Where shall we go to next?

Moving on to Dornie near Skye

Posted on October 9, 2021 by julieallen36

The next day it was time to move onto our next destination, the tiny village of Dornie on Loch Long near The Kyle of Lochalsh. We had quite a bit of time before we could check in so we took a slight detour in order to get there. Today it was pouring with rain and it was incredible to compare places we’d been yesterday in such glorious weather! How lucky we had been.

The route took us back up to Appin and then onto Fort William where I had hoped to get at least a glimpse of Ben Nevis. However, it was all covered in cloud and the town itself is full of nasty looking carbuncles. Our stop here was for the world famous Marks and Spencer foodhalls on the Retail park. It was a fine experience with visitor toilets and cafe. We re- stocked our supplies as we weren’t sure when or where we’d find civilisation again.

We then drove along various lochs which I pointed out to Jane as we whizzed past. She seemed little interested as now the Sleepy Bears had turned into Grumpy ones. Loch Lochy and then our detour to Loch Ness at Fort Augustus. Here we had to wait to cross the Caledonian Canal as the locks were opened to let boats through. We parked up and walked along to the viewpoint. Hmm well at least the rain had finally stopped and we watched as people took their large rental cruisers out onto the loch. Like campervans on water- looked quite appealing.

We wandered along by the flight of locks and into a few of the tourist shops. It was really quite busy here but cuter than Fort William.

Next we drove a little further along Loch Ness (no sign of anything) before turning off onto the A87 at Invermoriston. There are apparently some good waterfalls here but unfortunately I got a bit confused in some roadworks so we drove straight past. Up through the pine forests we now drove on a very good straight road with no-one else on it. Our next stop was the Redburn Cafe which was somewhere along this road. Why on earth would anyone open a cafe up here when no-one drives past? I’d found it in Trip Advisor #1 cafe in Glen Moriston. No wonder. Mind you apart from the attractive menu it also offered a bonus of some photogenic Highland Cattle. We went inside out of the pouring rain and it was lovely. A very nice couple running it and just us and one other very quiet couple eating a piece of cake.

We went full on traditional cafe for a wet afternoon – ham, egg n chips, cullen skink x 2 and a sarnie and Jane had a baked spud. The apple pie looked particularly good but we resisted. I enquired as to the whereabouts of the wee coos. They were just across the road in the field and so off we went to say hello. We soon found Misty and Nessie who came to the fence to greet us – thinking we’d bought a £1 bag of food for them at the cafe. Unlucky coos. They were lovely and obliged us with a nice photoshoot.

Then we were on our way again with another 50 minute drive over to Dornie. As we left the forests and drove down to sea-level the scenery changed considerably. Now we were driving through huge, dramatic mountains and I think we could even see over to Skye for the first time. The mountains were a really odd colour up here caused by the grass covering them. Orange-Green is the only way to describe it.

We arrived at our new little cottage Camuslongart right by the lochside. It is absolutely perfect with beautiful views across the mirror like loch. We are right at the end of the lane and it’s incredibly peaceful. The sunroom looks out over the water so its a great place to see the wildlife without getting wet. Of course we are all hoping for otters!

Yesterday we ventured out to nearby Plockton reasonably early as rain was forecast by 2pm. The sun actually shone for us and when we arrived it was like we were the only ones in the place. The tide was in and we wandered about taking in the breath- taking beauty at every turn.

By 12-30 it was pouring ahead of schedule so we visited the small gift shop and then got back in the steamed up car. Now the tide was out, there were more visitors and it was all a bit gloomy. We left feeling rather smug and decided to head back to our cosy cottage for a relaxing afternoon. I decided to try to paint the view over the loch with my oils. Very enjoyable trying to capture the changing light but it still needs a bit of work.

As it got a bit darker I spotted a nice flock of birds and got the binocs out for a closer view. They were just seagulls but as I looked down I spotted a head moving in the water. The others spotted it too and we agreed that it was a seal because it just bobbed its head down and was gone. Otters, on the other hand, dive head first followed by their tail (thank you Andrew for this tip). He didn’t resurface but it was nice we came to greet us.

The evening closed with a curry courtesy of Joyce and a game of Yahtzee. All very 1976 reminiscent – well maybe not so much the curry.

Categories: Uncategorized | Tags: Isle of Skye, Plockton, Scotland | Leave a comment

Warning- use of drones

Posted on October 9, 2021 by julieallen36

I forgot to mention this yesterday. Shortly after Dave had successfully circled Castle Stalker with his pet drone, we found this sign stuck to a tree a little further on. I hope they can’t track him down to arrest him. In the meantime, you can see it did take a rather good photo of us. I still think Dave needs to give his drone a name- any suggestions?

