Lazaway Life

  Gigha was like the Costa del Sol today.  Very sunny, very calm, and thronging with people enjoying themselves.  The beaches were busy, there were paddle boarders everywhere, the Boathouse restaurant was spilling out onto the beach, and the pontoon was full - RIBs were tied up three deep at one point. We left Ardfern shortly after 10.00 and headed south.  The sea was like a millpond and surprisingly un-busy with other boats.  However it was busy with Harbour Porpoises - they seemed to be everywhere.  I presume they are everywhere all the time, but you just don’t see them.  With today’s conditions every fin that broke the surface was spotted. When we got to Gigha we wanted to go on the pontoon, but there wasn’t a chance.  Too busy.  So we tied up to a mooring not far from the end of the pontoon, and for a good part of the afternoon we watched the sights and sounds of a happy place.  Good to see. We even needed the Bimini up it was so hot...

  The Ardfern Marina workboat at its berth - just waiting for something to do. It’s a tough life. Our activity today was a walk from Ardfern up over the hill to Craobh Haven and back - about 16,000 steps.  It was misty to start with this morning and a bit cool.  While having morning tea on the upper deck Gordon and I spotted a jumping fish, followed shortly afterwards by an Otter. It was foraging along the shore, and although we didn’t see it for long, it was good to catch sight of what is normally a fairly elusive animal. ( unfortunately it was much too far away to get a picture). Our walk was through a mix of rough farmland and woodland with a considerable number of residential houses along the way.  The track is partly tarmac but much of it is a rough dirt road.  By the time we were en route the weather was warm and sunny and calm and lovely. As we came down towards Craobh Haven the views up Loch Melfort were lovely. A Red Squirrel was spotted scampering dow...

  Pre-dinner drinks last night out front of the hotel. Sunny, warm, and refreshing.  This is what it looked like this morning. Quite foggy all morning, but very calm. At 10.00 we went ashore to visit the distillery, and perhaps buy a bottle.  However, we found that there are lots of different varieties which we don’t know, and the visitor centre charged for a tasting sample.  Being a bit tight, we decided that we were’t prepared to pay for a sample, so we didn’t taste any and didn’t buy any.  A good result really. Plan B was to go next door to the cafe (not associated with the distillery) and have coffee and cake.  Good plan.  The coffee was excellent and they brought out hot fresh sausage rolls - they looked and smelt too good to ignore, and so we bought 4 for lunch. The weather began to clear at about 11.30, and so we left the mooring and headed north to Ardfern. The weather remained dull and misty all the way - and indeed it still is as I write this...

  The toilets at Ardbeg Distillery.  A wonderful work of art. Another gorgeous day today, though a little breezy.  The day started with reports from neighbouring boats about disturbances on our pontoon sometime after midnight last night - which we were more or less oblivious of - plus a hit and run incident at 07.30 this morning.  A departing boat hit a large expensive American boat causing some damage (though we couldn’t see it) and didn’t stop to exchange details.  Nobody knows which boat did the damage.  There is now a rather unhappy American (justifiably). Our morning exercise was to walk the Port Ellen to Ardbeg whisky path - 3.25 miles each way. On a sunny day like today it was a gorgeous walk.  The Ardbeg cafe (and toilets) at the end making it an altogether enjoyable leg stretch.  No whisky was imbibed today (as far as I know). The courtyard coffee caravan.   We had ours inside because the anti-freeze system kept it cool. Ardbeg on th...

  Guess where we found Islay gold?!! We caught the bus from Port Ellen to Bowmore, and the connecting bus to Bruichladdich.  The bus trips were lovely - apart from some extremely ripe odours coming from the rotting seaweed around the top end of Loch Indaal.  Mingin’! As soon as we arrived we had a coffee and bacon butty in a cafe/shop/post office just down the road.  A good start to the day, and necessary to set us up for the main business of the day. Whisky Galore! Susie and Gordon went for the top left variant. My target variation on the theme. After a substantial sample (at 10.30 in the morning) which confirmed it as being particularly good, and with a big birthday in the offing, Mary brought me a bottle. I now have a couple of months before it can be opened. After a couple more samples (just to make sure the correct whiskies had been bought) we walked the footway to Port Charlotte.  It is a well built footpath, parallel to but not connected to, the road. ...

  Cottages on Port Ellen harbour  It’s hard to believe that Storm Floris was last Monday - today (Monday a week later) was almost dead calm.  Wonderful conditions for coming up north past the Mull of Kintyre.   Our plan is to have a week around Islay, Jura, Ardfern and Gigha. The two lighthouses of The Maidens  Top: Maidens East Tower, constructed in 1829 and automated in 1977. Bottom: Maidens West Tower, constructed in 1829, and decommissioned in 1903. A great place to go shagging.  Both towers designed by George Halpin Senior. All the way up the North Channel it was calm - and reasonably warm ( though not the heatwave being touted for south England).  Lovely travelling conditions, and should have been lovely conditions for seeing cetaceans - but nobody had told the whales and dolphins!  We did see Harbour Porpoises twice, but that was it.  A little disappointing. A low mist accompanied us most of the way.  This is the Oa Peninsula on t...