Mull and Outer Hebrides 2021

Friday, April 30th  I don't usually do this, but.......to-day would have been Mam's 124th birthday.  Good memories. It was almost ten a.m. before we left Dumbarton TraveLodge, after a disturbed night. In lovely sunshine, we drove to Loch Lomond, only a short distance away. We haven't been on this road for over five years. There have been many changes, including the parking lochside. Much of it now has double yellow lines. This is in the long parking slip road off the main road north. The views are lovely.   Another new sight. An automatic lawn mower trundling around a large roundabout, watched from the kerb by the gardener.  I was always fond of the town of Oban, a beautiful situation in a sheltered bay overlooking rocky islets and crags, the houses clustered in a horseshoe tier up the mountainside. It's also the gateway to the Isles, Calmac ferries depart for most of the Inner and Outer Hebrides from this base. Before we decided to spend more time on Mull, we bed an...

Thursday, April 29  After a far more leisurely start, we drove to Caerlaverock Wildfowl and Wetlands Trust Reserve (WWT), most notable for the tens of thousands of Barnacle Geese which winter in and around the reserve. The car park is a good place to pick up 'padders' for the trip list. Birds such as Greenfinch, Goldfinch, Willow Warbler, Blackbird, House Sparrow and Dunnock. We enjoyed eating our breakfast here, Swallows and House Martins zooming about, and a few groups of remaining Barnacle Geese , heralding their approach by uttering their unfamiliar calls. Having ascertained that driving on the reserve is not possible, we walked to the comfortable and spacious Tower Hide, where we sat for quite a while seeing........not a lot. Earlier in the year it would have been full of Whooper Swans and various duck species. Small groups of geese, and more frequently, Jackdaws, Carrion Crows and Wood Pigeons flew past, half a dozen Mallard loafed on the pool's verge or swam in pairs...

  Wednesday, April 28 A short night, an early start, followed by a longish drive, Pam's had a nap and I've done a jigsaw. Our Day's Inn room is very similar to that of a Travelodge. Clean, containing all that is necessary for a comfortable night. We shopped in an M and S and a Gregg's en route, we have plenty of suitable food to eat in to-night. At one time to-day, private cars on the road were outnumbered 15-1 by commercial heavy vehicles. We still made steady progress, stopping regularly for breaks - it's a long time since Pam drove this far in a day. In the distant past, we drove to Edinburgh at 4 p.m on a Friday, arriving around 11 p.m (Tattler). We also drove straight home from Wick (Harlequin Duck), and made a day's trip to Anglesey for a Black Lark.. Those days are over.  When I entered the Inn's postcode into the car's SatNav, the final letter would not appear. After a little exploration of the area, I used Google Maps on my phone. We eventually ...

  Scotland April 28 – May 23     Wednesday April 28 Days Inn Hotel, Gretna Green DG16 5HQ   Thurs April 29 Dunbarton Travelodge   G82 2TZ,   Friday April 30 Corran Bunkhouse PH33 6SE   Saturday – May 1 - Friday May 7 Corran Ferry to Ardnamurchan. Then ferry to   Mull. Burn Cottage, Dervaig   Friday May 7 Drive to The Roses B and B, Portree,  Isle of Skye    IV51 9HS   for 1 night   Saturday May 8– Saturday May 22 Ferry from Uig to Lochmaddy, North Uist, Outer Hebrides Bonnie View Apartment, Cairinish, North Uist   HS6 5EN   Saturday May 22 7.30 a.m. dep Lochmaddy-Uig, Isle of Skye ferry I night at Carlisle Todhills Travelodge       CA6 4HA Sunday May 23 Drive home   My moblle phone :          +447919046874 Email:    amansf6692@aol.com Blog:      ht...