Categories: Uncategorized | Tags: Castle Stalker, Drones, Scotland | Leave a comment

Port Appin and a lovely lunch

Posted on October 8, 2021 by julieallen36

Good Morning campers! I’ve rather lost track of what day it is but I do know that I missed out posting yesterday so apologies that you had to eat your porridge with nothing to read! The reason is that we were on the move again yesterday and had to be out of Sleepy Bear by 10 so no time for blogging.

Anyway, more of where we are now, later. By the way, talking of things I said I’d get back to you on, I can report that there is a fishing fleet in Oban. When we’ve been back near the piers at different times of day, there have been about 6- 10 trawlers moored up. Still not very big is it, shame.

So, back to a couple of days ago. We woke up to a gorgeous, sunny, slightly cold Autumnal day. Beautiful. After a leisurely breakfast we were on the road for the various points of interest today. Our first stop was The Falls of Lora at Connel Bridge. The bridge itself is pretty impressive and we stopped to start with at the viewpoint. The falls are a natural phenomenon caused by the tidal differences between Loch Etive where the water is trying to flow into the sea at the Firth of Lorn through a very shallow narrows at this point. It causes there to be the appearance of a waterfall of 1.2m. What it actually looks like is a sudden white area of rapids with waves and frothy bits. Right next to me there was a big whirlpool effect which would suddenly start gurgling as if someone had switched it on. There were people canoeing in it and someone even gave a paddle board a go but he didn’t last long. We then drove to the other side of the bridge and had a look at the views from the bridge itself. Well worth doing , if a little scary. We spotted an island with many more seals on it than we’d seen on our wildlife tour!

Next we drove we onto Port Appin, where we were meeting Dave and Jayne for lunch. We arrived at about midday just at low tide and it was absolutely quiet, calm and so peaceful. The views got better and better as the sun got stronger. We took a little wander along the lane back to the arts and gift shop. Jane was very tempted by the cuddly bunny for a friends baby…but we’d forgotten our purses.

Now it was time for lunch and as we walked back Dave and Jayne passed us in their car. We were having lunch at The Pierhouse Restaurant. It’s a fabulous place with terrific views across the loch to Lismore Island and beyond. It was lovely inside too but today the menu seemed a bit more limited than we’d seen online and very much seafood based. We asked for the vegetarian menu to look at further options but the very nice waiter explained that they currently had no electricity to their kitchen and so were having to BBQ everything! Having looked at those options I then settled on a burger! Jane and Dave went all out seafood, especially Dave who was very happy with his seafood platter.

We enjoyed a noisy lunch in this popular spot catching up with Dave and Jayne and all their news of housebuilding down at Campbeltown. For those of you that don’t know, they recently left Lincolnshire for this part of the world and are having their own ’Grandish Design’ built right on the seashore. It’s coming along really well now but they still doubt that they’ll be in for Christmas. They both look really well and tanned and clearly retired life up here is treating them well.

After lunch we exchanged gifts. Dave and Jayne gave us our Christmas presents for the family and I gave them a little painting I’d done of a boat on the loch, from a photo Jayne had taken. We then all went for a short walk across Jubilee Bridge which is a walkaway across the salt marsh here. It has views of Castle Stalker which looked mighty fine today. There were at least 3 professional photographers waiting to take its picture from the beach. Enid gave us her potted history of the castle (it was Castle Aaaaargh in Monty Python and the Holy Grail). Meanwhile, Dave tried out his new drone from the walkway. He did a few fly pasts over towards the castle and as it was so still he seemed to have a very good control of it. I look forward to seeing the video and hope I don’t look too gormless standing there with my mouth open staring at it! Hm, ideas for Xmas presents #2

Trying to keep the group together as we walked along this cycleway was like herding cats as they all stopped to take in different views. Dave and Jayne missed the final views of the castle as they sat in the little slate shelter covered in poetry by the local school kids. We headed back and by now the tide had come in.

We said our farewells to D&J and then headed back and Joyce and I made the most of the hot tub in the pouring rain. How lucky were we that it held off all day?

Categories: Uncategorized | Tags: Scotland | Leave a comment

Wildlife Tour of Mull

Posted on October 6, 2021 by julieallen36

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.

Categories: Uncategorized | Tags: Mull, Scotland, wildlife | 3 Comments

Out of the rain and into the hot tub.

