Where eagles dare

MONDAY - Six go wild on Mull

What a brilliant day this turned out to be.  Weather wise it was blustery and quite frankly freezing for most of the morning then as we ate our butties the sun suddenly came out and set the trend for the rest of the week.

But, wrapped up and safely ensconced in Bryan's van - it didn't matter a jot.

Bryan has been running his Wild About Mull tours for a few years now, but he makes every trip as fresh as if it was the first time.  We had a brilliant day from the moment he picked us up at 9 after our breakfast, to when he dropped us off in time for dinner.

Nine wonderful hours seeing the most incredible wildlife on Mull and learning so much from a passionate enthusiast and expert.

Mind you we didn't get very far before we were challenged by our first toros

Everything was so brilliantly planned - even down to the loo stops and tasty homemade lunch - probably the best yellowy egg butties I have ever tasted and very welcome cups of tea from a bottomless flask.


By lunchtime at 1.30pm we'd already seen over 30 species including white tailed eagles, otters, golden eagles, tawny and long eared owls, red deer and loads of birds.


and this is my photo of the white tailed eagle in her nest - honest

and obviously this lot all saw it too

and the otters over yonder

and the sweet tawny owl taking a nap in the rafters

The views down the lochs and across the hills were jaw dropping at times, especially as the sun crept out creating shadows in the folds of the mountains. 

In the afternoon we added mountain hares and adders to our list and many many more beautiful birds.

We all had a tick list to mark off and I'll list the species we saw at the end for those in 'the know' to ruminate.

We topped off the tour at the beautiful Uisken beach

and I rather liked the local fire station

Now Bryan keeps a really brilliant blog so you can look at 'our' day on his blog and see close ups of what we saw, 'cos his camera was able to reach the parts other cameras (like mine) couldn't.  Just click here to read all about it.


And I can tell you now, the chorus of My Old Man (did you read Bryan's blog?) was roof raising as we sped along the single track lane back to Fionnphort from the hall of the mountain hares.  And it all kicked off when we spotted a pair of linnets - I didn't know they were real wild birds!!

Back at Ardness House Gillian excelled herself with big tasty langoustines from the loch, chicken stuffed with haggis and a family recipe 'cloutie' for pud - just amazingly delicious.


and to top it all off the sunset was incredible - pink bouncing off the strata on the mountain opposite, just like the Grand Canyon and then lingering around the horizon up past midnight.

And tomorrow it's going to be Staffa, home to the great Fingal's Cave . . . .  keep tuned in and click here when you ready to read more and move on to Wednesday.


PS The spotted species today were:

BIRDS	Herring Gull	Snipe
Black-headed Gull	Hooded Crow	Song Thrush
Chaffinch	Hooper Swan	Starling
Common Buzzard	Jackdaw	Stonechat
Common Gull	Lapwing	Swallow
Common Sandpiper	Linnet	Tawny Owl
Curlew (on nest)	Mallard (and chicks)	Tree Pipit
Dunlin	Northern Wheatear	Tufted Duck
Dunnock	Oystercatcher	Twite
Eider	Pheasant	White Wagtail
Golden Eagle	Pied Wagtail	White-tailed Eagles
Golden Plover	Raven	Woodpigeon
Great Black-backed Gull	Rock Pipit	OTHER CRITTERS
Great Northern Diver	Rook	Adder
Great Skua	Sand Martin	Common Seal
Grey Heron	Shag	Highland Cattle
Greylag Goose	Short-eared Owl (in flight)	Mountain Hare
Hedge Sparrow	Siskin	Otter
Hen Harrier	Skylark	Red Deer

oh and yes a Meadow Pipit too - sorry

peace comes dropping slow

MONDAY - Six go island hopping . . . to Iona

Not a cloud in the sky or a breath of wind today.  Blue skies, turquoise waters and calm sparkly seas in the Sound of Iona.  People thought I was joking when I got to work today - but HONESTLY, the weather was just amazing.

Caught the ferry on foot from Fionnphort over to the tiny island of Iona, gannets diving all around us for fish and the sea bed clear as anything.

