The day began cool, cloudy and very windy. We had to fight for every yard of the short distance to the Lochaline turning against the gale sweeping down the glen. If we’d stayed at that caravan park it would have taken us all morning to reach Strontian. The road took us around the loch and we bowled along for a short time, assisted by the wind, then came a long ascent over the crest of the Morvern peninsula.
As we coasted down the other side, a herd of red deer dashed across the road a short distance ahead, antlers silhouetted against the grey sky. We reached Lochaline in time for the 11:55 ferry but elected to take advantage of a wooden bench and scoff our lunch, then cross to Fishnish on the 12:45. The route was a clever piece of planning by Rowan, enabling us to see Morvern and a bit more of Mull as well as being a shorter distance to Oban. It’s only half a dozen miles south along the east coast of Mull to Craignure, which we reached at 13:50. Rather than hang around for the 15:00 ferry, we visited Toronsay Castle gardens, a mile or so further on, first calling in on the tearoom. It was quite warm now, with occasional sunshine.
We caught the 17:00 ferry, checked in at the hostel then popped out to Tesco for food to last us for the remainder of our holiday, as we’d be here for three nights before returning home on Monday. The late sun and distant rain produced a complete rainbow semicircle, the low sun illuminating the town, then the clouds were rendered a deep red by the sinking sun.