Posted on October 5, 2021 by julieallen36

Today we were supposed to be on our wildlife tour on the Isle of Mull but having looked at the weather forecast yesterday, we made arrangements to swap this until tomorrow. Rain was due all day today but tomorrow sunshine is actually forecast. Luckily, Andrew was up for the swap, it means we will now need to share the minibus with some mystery strangers and of course, there’s a huge chance, that it will still rain despite the forecast!

Anyway back to today. At least it wasn’t raining when we woke up and our plan today was to visit Seil and Easdale. It all brings back very happy memories of our family trip up here in 1976. That was the year of a famous drought down south but we decided to holiday in Scotland where …it rained a lot of the time of course. I was only 13 at the time but I very clearly remember visiting these places as they are really quite unique.

First of all we went to have a sneaky look up the road from our cottage at Loch Nell. Before we came, I’d been looking at the blog of a lady who had been walking the coastline of GB. It’s very good and she’d posted some lovely pics from this loch. The little road ran right alongside the peaceful loch and it was quite a special place but not particularly paintworthy.

After this detour we were back in track and drove alongside Loch Feochan. We stopped at a layby to have a closer look and it was very beautiful. On we drove past Barnacarry, where in 1976 we used to go to the beach. We loved it here despite the fact that it meant swimming with hundreds of jellyfish.

Our next stop was the Clachan Bridge or Bridge over the Atlantic. It really is an impressive structure and a scenic spot. Luckily we seemed to catch the light just right.

We drove onto Seil along a small lane with lots of passing places and it was very pretty along the way. After not too long we arrived in Ellenbeich which is where we parked up ready to go across the Easdale Island. We had a look around here watching the play of light across the sea. It was very atmospheric and constantly changing. We decided to catch the 12-45 ferry across to Easdale, they come every 30 minutes but have a lunch break so this seemed the best idea. We queued up but the weather started to look very ominous. On went the waterproof trousers just in time for a downpour as the tiny ferry sped across the water in 2 minutes flat. We got off and were absolutely soaked and hid under cover of the community hall (closed). Unfortunately, there was no internet access here so Enid was a little short on historic facts. After a while of staring at the stairrods we decided we should brave it and headed for the museum. We really only wanted to keep dry but the nice lady wanted £4 each for us to have a look around. We decided to give it a miss which was a bit embarrassing but never mind. I’m sure I’d have been able to give you an excellent, detailed history of the island had we visited. All I can tell you now is that it’s famous for two things 1)It was the centre of Scotland’s slate industry and 2) it’s home to the annual world championship of stone skimming. I think it’s the latter that really appealed to me back in 1976.

As we walked around the island the sun came out and we perked up again. It takes just about an hour to walk around the whole island and the various waterfilled quarries. Strangely, there was no opportunity to skim a stone or spot any wildlife but the views are very good due to the constantly changing light.

We joined the queue for the ferry back at 2-15 and once landed were pleased to see that The Oyster Bar was open. Hurrah. Lashings of ginger beer followed. No, not really cups of tea, stormy cider and Lismore Red Ale. As we sat giving away secrets to last nights 007 film the rain once again started to really lash it down. We were very happy to be inside.

When we got back tonight it was still drizzling but before I made us dinner we experimented with the hot tub. It was a real treat especially as it started once again to tip it down!

Roll on tomorrow’s wildlife tour.

Categories: Uncategorized | Tags: Scotland | 2 Comments

Oban potter and a date with 007

Posted on October 4, 2021 by julieallen36

We had a slow start to the day at the cottage staring out of the windows looking at the very heavy rain and eating breakfast. Our plan for today was to take it easy around Oban after all the driving of the previous days.

We decided to brave it and go out. I drove us down into Oban and we parked on the practically empty main car park. The charging system was incredibly complicated – but it actually turned out to be free for the time on Sunday’s that we were going to be there for our potter. We wandered into the town and towards the seafront. By now it had stopped raining and we headed towards South Pier and the Calmac Ferry terminal where the big ferry from The Isle of Harris was just pulling in and unloading. It was strangely fascinating to watch this process going on. In fact we then stood rather mesmerised by all the comings and goings of ferries in the harbour. There was also a seafood place doing good business for 12 noon on a Sunday and a shop selling some new and exciting varieties of ice cream.

We reached the end of port pathway and then turned back, heading towards the South Pier. Now the sun was coming out and the views over to Mull and Kerrera islands were getting better and better, including a rainbow. There were quite a few people walking along the promenade either tourists or dog walkers and it was all turning out very pleasant, bearing in mind the weather forecast was 80% chance of rain. Shhhhsh don’t tell it. There didn’t seem to be much going on at the South Pier, lots of signs offering boat trips of one kind or another but nobody actually there. Perhaps they’d all gone out mackerel fishing earlier.

