghaoithe the next day. Whew! What a day!