Meditating on Nature - Argyll's Secret Coast.

Up ahead, the path creeps through machair that swishes and billows beside a slim cuticle of white sand: Ostel Bay, on the turn of high tide. Where the sea has receded, slowly uncovering more of the broad beach, the sand shimmers like sealskin. The water in this bay of the Firth of Clyde is as rich as blue opal. On its horizon, the dramatic mountains of the Isle of Arran rise hazy mauve against the pale sky. Pops of colour are provided by wildflowers on the shore, dancing in the wind that fills my ears as if I am holding a conch shell to them. There is nobody else around – not even a trace of footsteps on the sand.