Past the South Pier we walked above a sort of beach. It wasn’t very pleasant being covered in colourful kelp seaweed. We continued our walk in the sunshine along to the War Memorial before we turned about. Now looking back towards town we could see our next destination up on the hill behind, McCaig’s Tower. We walked up the steep lanes at the back of the town and by the time we got there it was properly raining and the views had all but disappeared and the wind made it rather nasty to even attempt to look through the arches. However, you could still see a glimpse of something brighter and sure enough after a few minutes, the sun was out again and we had lovely views over the town and islands. It just goes to show that what Jayne commented on yesterday is true- don’t worry about a bit of rain up here as it’ll soon change because it’s typical to experience 4 seasons in 24 hours up here.

McCaig was apparently a banker who created the tower in order to give work to unemployed stonemasons of the town. Enid, who has been allocated the task of educating us on history for this visit, informed us that he’d intended to turn it into a museum to his family but he died before that could be completed. So today it stands as a sort of open air colliseum.

Talking of history, one thing I did notice was a distinct lack of fishing boats in the harbour. There seemed to be literally just a couple and yet Oban is supposed to be ’the seafood capitol of Scotland’. I’ve still not found out if there is a fleet somewhere else and Enid seemed a bit vague on this subject too. l’ll do more research and get back to you on that.

After our walk we drove back to Sleepy Bear for a quick change and rest and a slice of Joy’s excellent fig and walnut cake. Enid then dropped us back into town where Joyce, Jane and I had a date with 007 at the Phoenix Cinema. Our chance to see ’No Time to Die’ and our first visit to a cinema post-pandemic. It was great to be back. Afterwards we met up with Enid again and went for dinner at ’Coast’ which is part of the reason why Oban gets called the seafood capitol of Scotland. It was excellent. Scallops, langoustines, Cullen skink, hake, halibut, halloumi all featured in our choices.

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Scotland here we come! Eventually.

Posted on October 3, 2021 by julieallen36

It feels good to be back on our travels and I’ve been so excited about this Scotland trip that I’ve produced a Powerpoint presentation with our outline itinerary on it.

We are on the road again with Joyce and Enid planning to spend 5 nights in Oban and 5 nights in Dornie up near Skye. There’s loads to do and it feels like another geography field trip! My favourite holidays obviously.

However, first we had to get here and it’s not been straight-forward. Jane and I set off on Friday afternoon, aiming to be at our stop-over accommodation in Carlise by 6-30 for a lovely meal and rest.

We were driving happily along the M6Toll road when there was a huge clunk under my car. It felt like I’d run a small pig over but I’d not seen anything in the road and Jane couldn’t see anything now behind me. The car felt ok and we carried on. However, when we joined the queue for the toll booths suddenly there was a very load grating noise and clearly it was coming from my car. I pulled my way over to a small grass verge with Jane’s help waving through the window. I got out to inspect the damage and found that the front of the car had fallen down.

I then spotted that the safest place for us was down the HGV lane of the toll plaza and up a sort of slip road with a barrier on it. We were out of the way of the main traffic whilst we waited for the AA but boy those HGVs still hurtle down there. The AA kindly prioritised our call but the message came back saying they’d be an hour and a half! Eventually Steve (barely any teeth and a slight cough) from E and S Rescue came with his trailer. He said he’d get us onto the back of his truck, take us somewhere safer and look at the damage. He asked us to get out of the car and proceeded to start to try and reverse my car so he could get it up the trailer.

At this point the lovely Karen from Highways entered the scene. Dressed all in hi-viz yellow she was having none of Steve’s shenanigans, pointing out the speed of the HGVs. She said that instead they’d (Highways) have to cone off the lane and then he could move us. OMG ….She disappeared off to arrange this but eventually came back with a different plan. We’d open the barrier on the slip road and do it that way. Whilst Steve drove his van to the next junction and back, we had a lovely chat with Karen. Apparently, we’d been in a blind spot on their cameras so she was quite surprised when we said we’d been there for an hour. It was like being in a new reality TV programme ’M6 Tolls, road to hell’.

Finally, we got in the back of Steve’s cab and he drove us to a layby where he basically ripped the panel off the car and said we should just carry on. It’d be fine. Of course, these were just the words we wanted to hear so after a little more reassurance thats what we did.

