We drove to central western Mull today and caught the tiny passenger ferry to the island of Ulva, a small island in the Inner Hebrides with a population of just 16.
One calls the ferry by sliding a wooden panel from left to right, which reveals a red background. When the ferryman in Ulva spots the red on the Mull side of the water, he brings his boat across and escorts you to Ulva.
There’s even a café on Ulva, called The Boathouse. Needless to say, it’s the only place to get anything to eat, as there are no shops and there’s nowhere to stay. It reminded me a little bit of Mykines in the Faroe Islands, but that island is vastly more remote and has only half the residents of Ulva. Everything is relative, even here.
The Boathouse also serves dinner on a Friday evening, but has a waiting list that runs almost to the end of the summer. There was no hope for us to get dinner there, so, after a successful afternoon’s hiking on Ulva, we came back to Tobermory for dinner.
It was glorious weather again today. I hope it continues, of course, but the forecast is against us once more.
Tomorrow, we leave Mull and head for Skye, the most northerly island in the Inner Hebrides. The journey will require a further two ferry crossings and a lot of winding road. I hope Lukie’s stomach holds up for it. It didn’t today.