Back On The Mainland

We parked up for our last night on the Islands at the Hotel right next to the ferry wharf.

We popped in for a drink, once again a deserted pub, I watched the footy whilst Elaine went back to the van to prepare a late night dinner.

We were up at 7.00am, it was a lovely morning with no wind and a dead flat sea.

We were poking out on the open deck as the ferry was full.

Goodbye Outer Hebrides.

Lovely 5.5 hour crossing. 

Never looked at it as this angle before, looks pretty big.

The last 3 hours were spent cruising up quite a narrow channel, well a few hundred metres. 

We were parked up on the front by about 15.00 with a nice view from the side hatch of Oban harbour.

We went for a walk around Oban, it was nice to see people again, we even went into a semi crowded pub. 

As lovely as the islands are we wouldn't want to spend much more time out there.

If  isolation, walking and cycling is your thing, then the Outer Hebrides are the place for you. I was speaking to one of the ships crew that lived out there, he was originally from Glasgow and loved living out there mainly as he has a young family and it is totally safe.    

Tonight we went to an Indian restaurant and had a chat about where to next, we will have a quick look at Loch Lomond then head south and look for summer again. Once again as lovely as Scotland is the weather is abysmal, it has been pissing down since we got off the ferry, actually it has been pissing down nearly every day since we crossed the border. Looking at the weather maps it isn't going to improve any time soon.

We were talking to a chap in a motorhome tonight, he has only been going about 3 days but wants to give it away already because of the weather, I don't think Scotland is a good choice for your first trip.

We look at the whole thing as journey plus it gives us ideas as to where we maybe we could possibly live in the future. We can remember watching Location location location back in Oz, they were showing a couple a remote loch side property, we thought it looked fantastic and why wouldn't they go for it. Now we have seen it in real life I don't blame them. I don't mind a little bit remote as long as there is a town close by.

Whilst we have been in Scotland there is a lot of talk about separating from the UK, now I don't know about the big cities and towns, but all the small communities we have been through it is a unanimous Yes vote. It will be interesting to see which way it goes.