By now it was getting dark, it was starting to rain and the rest of the journey was pretty rubbish including a closure between junctions 22 and 23. Our planned lovely dinner turned out to be a quick dirty MacDonalds at the service station.

I was very stressed and thinking I’d never want to drive anywhere again. However, all of that dropped away when we arrived at 10pm at lovely Willowbeck Lodge near Carlisle. The marvellous Jo had been keeping in touch with our progress and stayed late to let us in. As we arrived she gave us a virtual hug with a large glass of red and a beer for Jane.

After a lovely nights sleep and a big breakfast we were on our way again. We met Joyce and Enid up at Balloch Lake Shores after a nasty long drive up through Glasgow in torrential rain.

Here we explored the retail emporiums and all bought extra waterproofs and layers of warmth. The sun briefly came out and we had a more promising view down the lake before we drove onto our lunch booking at Luss, the Village Rest Cafe. Now this was more like it, a lovely traditional Scottish cafe who served us tea and cake or soup and a bap. We had a quick look around Luss which was very cute, the Loch here was a bit wild looking today but the banks were indeed very bonnie.

Next we had another 2 hour drive through thunderous rain over to Oban. I wasn’t impressed by Loch Lomond, the road was v narrow and there seemed to be nowhere to walk or stop to admire the view. Not that there was one today. On we travelled. Eventually we had awesome views towards the coast where there was some blue sky and bright shining sun. It was quite glorious and Loch Awe and Loch Etive looked beautiful as did the stretch of coast from Connel down to Oban. The rain stayed away as we unpacked into Sleepy Bear Cottage and stocked up on supplies at the big Tescos.

So, here we are….let the adventures begin. But its absolutely tipping it down with rain this morning and I’ve never seen a sky that’s a sort of indigo and brown colour. None of this is in my Powerpoint plan.

Categories: Uncategorized | Tags: Scotland | 9 Comments

Save the best ’til last

Posted on October 23, 2018 by julieallen36

It was the last day of our holiday- oh no! When we woke up it was a very dull looking day. We discussed possible plans with Gwen and Christian over breakfast and considered going to visit some of the beaches north of Kaanapali. Christian warned that because of the weather it may not be too great up there for snorkelling. We Face-timed Mum to say ‘Hello’ and by this time it was really starting to rain and so we decided to go into town instead. It was still very early and we found a place to park on Front Street for free – much better than the $18 per 2 hour car park!

We put our emergency, festival yellow rain ponchos to good use- keeping ourselves dry and attracting some sympathetic looks. We enjoyed visiting the retail emporiums of Lahaina buying last minute gifts and postcards. The Hula Festival under the famous big Banyan tree was called to a halt due to the rain and none of the big fishing boats were doing much trade today. We visited some of the galleries- one in particular where the artist specialised in painting the light in the surf- something we’d been trying to capture all holiday on the camera. One of these could be ours for just $24,000. Whilst we made a decision…..

We popped into Fleetwood’s Restaurant and bar to get a coffee. This place is owned by Mick Fleetwood of Fleetwood Mac and downstairs we were distracted by the Morrison’s Hotel Gallery where they were displaying prints of photos of famous rock stars. It was a really impressive display indeed including great photos of Freddie Mercury and my favourite one of Keith Richards- holding a bottle of Jack Daniels, alongside David Bowie and Tina Turner slurping from a bottle of champagne. Jane got chatty with the owner- Robert and I think he thought he was going to get a sale- a snip at $500 for a postcard sized print. Whilst we made a decision…..

We went upstairs into Fleetwood’s itself and sat at the bar- it was now lunchtime after all. I decided to try a pineapple cider which was really excellent. Do they sell these in Waitrose Dave?

We got chatting to the guy sitting next to me – Don. He was from LA, retired and twice divorced. He was a portly chap with a moustache and big sideburns and he was sporting a Panama Hat and Hawaiian shirt. He seemed to epitomise the Hawaiian island escape – making friends as he travelled and not sure when he would go back home.

Fleetwood’s is a nice bar with great views of the sea from its front windows and lovely, relaxed music from a live band. Through the window I could see that the weather was clearing up and we decided it was time to get out of town. By now it was 2pm and we wanted to make the most of the sunshine and not drive too far exploring. We decided just to drive back to ‘Wipeout Beach’ and sit in our decky’s to chill.

It looked really different today – lovely blue skies , white fluffy clouds, palm trees( well they weren’t new obv.) – just perfect. The sea also seemed a lot calmer- although we didn’t intend to swim but had bought our stuff – just in case…..

