May 3 Oban to Tobermory

Photos

We were docked overnight at Oban. This morning Brian led a walk up to McCaig’s Folly. I think only about ¼ of the passengers braved it. McCaig’s Folly is a Victorian era construction made to look like a ruin of a Roman coliseum. It looked like it was about a football field straight up above the bay and it was cold, windy and raining, so I opted not to go. Clay got up and went. He didn’t tell me I missed anything. I don’t know what he had for breakfast. I had one Egg Benedict and coffee. It was good. 

At 9:30am we were to meet in front of Oban Distillery. We did, but we never saw Brian. Eventually, near 9:40am, a woman came out and asked if we were with Lord of the Glens. The tour is usually £7.50 per adult, but she handed us each a ticket for £3 off the purchase of one 70cl bottle of Oban Malt Whisky and asked us to come on in, go upstairs to look around their little museum  and divide into 2 groups because our group was too big. Since we were leaderless a bunch of late-coming people decided not to wait for group 2 and pushed past us and went with the now too large first group. That meant only a handful of us got left behind and apparently forgotten. At some point a little past 10am, the first woman came back and asked why we weren’t touring and we said we’re the second group. She got flustered because we wouldn’t have time for the full tour unless we started right now and we needed to sail out with the tide, so we couldn’t be late. We did eventually get our tour, but it seemed an unnecessary bit of unpleasantness that again could have been handled with better communication or leadership. We got a sip of a 9 year old Oban single malt scotch whisky from a cask. Then we got a sip of the standard 14 year old. They offered us droppers of water and it was amazing the difference a few drops of water made. They explained that the whisky has an oily kind of surface and just a couple of drops of water breaks it and releases the flavor. I thought it made it better but I still didn’t like it. I wanted to buy a bottle but they did not ship, so sadly we have no way of carrying it onward. They did gift us our cask tasting glasses though. 

All aboard was at 11:30am and that is when we set sail. Lunch was at noon. Choices had to be ticked off this morning for lunch and dinner. Choices for lunch were pasta, game casserole or a baked potato. The table Clay and I were at had 2 pastas and 4 baked potatoes! Soup was some kind of squash puree. Dessert was pear and apple crumble with a vanilla sauce. It was OK.

We sailed from Loch Linnhe by the Firth of Lorn to Craignure on the Isle of Mull. We docked briefly in Craignure to let people off to tour Duart Castle. Duart Castle is the ancestral seat of the Maclean's. (This was included in our fare, like this morning's tour of Oban Distillery. Tickets are normally  £5.75.) Since it was such cold raw ugly weather maybe a little less than ½ got off. They stayed on as Lord of the Glens continued sailing on up the Sound of Mull to Tobermory. The Isle of Mull is about 20 by 30 miles in size. We were told by Steve our bus driver/guide that it has about 18 miles of double track pavement and we drove on 12 of it. That means 2 lanes, one in each direction. The rest is paved as single track, with passing bumpouts. That means a 1 lane road and you have to share it by moving over into a bumpout for oncoming traffic. We drove on both double track and single track. Weird. I would not have liked to live in Duart Castle. I don’t think anyone lives there now. We had way too much time there. It was a long drive all the way up the coast for the length of the island to Tobermory. I guess that usually is a beautiful scenic drive, but once again we couldn’t see anything because of rain, fog, low clouds and mostly the windows all fogged up. Even on the sail over, we couldn’t see anything. It is supposed to be a spectacular scenic sail, but between the windows fogged over and the rain and clouds, cue the foreboding music was all I could think. I'm really hoping for a clearer day tomorrow.

We had a long walk around the curve of the bay from Tobermory Distillery (which we did not visit) to the other end of town where Lord of the Glens was moored. Thankfully Steve, the bus driver, had  pointed out the boat’s location to us since Brian declined Steve’s offer of the microphone. He didn’t have anything to say to us individually when we stepped down to him either. I will give him credit later maybe, after dinner. Our choices tonight are lamb, fish or mushroom stroganoff, the soup is fish and the dessert is orange. Nothing for me. I tried to find someone to discuss this with at breakfast and before lunch. But, finally I caught Brian right before leaving for the castle tour and asked him if someone could save me a baked potato from lunch and he offered me a steak too.  Like I said, we’ll see. We’re still waiting for the extra hangars he told me were on their way.

Brian is replaying a TV show from last night about sea eagles on the Isle of Mull and Tobermory. He is doing lots of wildlife and I wish we had seen anything like what this guy caught on camera. But, I guess you need a clear day and we didn’t draw one. We are here overnight so hopefully tomorrow will dawn clear. Fingers crossed.

Dinner is at 7:30pm. It is 6:05pm. Clay has been sleeping since I turned the TV on. I could have done with a nap myself. Maybe now….

I did have a little nap before dressing for dinner. There was about an hour break in the rain right at dinner time. We saw a tall ship motor into Tobermory Bay during dinner. I did get my steak as promised by Brian, so I appreciated that. Clay had the lamb and liked it. It was cold and windy and wet again after dinner and I don’t think many people or anyone at all went into town. Brain showed an Ealing Studios black and white movie from 1949 called Whisky Galore at 9:30pm (or so) on our TVs. It was set in the Outer Hebrides Islands off NW Scotland and we are docked at an Inner Hebrides Island. Anyway, when Brian announced it in the dining room everyone seemed to know it. We started watching it but we fell asleep about the time the islanders had salvaged the whisky from the shipwreck and so I guess we missed all the fun and action.

Photos