We were up early yesterday ready for our exciting trip over to Mull. By the time we got down to the port here in Oban the weather was looking very promising. We were on the 8-35 ferry across to Craignurie and it was all very efficient as we boarded. The views of Oban from the boat were wrapped in a wonderful morning glow and we couldn’t decide where to sit or stand for the best views as we took the 40 minutes ride over on our Calmac Ferry. Mull in the distance still looked rather dark and gloomy but Kerrera and Lismore looked lovely as we passed. We passed Duart Castle on the southern tip of Mull but it all looked rather dull and it had scaffolding all around it.
Soon we were pulling into tiny Craignurie and after the cars got off it was our turn, as foot passengers, to head down the car ramp. I could already see a small group gathered around a minibus and figured this must be our new friends for the day. I introduced myself and found Andrew the tour guide and owner of ’WildlifeonMull’. We then all introduced ourselves, there were two other couples taking the tour and it’d be a full minibus with Covid facemasks required at all time on the bus.
The tour took us on a round trip around the centre and southern part of Mull. Andrew would drive along and tell us about this that and the other before we would pull into a parking spot and see what we could see. The weather throughout the day got better and better and we were all so glad that we’d been able to swap days. Andrew kept reassuring us that we would still have had just as much chance of seeing wildlife in the rain but the views today were absolutely stunning. This was now going to be our only visit to Mull on this trip and I was keen to get a good taste of the scenery to see whether we should revisit another time. By the end of the day it was a resounding yes! I could have stopped my car every five minutes for views and mountains (hills), rivers, bridges, ancient oak tree woodlands, beaches, lochs, narrow lanes with sun dappled beech and rowan hedges, tiny cute houses etc etc but today we were on a wildlife mission!
I found it interesting that, despite all of this scenery, Andrew told us that people do not come to Mull to walk. There’s only one ’Munro’ (mountain over 3000ft) , Ben More and people do walk up that, but not really any of the other hills. People come to Mull to see the wildlife and tourism is the mainstay of the island. One if the things that protects Mull from mass tourism is that, except for the road between Craignurie and Tobermory, all of the roads are single track with passing spaces. The locals seem to have this sussed but if you’re a tourist it can be daunting to see a huge truck hurtling down the lane towards you with absolutely no intention of slowing down or stopping. At one point today we drove along one of these single tracks right beside the sea with slope down to our left to the water and a huge vertical rock face to our right. Eek. Andrew told us that this is part of the Isle of Mull rally course, an event which takes place this coming weekend. They have divers strategically placed nearby incase any if the cars slip of the road and into the sea! Good lord.
Anyway, enough of the roads and scenery, what about wildlife, I hear you ask. Well……it didn’t start off too well. The huge White Tailed Sea Eagles had disappeared from their nesting sites on their 2 metre wingspans and were nowhere to be seen. The otters weren’t playing ball and even the red deer were sitting down miles away staring at us.
However, the good thing about the tour with Andrew is that he knows the likely spots around the island for sightings and we stopped often enough that our chances improve. He does have amazing spotter eyes although at some points I seriously doubted that he’d really seen things, with his naked eye about 5 miles away on the otherside of a loch!
As the day went on our wildlife tick list got better. A lot of what we saw was at a distance and through binoculars so not great for photos on my iphone! But we did get to see: otters, white tailed sea eagles, golden eagle, seals, herons, sparrow hawk, oystercatchers, little grebe, red deer and curlew. Im not even going to add things like buzzard to that list as Andrew was very unimpressed when we southerners pointed these out as they’re so common up here.
We had a beautiful stop by Loch Beg (top corner of Loch Scridain) for lunch, sitting on the rocks overlooking the silvery/blue water, besides a tumbling burn and bathed in warm sunshine. Perfect with a pork pie and cheese and pickle roll.
I think my wildlife highlight of the day was seeing a single female otter just at the lochside. She swam along from right to left diving down and then reappearing a few metres further on. We were able to watch her for quite a time before she disappeared and had apparently come onto shore, maybe to feed her pups! Sadly but quite rightly, we needed to leave her alone now.
Jane’s highlight was our last real stop. This was when we drove five miles to see the two white tailed sea eagles that Andrew had spotted perched in pine trees. Sure enough here we could see one with our naked eye but the view through Andrew’s monocular or telescope was even better. Now we had a really clear view of this impressive bird with its yellow beak and massive yellow claws. As we watched this female another one flew in, the male. We even learned how to take a photo with our iphones of the view through the telescope. This got us thinking, perhaps we need to invest in a Swavroski telescope of our own. That was until we found out later that they cost anything between 3 and 10 thousand pounds!
After this sighting it was time to start heading back via Salen where we dropped off our new friends. I call them that but I hadn’t actually spoken to them all day, whereas Jane by now was exchanging email addresses and Airdropping photos to them!
Enid, our history teacher, took a day off educating us today but was fascinated by Andrew’s informative commentary. He seemed very anti-red deer in particular. They maybe very beautiful but they destroy acres of farm and woodland, not because they damage the trees so much but they eat the saplings so nothing can regenerate. This means that farmers now have to fence in woodlands or even pasture areas. It also means that there is an annual cull of red deer where they kill thousands of the animals each year. Covid has impacted this for the last two years ie it hasn’t happened so now Andrew thinks they’re seriously out of hand. Every time we saw a van parked up with a golf buggy on a trailer, it was a sign that there was a stalker out looking for these poor animals to shoot. If you fancy having a go yourself you can pay £300 for the pleasure but I don’t think we are keen. He was keen to point out that this income all goes towards maintaining the estates which otherwise be unviable.
At the end of our tour we were dropped back for the 5:25 ferry at Craignurie and although the views back were gloriously sunny, it was now quite cold and so we headed straight for the bar, a welcome addition on the evening ferry. Until the boat turned out of dock and Jane’s pint swiftly feel off the table and all over the floor. The barman wasn’t terribly sympathetic and just told me (Jane couldn’t go back because she’d already had a ‘discussion’ with him about the size of the head on her beer) I should keep a closer eye on it!
When we got back into Oban, part B of our plan for the day came into action. We met up with Dave, my brother, and his wife Jayne for fish n chips at The Oban Fish and Chip shop. Highly recognised and award winning it seemed odd that this place was only open until 7pm. The restaurant was also closed (Covid) but we were allowed to eat our takeaway in there, out of the cardboard box and with a plastic fork, once we’d slid our way over the floor which seemed to resemble an award winning skating rink. Jayne and Dave have made the trip up to Oban from their new home in Campbeltown at the end of the Kintyre peninsula. I say ’new home’, it’s actually still being built! More of which later when we meet up with them again. In the meantime, Joyce, Enid, Jane and I returned back to Sleepy Bear after our day of adventures very happy indeed.
Where shall we go to next? 