So, I’d read about 2 lines of my book when I decided I couldn’t sit still- I needed to go in and see what was happening on the reef. Jane stayed reading her book. It was still a bit of a pavlova getting into the water but I was soon floating on top of the reef and gawping at the fish through the now very clear water. This reef went all along the beach with deep channels and tunnels- really great for hiding interesting fish. I saw some new ones including the marvellous yellow Long Nosed Butterfly fish- but by now I was secretly desperate to find a turtle to swim with. I swam about a lot but no joy- perhaps they don’t like the clear water?

I gave up, got spat out on the beach again and went back to see Jane. I said she should really give it a last go but if she wasn’t that bothered then not to worry. I sat back down to dry off but then 4 girls came out of the sea to settle back down just in front of us. I heard one say ‘Well , that was a nice snorkel and two turtles- one huge one- that was good’.

Well! That was it . I was up again and making friends , checking what they’d said. They were really quite casual about it all and said – yes- they’d seen turtles and one was right there (pointing right in front of me). Off I went again- Jane still not keen to come in after our previous experience of ‘wipeout’ here.

Pretty much as soon as I got to the spot where the girls had pointed I found a turtle! It was a big one and it was just swimming up and down going with the flow along with me. It was beautiful and I just stayed with it for a while. I took some photos and tried to take some video but my camera batteries were too short on power so not sure if I’d got any. No-one else seemed to be aware that the turtle was there – even though every now and then she popped her head up above the surface.

Obviously, I now needed to go and tell Jane and get her to come in! When I got out of the water I was breathing really heavily and was quite over-come. I thanked the girls on my way past with a huge smile on my face and then told Jane.

She was still unsure about going in but I told her that she HAD to come in. She agreed and down the beach we trotted. I gave Jane some tuition on how to get into the water and over the break safely. She was very brave and in we went….I held Jane’s hand until she was comfortable and then lead her over to where I’d seen the turtle. Within 2 minutes I had spotted her again and nudged Jane and pointed to the turtle- right in front of us. I was really pleased and after one big footed- booby stopped trying to chase her, we had the big beauty all to ourselves- gently bobbing about with her as she grazed. Jane says the turtle looked straight at her at one point as it got really close!

We headed out of the water – Jane making a more graceful exit than me. Now Jane looked like I did earlier – hyperventilating and quite emotional. The nice family on the beach in front of us looked worried and asked me ‘Is she ok?’. I explained that we’d just had our first swimming with turtles experience. The Mom laughed and said ‘Oh good, I was wondering if she needed CPR!’

We calmed down, packed up and drove back to our Air BNB. We told Gwen and Christian all about it (and anyone else who would listen!). They were really excited for us and joined us for a celebratory cocktail. Christian even brought out his prized bottle of Kula Rum which we sipped like Raki. We found out that Gwen had visited the UK the previous Summer- including Burford in the Cotswolds and Skomer Island to photograph puffins. They were now our new best friends and we’ve invited them to come and stay when they come to the UK again.

As it was our last night we’d booked a table down by the ocean back at Honu (‘turtle’ remember?!) which seemed an entirely perfect end to our grand Hawaiian adventure.

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The Road to Hana (you only need to do it once).

Posted on October 21, 2018 by julieallen36

Lava Tube

56 bridges

Pineapple lolly

Paia

Royal Poinciana

Willie Nelson

Aunty Sandy’s

Bends

Jumpers

Hibiscus

Falls

Cheers Bronze

Wainapanapa

Behind you

Fruity stop

Postboxes

Rainbow Eucalyptus

Rainbow stand

Hookipa Bay

Creepy

Trespasser

Hasegawa General stores

Jane at Twin Falls

Pool

Protea

This sounds like a film title but it’s actually the name of one of the World’s most scenic drives and definitely on most peoples’ bucket lists of things to do when visiting Hawaii (Maui). The trip involves a 40 mile trip from Paia to Hana along a narrow road which has 600 hairpin bends and crosses 50 single lane bridges. It’s considered a ‘must do’ but our friend Joe, who visits Maui often remember, had said we might not want to bother. He’d done it once, it makes you feel car sick and he didn’t need to do it again!

But we decided to go with the majority and just do it. It was another early start for us and on the road by 7am. First stop at 8-30am was the surfer/hippy town of Paia – not too far from the airport where we’d flown in. The shops weren’t yet open and the only people seemed to be the homeless or confused looking tourists wondering why everyone told you to set off early on this trip. We’d stopped here to go to ‘Charley’s’ Saloon for a proper American breakfast including a biscuit (no gravy- thanks). Charley’s turned out to be a popular music venue where Willie Nelson regularly performs- in fact was that him sitting at the bar ordering a Mai Tai this early?

