The (Not So) Grand Tour

Holiday Backblip - Day 7

The plan for today, our final full day on Mull, was simple. We would drive round the entire island, starting in the south west where we are based, following the beautiful west coast road right up to the north coast, then round to Tobermory again and back down the east coast before returning to the south west. A long day, but do-able (we thought).

However, life on Mull has a way of slowing you down, with so many things to see en route: such as the herd of Highland cattle paddling in the sea loch under the looming Ben More; such as the white-tailed sea eagles putting on a fine flying display for us over Loch na Keal; such as the poignant memorial stone to a lady rally driver above Loch Tuath where we stopped for lunch and any number of other stops for herons or buzzards or possible otters and once for a seal!

So it was late afternoon by the time we negotiated the hairpin bends and blind summits of the north west coastal road (much more hair-raising than in the gentler south!) and stopped to get our breath back at the famed white sands and turquoise sea of Calgary Bay.

It was obvious that we would never finish our planned route in daylight, so we had to abandon that idea and turn south at Dervaig and head for Salen on a very different scenic route to others we'd taken. So many plantations of boring pine trees and so much decimation that this industry brings scarred the landscape most of the way and we were glad to get back on the familiar coastal road again. So we missed out the small stretch from Dervaig to Tobermory and will have to return another time before we can say we've done the complete tour:-)

The sheep in the photo were typical of the road blocks experienced on Mull and always made us smile. A busy evening packing and cleaning, as we have to be out of the cottage by 10 o'clock tomorrow and like to leave a holiday home as we found it.