August 14 - Monday
St. Monans
I woke up completely under the covers of the sleeping back - I thought it was still dark outside but when I turned over and was blinded by the bright sun I realized that I was camping again. Where was this sun yesterday?!
After a slow start, breakfast of tea, cocoa for Jon, and porridge we started walking into town looking for a library so I could type more comfortable than I had been last night hunched over in the tent. We found the library pretty quickly - it's closed for the week. Great.
Well, we kept walking and found a view point with some benches overlooking the strait. It was a beautiful morning, quiet, calm, quiet, really quiet. There were a few locals around one of which was getting on his motorcycle. He asked if we were on holiday. Not sure what give it away, the convertible pants, the camera, our hats, our accents. He told us that we would be able to see dolphins swimming in the strait eating the mackeral that the fishermen were trying to catch along with the seagulls. I've never seen a dolphin outside of an aquarium so I've planted myself along the coast line near the town's main attraction - an old nonfunctioning windmill. It's beautiful, made of stone and looks like it's been there forever. I can see Jon's red baseball hat off in the distance. The tide is slowly coming in so there's probably some good tidepools out there to explore. We walked around the teeny tiny village. It's definitely not catering to the tourist. One café that wasn't even open, a post office and a tiny market were as touristy as it gets. We found an old church including cemetary. There were lots of gravestones in memory of children who died in infancy, there was even one that included a family member that died in Seattle. It was right along the coast and was pretyy picturesque as far as cemetaries go. We came back to camp, had some lunch and took a nap. Our tent isn't under any shade so once we started baking we decided to get up and start planning the next few days, what to do with the bikes and where to go in Thailand. After some Cup-o-Soup we back down along the water looking for dolphins. It's been an absolutely beautiful, peaceful day in Scotland. Yep, still windy but not as blustery as it has been. We're both feeling pretty relaxed, it's hard not to in this area. The salty air of low tide reminds me of home and the dark waters definitely remind me of the Pacific Northwest waters.
A dalmation just came up to me to say hello, she's super soft and very friendly. I got kisses on my hands, my ear, my face and then she came back and brought a friend who climbed under my leg and isn't too bright since she didn't see me throw her incredibly slobbery ball away from me. Now there's dog slobber all over the keyboard. We'll try to leave super early tomorrow to go to Glasgow and find out about the bikes and maybe a new tent. For the rest of the evening I'll be watching for dolphins.
OK, it's been at least an hour and no sign of a dolphin anywhere but we've been accosted by two more dogs. It's getting cold and the dog slobber is starting to crust on the side of my face. It's time to go back to camp.