Now we were on Hana Highway proper and sure enough it is quite a drive. The drive itself takes about 3 hours because the speed limit averages say 15mph but there are also vast stretches where you need to stop at every bend to give way to oncoming traffic. So you are required to treat other drivers with a good deal of Aloha! and give them the ‘hang loose’ sign (make a fist, stick out your thumb and little finger and waggle hand) to say ‘thanks’.

Along the way we passed North Maui Coastal scenery- including the incredibly beautiful Hookipa Beach and, a bit further on, the site of ‘Jaws’ – the Worlds biggest wave break at 70 feet (not today). We then entered more tropical environments including bamboo forests and stands of Rainbow Eucalyptus trees. We watched people disappear into the mosquito infested bamboo apparently to seek out a waterfall but we didn’t do that. We did stop at mile marker 6.5 and trespass briefly on some private land to get the photos of the Eucalyptus

We also stopped at Twin Falls where people swim in the pools at the base of the waterfalls and jump in from the rocks. Not for us this daredevil activity although it looked fun. We did enjoy looking at the tropical flowers and the fresh pineapple lolly as it was very hot and humid here.

As time went on the weather went off and became hot and rainy – well after all we were in a tropical rainforest. The trees are huge and there are lots of enormous creepers- just like you’d expect in the jungle.

Our next stop was probably my favourite- it was a little off the main drive down a bumpy track. It was the home of a cabin selling Aunty Sandy’s fresh Banana bread and so we stopped and bought some along with a can of juice. Nearby to here there was a beach and the waves were really crashing against the black lava rocks which was great to watch.

It took us much longer than I’d expected to make progress and I was concerned that I really didn’t want to be driving back in the dark. By the time we reached Waianapanapa Bay I was getting a bit uptight and we kind of rushed the stop here at the ‘iconic black sand beach’. We did enjoy walking into the lava tube – basically a cave through the lava that goes through to the lovely cobalt coloured sea. The pebbles in here shined like polished black jewels.

Now we were just 20mins from Hana and it was REALLY raining hard. It was fine though as the windy roads had calmed down a bit. Apparently, most people spend on average 10mins in the town of Hana before they turn around and go back. The drive is all about the journey- not about the destination. Good job really as there is nothing much here at all. There is one exception to this and that is the Hasegawa General Stores. It was like something out of Little House on the Prairie- in a big old barn and sold everything- including rifles and machetes alongside your Lays crisps, t shirts and banana bread. Jane chose the t shirt celebrating 100 years (in 2010) of this famous store.

I now needed to make a decision about how we would get home. Most people had been advising me to carry on on the same road which does a circle back up and would be different scenery. But I could see on my not very detailed map that there is a part of this road described as ‘off road’. Gwen had said it would be fine but I’ve noticed the locals can be a bit blasé about this sort of thing. I went into the store and spoke to Frida Kahlo who was serving behind the counter. I asked about the road- waving my map at her- and she looked at me with her big brown eyes and said …’You ain’t seen nothin yet- b-b-b baby…..’ No sorry , of course she didn’t- what she actually said was ‘Oh…that road is closed, closed until 4-30pm’. It was only 3pm. She did also confirm that the off road bit was not ‘off road’ it was just a dirt road! Well, let me tell you, me and my Nissan Qashqai back home consider a dirt road quite off road enough thanks and I wasn’t about to hang about for a couple of hours to do it in my compact rental car. For goodness sake.

So, thanks to Frida- decision made and we turned around and started back along the Hana Highway in the other direction. I felt very comfortable with this now – rather than continuing on the road less travelled and getting stuck in the dark. Phew.

It still took a long time to get back and so we decided to stop for retail therapy in Paia where the lovely shops were now open and we had dinner at the Flatbread Pizza restaurant, a Maui institution, which Joe had recommended and was great. Here we met ‘Bronze’ (real name Franz but I misheard him) who was our lovely young waiter. Paia is a real surfer town and I was keen to know more about this surfer lifestyle. Bronze told me that he wasn’t actually a surfer but he’d visited Paia previously and fallen in love with the rainforest. He’d then moved here after looking after his terminally ill Dad and then having sold his online business, house and two cars. He now just wanted to live in his cabin in the jungle. It had been a long day and I’d fallen just tiny bit in love with Bronze.

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All the gear- no idea.

