Did I mention that driving distances in the west of Scotland are short, but driving times are long?
We rolled down the hill from our hotel in Tobermory on the Isle of Mull just after 10:00 this morning, travelling just 400 metres to the quay from which the ferry to Kilchoan departs. The ferry wasn’t due to leave until 11:00, but you can’t pre-book it, so it’s first come, first served. Saturday is also the switchover day for a lot of people. Some people leave for holiday or just a weekend away, whilst others are returning home. As such, it was prudent to queue well ahead of time.
We made it to the Ardnamurchan peninsula in the pouring rain, arriving at 11:30. From there, it was a long, undulating and exceedingly winding drive along the peninsula on a single track road. The beauty of the surrounding landscape was breathtaking, but the slow rollercoaster ride meant that I had to concentrate on the road and have my foot ready to slam on the brakes if another car suddenly appeared in the middle of the road from around a blind bend.
It took a couple of hours to read Mallaig, which is the departure point for the ferry to the Isle of Skye. We had enough time to eat a relaxed lunch before checking in for the 15:10 departure to Armadale.
On Skye, we had just over another hour of driving to do, heading up the eastern side of the island, along a surprisingly good road to Portree, where we pulled up in front of our hotel at 17:15.
We’d been travelling all day, or so it felt, and yet had only about 162 km to show for it. It truly felt closer to 2½ times that. To top it all, Lucas puked all over himself in the last few hundred metres, having endured the twists and turns of the whole day without a single multicoloured yawn.
Check out the drive to see the route we took.
We’ve come quite a long way north now. The five day weather forecast is for rain every single day. There was certainly plenty of it today, but it scarcely matters when you’re in the car for almost the entire day. Rather that than that you have to drive on a gorgeous, rain- and cloud-free day, the like of which we saw for a couple of days on Mull.
Skye is very large, so we’ll only be able to scratch the surface of it on this visit. It’s the largest island in the Inner Hebrides and the third most popular tourist destination in Scotland, after Edinburgh and Loch Ness. Given the lateness of our arrival, we opted for dinner in the hotel and so haven’t really even seen Portree yet. That will come tomorrow.
The further north we travel, the more affinity I feel with the landscape. There’s a tranquility here that can’t be overstated. The forbidding green escarpments and deep blue waters have me yearning for more. I find myself inspired to revisit the Faroe Islands and rural Iceland. For all the delights that this world has to offer, there’s nowhere quite as beautiful to me as the north Atlantic and its island chains.
I’ve actually never missed the UK since turning my back on it in 1991, but if I were ever to contemplate living in the British Isles again, it would surely have to be somewhere in Scotland.
The clan of the Macdonalds originated on Skye. It’s therefore perfectly plausible that my ancestors, too, hailed from here. They bore the name, after all. I know nothing about my ancestry before my grandfathers, so anything’s possible. Knowing my lot, though, somebody probably assumed the surname Macdonald to evade the authorities. I could have a sizeable stream of Scottish blood coursing through my veins or, more likely, none at all.