Today was a significant departure from the usual drive, hike and beachcomb: the Isle of Mull Highland Games. It’s been a sun-kissed day of tossing the caber, putting the shot, hurling the hammer and watching sweet young things do the highland fling to the strains of the local bagpipes.
We hadn’t deliberately timed our visit to Mull to coincide with the island’s highland games — no wonder it was so hard to book a hotel here — but we’re glad of the fortuity that made it so. Also fortuitous was the weather. Not one drop of precipitation did fall from the sky, a firmament marred by nary a cloud. The temperature was perfect: not too hot, not too cold, and with low humidity. It really couldn’t have turned out any better for an event like this.
Eloïse and Lucas both took part in impromptu sprint races, but I couldn’t quite persuade Sarah to go in for the overseas ladies race (which was won by a girl from the Netherlands).
Neither Eloïse nor Lucas won, but they enjoyed their participation, which is what counts. Lucas did very well, in fact, for a two year old. He was racing against some five year old boys.
I have to say, it was an absolute blast. I thoroughly enjoyed myself today and I think I can safely claim the same on behalf of the other members of the clan.
Mull is stunning, even more beautiful than Arran. Almost all of the island is accessed by single track road, much of it winding, hairpin bends. A 20 km journey yesterday took us about an hour and a half. Lucas was sick twice in the car. He’s become very, very prone to car sickness.
The distances here are short, but driving times are long. You can’t go very fast and any given journey will require some stopping and reversing into a passing place, so that your opposing vehicle can pass you. This means that practically every driver you encounter on the road is someone you exchange a wave with, in thanks for the courtesy or reversing and enabling your two vehicles to pass one another.
I really can’t enthuse enough about Mull. It’s incredibly beautiful and the local folk are friendly to a fault.
Yesterday, I downed what was perhaps the world’s unhealthiest fry-up. My full Scottish consisted of fried egg, fried sausage, fried bacon, fried tomato, fried mushrooms, fried black pudding and fried haggis. I skipped the black pudding and haggis today; even I couldn’t keep that up for long.