Journey to Mull

Mull

We had an inauspicious start to the day when we found our gas heater was not working. By a process of elimination Mr C worked out it must be the battery for the igniter. After a beautiful drive through Glen Coe, where the clouds were still swirling around our 100th Munro, we stopped at a garage in Ballachullish where we got a packet of AA batteries. And hurrah we have heating if we need it.

Our van was right at the front of the Corran Ferry (£14.95) which felt a bit disconcerting. Luckily it was only 10 minutes or so to cross. Of course we were first off but quickly pulled in to a passing place to let the cars past. The drive into the Morvern peninsula was very pleasant as a lot of the single track road had been re-surfaced and there were plenty of passing-places. Primroses were prolific along the roadside. We had a sandwich while we waited for the Lochaline ferry (£25.95) to Fishnish, about 30 minutes crossing time to Mull.

We headed north to Tobermory where we had a potter. A Hurtigurten cruise ship was in. None of the passengers were in the distillery so we popped in. I explained to the sales assistant that I’d read a review of the gin which says it had backnotes of whisky which is not a drink I like. Mr C no longer drinks whisky either. After ascertaining I was not the driver, she gave me a good tot of each of the three types. Wise move - I bought 2. They were very nice neat which might not be a good thing to discover.

After putting £1 in the hat of a young lad playing the bagpipes, we took the winding single track road over to Calgary beach, a total of 90 miles driving today. We gave £10 donation for a Nepalese charity and are parked here for the night. We had a stroll along the path towards the cliffs and after I’ve cooked us an aubergine, red onion, chickpea, mushroom and tinned tomato curry we’ll walk on the beach. It’s dry and quite warm, the beach is pretty and it is peaceful.