Beautiful little harbour village and check out the cute Post Office on the beach!

and five of you were lucky enough to get a postcard posted at this very moment - cos they were they only ones who's addresses I knew off by heart, having forgotten my address book!

We passed the old nunnery and the Primary School scarecrows and the Peter Rabbit allotments

Made the pilgrimage to John Smith's grave - very lovely and peaceful and glinting in the sun.  Loved the inscription.

and the view

Wrote my journal in the sun

Got some shots of the gargoyles in the Abbey cloisters

Then some of the ancient gravestones and celtic crosses in the Abbey museum

and the Abbey itself, with it's beautifully coloured local stones

and it's celtic crosses against Toledo blue skies

and dark mysterious interior

Then we took our picnic across to the northern tip of the island and the most amazing beaches - the pictures will have to speak for themselves as I know I can't do justice to the incredible colours, the rocks, pebbles, shells and the backdrop of the Hebredian islands all around us.


Just what I imagine tropical waters to look like  . . .

Fantastic patterns in the sand dunes too.

as well as Sea Campion (or so I am told) nestling in the rocks

This was the view as we ate our butties - wild, remote - could have stayed there forever

and not another soul in sight (thank goodness)

a final twin baa-ahhhhhh factor

and farewell to Iona it was

and next you'll have to read about how we went wild in Mull on Monday!!!  Just click here

to the wild mountain thyme

SATURDAY NIGHT - Six arrive at Ardness

These are my first shots of Mull on Saturday evening as we drove across to our Bed and Breakfast, Ardness House, in the Ross of Mull just outside Bunessan.  The wilderness and stark beauty hit us the moment we turned left off the boat.

then we could suddenly see the wild Atlantic

and the 'pinch me I must be dreaming' view from our front door at Ardness House, with that incredible mountain across the loch

and the warm welcome from Gillian and the amazing meal waiting for us, beef from the farm and rhubarb picked that day, cemented Vince's perfect choice of our base for the week.  Read my Tripadvisor review (click here) if you don't believe me!!

And after dinner the sunset lingered all around our farmlands til almost midnight, so the sleepy six went to bed and set their alarms for Sunday breakfast and the boat to Iona . . .

and finally, to serenade you all to sleep, here's the haunting song I can't get out of my head, so beautifully sung by Joan Baez (who we saw last year - and she still has that amazing voice)

Night night

Tomorrow we sail over to Iona just click here to read on

and we'll all go together

SATURDAY 28 April 2012 - Six Set Sail for Mull

Just got back from the most amazing week on the Isle of Mull with five fabulous friends and I'm going to attempt to tell the tale of our adventures over the next few blog posts.

Suffice to say there was a lot of crying (with laughter), sunshine, sea air, good food and rare sightings and if I manage to hone down my 647 photos to a few shots, I should be able to give you a flavour of the week.

Oban and Mull were the hottest and dryest places in the British Isles last week - creeping up past 19degC while the rest of the UK was under severe weather warnings and flood alerts.  Of course, as we sat picnicing beside babbling burns in the sun or dipping the toes of our boots into the blue Atlantic Ocean on white sunny sands, we did give a thought to the poor folk down south . . .

Here's the first voyage - Oban to Craignure, which got me to thinking how it's easy to forget that we live on a series of islands anyway - the British Isles, and how seafaring was a way of life for most in the past and for many still today.

Snippets of songs were springing to mind at this stage,  "One Friday morn when we set sail, our ship not far from the land . .  . "  though we didn't espy any fair young maids with combs or glasses in their hand.  Manuscript (click here) for enthusiasts to sing along.

and here's the magical Shoals of Herring to listen to by Ewan McColl - I had this on my holiday playlist for the journey north:

as well as Neil Young's Crickle Creek Ferry:

no more musical diversons - to get back to our own ferry journey, here are the some pics as our bonny boat sped over the sea to Mull:

It was just fabulous wall to wall scenery of mountains and still waters only disturbed into gentle wave patterns by the boat

 

 

and finally we glide into Craignure harbour:

To be continued as we disembark and drive across Mull . . . . .  Click here to read on