mull #1

Woke up to stunning views and the sun shining brightly over some hill or another in Killin. Forced myself through another cooked breakfast (oh, the hardship), which was lovely but hopefully the last for a few days (I can hear my arteries groaning in agony). Our host, Christopher, who used to live on Mull - gave us some interesting insights into Mull and told us of some places that we must go. He also told us of some Americans (I’m not even going to add any other comments here) who kept asking him how to get to 10 (ten) NA. They had read Iona as a map reference and confused many a local by asking how they could get to 10 NA! God bless America. 

We left Killin and headed out towards Oban - the most stunning hour of driving I think I’ve ever done. It was a little difficult to maintain concentration when Sakala would squeal at something she’d spotted and shout at me to look! It was usually some Loch that had snuck upon us or the way the light had illuminated a piece of a mountain - something definitely worth looking at, but probably not worth crashing and dying for.

Quick stop to stock up at Tesco in Oban then we headed for the boat. We sat and watched the ferry come in excitedly and waited our turn to drive on. Thankfully, the sun was shining and so we had a glorious 45 sail over the island and managed to stay out on the deck for the majority of the time.

We drove the hour or so to the south of the Island (Ross on Mull), spotted our cottage, which was not quite ready for us, and set out to find a pub. People had talked about how isolated Mull is, but I hadn’t really anticipated quite how much! We stopped for a coffee (no decent Ale!)  but then decided to drive on to Fionnphort which is the main port that leads to Iona (10NA). We mooched about on the sand, Sakala touched a jellyfish - thinking it was ice - and we enjoyed the stunning views over to the Abbey on Iona. After an ice-cream, we decided it was definitely time to make our way to the cottage. Managed to find enough network to send a ‘we are alive’ text to mum and headed out.

The cottage is stunning, nestled into a little valley overlooking the sea. We flicked through the visitors book and we cheered to see that people had seen plenty of wildlife without even leaving the cottage (deer, otters, eagles) and magnificent sunsets over the sea. We settled ourselves in, made dinner, drank G+Ts and waited for the sun to go down. Thankfully, the sky was glorious and clear and the sunset was as magnificent as we had anticipated. 


I am so excited about our week here - there’s no wifi, not a trace of signal (hence the backblips), no tv, and very little else. But there is a log fire, the stack of books we brought and a whole island (or two) to discover. Bring it on. 


(couldn't decide what to blip today so added an extra)