There was no post yesterday because we had the longest day of the trip so far (and probably for the rest of the month). We had booked a tour with West Coast Tours out of Oban that took us to the islands of Mull, Staffa and Lunga in the Treshnish Islands. And the longest day of the trip, means the longest post I have written in ages.

Daybreak in Oban

Our day started at 5:45 when Kathleen jumped in the shower so we could be ready for me to drive her down to the ferry landing to catch the ferry to the Isle of Mull at 6:55 a.m. I need to mention that although we booked with West Coast Tours, they don’t do all the transportation. The part of the tour they do is the boats that take you from Mull to the other islands. So you start with a ferry ride that anyone else could take. They do get you tickets for this ferry but they e-mail them to you. You never see anyone from the tour company until you get to the small boats. It was us and about 350 other people aboard the ferry, many heading to work or other activities on Mull. Only about 40 of the people on the ferry were doing the tour we were doing. The ferry took us from Oban to the town of Craignure on the Isle of Mull.

Here are photos I took on the ferry ride headed to Mull. Don’t forget; if you click the first shot, you can then scroll through with your arrow keys or by swiping…and PLEASE…don’t look at my photography on a phone. Please…

From there we caught the island bus (basically it was the city bus for the entire island—anyone could take it–it was not a “luxury motor coach”) to drive down the island to the village of Torbermory where we boarded the tour companies’ boats to head to the islands we really wanted to explore. Luckily for us, we all fit on the city bus and got down to meet their boats on time. And the tour company had purchased seats on the bus for us in advance—round trip.

From Torbermory (more on this quaint village later) we departed for our tour of the Isles of Staffa and Lunga. Depending on the weather and the sea conditions they visit one or the other first and last. We got Lunga first, then Staffa. That was fine with me because I was there for Lunga and her famous…PUFFINS!!!

Every moment on board these boats (when they were in motion) was like riding a mechanical bull. We were bounced and trounced and banged around. Moving on the boat, once you were seated, was a total adventure. Using the facilities on the boat was more than an adventure, it was kind of a nightmare. But as you can and will see from the photo above and my pictures below, it was worth it. Here are a few photos I took off the bouncing boat on the way to Lunga.

Lunga Bunga!

When you disembark a boat on Lunga, they attach a floating dock to the boat and the boat rams the floating dock onto rocks along the shore then you walk out to end of the floating pier and get off on to dry rocks. Then the boat pulls off and waits for two hours or so until it is time to pick you up again.

I almost forgot to mention one of THE most important things that happened yesterday…the weather was PERFECT! No rain, lots of big fluffy clouds and a blue sky for them to float in. For photography, it was a dream day. Haven’t had another like it since the Galapagos. Before I show you my photos from Lunga, I have to tell you that there are a lot of them. I took almost 1200 photos yesterday. Many were the result of me holding down the shutter to take multiple action photos of puffins flying. I probably shot 500 of just those, so it really isn’t that many. Especially when you hear that out of those 500 action shots, I got one I liked. Yup, ONE! But I really like that one. I am breaking these Lunga photos into batches. here is the first one—my puffin gallery. Don’t forget; if you click the first shot, you can then scroll through with your arrow keys or by swiping…and PLEASE…don’t look at my photography on a phone. Please…

Next up are photos I took of the island itself. Landscapes, fauna and such. We were there for two hours and I shot just about everything I could think of shooting.

One thing I didn’t mention was how difficult it was to climb off the rocks. On our way up the gentleman in front of me tripped and started falling backward. His head was headed to some big boulders. I grabbed his backpack and his daughter who was walking in front of him grabbed his hands and we were able to get him back on his feet without fully falling down. Whew! I have always had a much harder time going downhill than uphill. so I made sure to come down much earlier than the rest of the crowd. Still, it got a little iffy at the end of my trip down.

Stimulating Staffa

After two hours on Lunga, it was off to Staffa which was all about geology as opposed to birds. Staffa has two very large caves and some amazing columns that reminded me very much of Giant’s Causeway in Northern Ireland, just across the sea to the west. When we were in Northern Ireland and visited the Causeway we were told a myth about the Causeway being built by an ogre who wanted to attack Ireland from Scotland. When you see Staffa, you might agree he started there. Here are the photos. Don’t forget; if you click the first shot, you can then scroll through with your arrow keys or by swiping…and PLEASE…don’t look at my photography on a phone. Please…

It’s been a long day in Tobermory

That headline is sung to the tune of  “It’s a Long Way to Tipperary” for you folks who want to sing along ?. But it really sums up our time in Tobermory. It was the only hiccup of the day. When you get off the boat, the tour company is kind of finished with you. All you do is board the local bus (you already have your return ticket) and head back to Craignure to catch the ferry (you already have your ticket) back to Oban. The only problem is they don’t tell you that the bus doesn’t leave for two hours. At this point, you are exhausted from the hiking and the bouncing boat ride and all you want is dinner and bed. But you have to hang out in this very beautiful and quaint village for two hours. It wasn’t late enough to eat dinner yet (did I mention that when you take this tour, they tell you to bring your own lunch–we were lucky because when we told David at the Manor House the tour we were doing, he told us that he would make us up sack lunches to take with us since we wouldn’t be eating breakfast–WOW, that’s service.)

Back to our Tobermory time. We wandered a little, took photos (of course), got some postcards (yes, we still send those although if the price of stamps keeps going up, we won’t be mailing them until we get home) and just sat and waited. To be honest, we really weren’t sure who would take us back, (there were four buses parked with no drivers at different times), when we would go back or how we would get there. I say how because by then there were a lot of locals not part of our group who wanted to take the bus as well. Some with very large dogs so now they had more than 55 people and dogs than they could fit on one bus. They ended up having to take a second bus. So finally around 6:15, we were off to Craignure to catch the 7:35 p.m. ferry. While we were in Tobermory, I did take some pretty pics and here they are. Don’t forget; if you click the first shot, you can then scroll through with your arrow keys or by swiping…and PLEASE…don’t look at my photography on a phone. Please…

Finally, off to Oban

We finally got back to Craignure, boarded the ferry and headed back to Oban to a nice dinner in a restaurant of our choice. David had told us we should be fine just walking into someplace around 8:15 when the ferry got in. Sadly, on this one thing, David was wrong. Every restaurant we walked into had people eating but we were told, “Sorry, our kitchen closes at 8:00 p.m.” So no supper for us. That’s OK, we have been eating well on this trip and I was still trying to work off the lunch in Wensleydale we had with Paul and Gail, not to mention the amazing dinner at Banco de Roma in Glasgow. So we grabbed a taxi for the short ride to The Manor House and were off to bed. We got back there about 9:00 p.m. so this day had been a 15+ hour excursion. We were wiped. But not enough to miss having a whisky with David at The Manor House before bed.

I almost forgot, here are a few late photos I took on the ferry ride back to Oban.

Whew, I bet it almost took longer for me to write this, and you to read it, than it did for us to live it. Thanks, so much for sticking with it. And if you didn’t read all the way to here, shame on you ?.

After you have exhausted what there is in business, politics, conviviality, and so on – have found that none of these finally satisfy, or permanently wear – what remains? Nature remains. —Walt Whitman