We loved the Isle of Mull

On our second attempt we reached the Isle of Mull and what a gem of a place it turned our to be! We took the ferry from Oban to Craignure on another calm day.

Purdy checking out the ferry

Muy chased on board by a digger

Dee checking some lifting gear!

We drove down a very narrow road to Loch Bui that was recommended to us by two different people. Its quite a remote place but does have a small cafe. However, when we arrived we found a mobile pizza van was warming up its oven - what a result! We ordered, went for a walk and came back to a lovely pizza!

Moy Castle, Loch Bui

Tobermory, the main town on Mull, is known for its colourful houses along the bay. It was very picturesque and we enjoyed mooching around the town and yet another cup of tea and scone. We never knew scones were a thing in Scotland!

We had a chat with the captain of the Blue Clipper
and learnt it is no where near as old as it looks

We watched all the rich cruisers being ferried to the
pontoon - the cruise liner was the Seabourn Venture
which costs a fortune to go on!

Standing stones at Glengorm Castle (hotel)
with a lovely cafe nearby - our best lunch yet!

Mull is quite a wild island with mostly single track roads and loads of wildlife so its great demounting Muy and having the truck to explore this rugged island.

We took a short ferry to the religious island of Iona. A beautiful island where we explored the Abbey and went for another swim in what looked like the Caribbean, until we felt the water temperature of course - very cold, but fun! We dried off sitting on the warm rock and watching some Gannets spear the water in front of us in search of a meal.

Purdy sunbathing

Iona Abbey 

Celtic cross at the abbey

We heard the Corncrake at this hotel
while we had tea and scones - again!

Back on Mull we spent our time on some more lovely walks before we had to leave and go back to the mainland.

Wildlife seen so far

We joined a small group tour around Loch Barrandaimh at the Argyll Beaver and Wildlife Centre. There were three beavers living in the lodge on the bank of the loch and we saw them all but we only had a mobile phone so this one is a dot! We did have binoculars though so our view was better.

However, when the rest of the group had gone, fed up with the midges that were hassling us, we stayed behind and got a much closer view. One of the beavers came out onto the bank for a grooming session while another stayed in the water close by.

A Beavers work

The staff there kindly allowed us to camp in their carpark overnight in the reserve and use their wildlife hide too. So in the morning we went up to the hide and had some great views of woodpeckers, Nuthatch, Red squirrels and lots of other birds.

We have seen lots of wildlife and the list below includes those that are in addition to the usual suspects we see at home:

Corncrake - heard but not seen - an interesting call 
Beaver
Otter
Red deer - mentioned as there are loads everywhere!
Fallow deer - mentioned as are my favourite!
Swallows and loads of babies - again, mentioned as so many
Eider duck pair
Shelduck 
Red Squirrel
Curlew
White tailed eagle - only from a distance so far
Golden Eagle - quite a few including a pair building a nest carrying big sticks to it
Bullfinch - mentioned as many more than we see at home and lovely to see
Stonechat
Wheatear
Lapwing
Gannet
Cuckoo sitting on a wire with two small birds - plus hundreds heard
Siskin
Sandpiper
Hooded Crow
Linnet
Yellowhammer
Tree creeper
Nuthatch
Mountain Hare
Highland cattle - lots of them! Not wildlife but roaming everywhere and cool to see!

As for midges - not too bad so far except in the wildlife reserve, a few around some still evenings

Into the Mountains

We left Ellenabaich, back over the Clachan Bridge heading toward the Trossachs. We had a stopover at a wildlife visitor centre where a beaver colony lives (wild) - this is covered in the "wildlife" entry.

A happy hedge!

Tyndrum (I love that name!) was our base on the edge of the Trossochs National Park for 6 nights.  We had an interesting trip to Hollow Mountain - which is a dam with all the electricity generation equipment actually inside the mountain. It is called Crachan Power Station and owned by Drax.

This was us all set up

Another sunny day!

Looking down the generating hall

Tyndrum is on the West Highland Way so we had a couple of hikes, one in each direction. The first hike was too hot for Purdy but luckily there were plenty of rivers for her to cool down in. And for our feet to refresh in! We walked one way to The Bridge of Orchy and got the train back. 

The Bridge of Orchy

The second was a bit chilly! We walked up towards the gold mine (yes!) and the rugged peak of Ben Lui in the background. 

Lots of cute lambs about!

An evening walk up the hills behind
 the campsite for sunset

Ellenabeich and Easedale Island

Ellenabeich turned out to be a lovely location - it is at the southern end of the peninsula on the island of Seil with Easdale Island just off the tip. We ended up staying here for 4 nights as it was such a friendly and relaxing place. We had wanted to see the Corryvreckan Whirlpool but didn't realise trips were organised from here - by the same family that owned the motorhome stopover. We immediately booked on a trip the following evening - they only go out on Spring tides as this is the best time to see it and we happened to be there during one. 

Ellenabeich is within a conservation area so completely unspoilt.

From Ellenabeich there is a regular ferry to the old slate mining island of Easdale. The slate seam (which includes 3 other little islands  - called the Slate Islands) used to be a major provider worldwide and the centre of the slate mining industry in Scotland for nearly 3 centuries. The mining stopped on Easdale Island when the mines were flooded by a gigantic storm in 1881. So now there are big pools everywhere - people swim in some of the shallower ones.

The World Stone Skimming Championships will take place on the island this September, in one of the flooded mines!

Purdy enjoying her new sleeping bag!

We had a lovely hike around the hills behind Ellenabeich, up to Dun Mor and beyond.

Easdale Island viewed from Dun Mor

The Corryvreckan Whirlpool

We were excited and dressed up ready to leave at 1930 on a sunny evening with a flat calm sea - are were really in Scotland? The trip was organised on a Spring tide when the tide was going out. 

The company had two purpose kitted out RIBs, each with two 300HP Yamaha outboards. Both were out this evening, which made for some good pics.

On the way we say a local Sea Eagle nesting on the Isle of Scarba, which was nice to see - we hope to have a closer look at some of these enormous birds elsewhere on our travels.

The Corryvrecken Whirlpool is not one big whirlpool but lots of small ones. The surface of the sea is randomly bumpy with areas of smooth which is where water is being forced from the sea bed. These vary in size and turn into whirlpools. The captain got us spinning in them; luckily you don't get pulled down the plughole! Difficult to get a good photo though.

It was a beautiful evening to be out at sea

The next day we had a hot day in Scotland (a bit too hot for our hike) and a quick dip was needed!

We loved our time here - the park up, the pubs and the people. We might call in again to catch up with Lydia, who is one of the tour guides and call in The Puffer - the pub/cafe on the island where we had an absolutely lovely meal. We might also see Josh again - he will be working on a farm in Shetland when we are there.