Posted on October 17, 2018 by julieallen36

Molokini Crater

Deep Blue

Reef

Parrotfish

Snuba dancers

Fish

Filefish

Brave girl

Yellow Tang

Thing

Looking back to Maui

Blue view

Flounder

Don’t be fooled

Wipeout Beach

Today we had to be up at 5-45 for an exciting pre-booked trip. This was our day to go snorkelling in the Molokini Crater. The remains of this extinct volcano have been flooded by the sea and the crater wall has formed a protected reef. The water here is about 100 feet deep and absolutely crystal clear.

I’d been really excited about this trip and as lots of different companies offer it, I’d spent hours making sure I chose the right trip for us. Should we go on a smart yacht with just a few other people or should we chose a smaller vessel [rib?] which was able to get there faster and visit both sides of the crater wall? Or should I opt for a trip which also promised to spend time in Turtle Town? In the end I opted for a company called Four Winds which got very good write ups on trip advisor and which seemed to offer a family friendly catamaran trip for about 100 people. This trip seemed to offer the maximum time snorkelling at Molokini itself and stayed away from places where there could be strong currents.

We arrived at Maalaea Harbour at 7am and were soon boarding the tidy boat. The trip did not disappoint and yes- there were some very loud people on board but it was not overly crowded and the captain gave an informative commentary as we cruised along. the staff were also very friendly.

When we arrived at the crater there were already about 10 other boats there. As Jane and I had all our own gear we were straight in the water off the back of the boat- easy access down some steps. As soon as I put my head in the water it took my breath away- it was SO deep and blue and clear. Man- was it deep! Jane the ‘not very confident swimmer’ was also in and off- which never fails to amaze me. Brave girl!

We swam over closer to the wall where the reef was nearer the surface and its here that the greatest variety of fish were hanging out. The boat trip catered for everyone – there were boards with windows for the kids to use, there was something called ‘snuba’ which you could try and which allows you to go underwater and breath attached to a tube without all the gas tanks associated with scuba. There was also a slide off the boat and others which looked fun -but not for ladies of a certain age methinks! They also provided a good lunch and once you’d finished snorkelling, you could enjoy the free bar!

Jane and I did two snorkel sessions- one one each side of the boat. The after lunch session was on the right hand side the coral was beautiful and the variety of fish even better. In total we had about two hours here, which was much more than any of the other boats, and Jane and I made the most of it. We then enjoyed the sunshine, beer and reggae music on the return journey. They even arranged to amuse us with two dolphins swimming alongside us at the bow of the boat.

By the time we got back to our place it was only about 1-30 still and didn’t want to just waste the afternoon lazing about! So we got back in the car and drove up to a beach called Kahekili in the middle of the resort metropolis of Kanapaali. Again this is an area right in amongst the big hotels- specifically here the Westin but this being Hawaii- they have to offer beach access- hurrah! My guide book gave this beach 3 stars and said it had ‘everything’.

By now Jane and I were feeling like pro-snorkelers so we cooly walked down the beach put on our flippers and masks and got ready to dive in. What we hadn’t noticed was quite how forceful the pull and push of the wave break here is. I immediately got dragged out and then knocked off my feet. This was fine but then the next wave pushed me right up the sand sideways and I couldn’t move my legs (and flippers) fast enough to stop them hitting Jane and totally wiping her out too. It must have looked hilarious but it was highly embarrassing to be tossed about in the shallows in this way (not to mention a tiny bit scary) and so we got out asap and walked coyly back to the grassy area and hid in our deck chairs.

Jane read her book and I did a sketch of what we had now nicknamed ‘Wipeout Beach’ with some dark threatening clouds heading our way. But it wasn’t long before I heard a little boy shout ‘At last, I’ve seen a turtle’ very excitedly and a little girl going back down the beach telling her Mom she was ‘going to see the turtles again’. What?! Oh—right now I decided to brave it again. This time I chose my entry point more carefully- it was amazing – as soon as I got over the wave break I was then pulled about 10 metres out- along with all the fish. It does then push you back in again so you just need to get used to the flow. However, because of the swell the water here was a bit murky and I didn’t see anything new and certainly not any turtles. Boo.

Now all I needed to do was get out again. This involved picking a sandy channel through the reef and then just waiting for the swell to spit me out onto the beach whilst trying to look vaguely dignified. I was able to tell Jane she hadn’t missed anything.

Despite this experience at ‘Wipeout beach’ it had been a fabulous day and we celebrated with cocktails and brownies at the Air BNB before going out to dinner at the Aloha Mixed Plate. The added bonus of this restaurant is that you get to listen to the music from the Lu’au next door. Think Hula Girls and beating drums. Lovely.