Country: Scotland
Distance travelled:
Weather: overcast

We were up relatively early, packed and were on the road by 9am today. The drive to catch our ferry to the Isle of Islay took us through the Loch Lommand and trossachs area of Scotland, very impressive and reminiscent of cumbria and the lakes district. Hopefully Mark and I will have time to come back here next year to have a more relaxed tour. Loch Lommand seems to be littered with photos of scenic views we didn’t have time to take.

We made the ferry on time although there was some discussion on whether this would have been possible. I neglected to tell everyone the exact time of departure so we arrived nice and early with no problems. Our ferry, the MS Finlaggen was also on time and we were comfortably carried across the water to Port Aiskreg in just over 2 hours. The ferry was a very well fitted out vessel with a small coffee shop and a quite reasonable looking cafeteria. There was even a shower available in the ladies amenities. I assume the same situation was available in the men’s.

Allister, Mark & I toured the outside decks in the chill wind as she pulled away from the dock and then we met Marion inside and ate the sandwiches we had bought with us. A couple of Irn Bru’s helped to fill in the time until we docked.

The directions to our cottage supplied were relatively clear and we were soon inspecting our new home for the week. Then realization dawned and we rushed off to the largest, and dare I say only, supermarket on Islay which was located in the town of Bowmore. As we drove up the main street of town, we couldn’t help noticing the famous round church of Bowmore but we were more interested in shopping for dinner supplies at that moment. We shopped, we cooked, we ate, we slept. A fairly long and intense day over.