Sunset on the Scottish West Coast

in Worldmappin9 days ago

Honestly, this will be the final batch of photos of my recent five-day foray into the West Highlands of Scotland, possibly! I'm sick of trying to find new adjectives to describe the beauty of this area, and I'm tired of the Scots amongst us on Hive, tearing up at 'the auld enemy's' lyrical waxing of their beloved homeland. For God's sake boys, dry your eyes!

So here goes...

We drove North from the sister-in-law's house, up the A82, not even stopping to stare in wonderment at beautiful Loch Lomond. On through the Trossachs National Park until Tyndrum, where something even more incredible and wonderful than even the amazing scenery we'd whizzed by awaited us...

Coffee and breakfast at The Green Welly!

It's a bit of a family tradition to stop here, although I think most people who drive from Glasgow would also take a break here before making the last push onto Oban or Fort William.
It's a petrol station, general store, restaurant, cafe, gift shop and outdoor shop all rolled into one wonderful little 'service' area, sat on the edge of yet more beautiful scenery.

It also has one of these machines where you put in a penny and a pound, turn a handle and it totally defaces the Queen's head and mutates it into a stamped plaque that commemorates your visit! We don't have these machines in Thailand as defacing the king in any way, shape or form would get you a minimum seven stretch.

They are quite popular in the UK in general and the wife gets one every time we stop here, costing me a quid. I did ask her to lend me it to take a photo and show you what exactly you get, but as normal, shes lost it. That'll be another quid wasted on the next trip North...

Eventually, we arrived in Oban for a three-night stay.

Greeted by blue skies and some mild weather.

We had planned on doing a night here and then a couple in Fort WIlliam but it was very busy. Once the schools in the UK go back after the long, summer hioliday, the old gits come out to play and there was barely a room to be had. No worries, we based ourselves here which is still a great place for tripping out.

Many of the decent (and not so decent) sea-front hotels were wanting £200 a night for a room with a sea-view. As some one who can get a room here on Samui, on the beach for £20 a night, it's always 'challenging' when it comes to paying UK prices. So I had to settle for the Royal Hotel which in any case is only a 2-minute walk to the harbour but still came in as £160 a night a room with breakfast.

We were still lucky to get a room here as there was a busload of German tourists just arrived. Breakfast next morning was funny as they were only supposed to have the 'continental breakfast' but kept trying to sneak items from the 'full English...Scottish' tables. Kept the staff on their toes and a smile on my face.

The rooms were decent enough, if you're over 80. My Mum is, and so she was happy, and that's all that mattered. There was a little mild wallpaper peeling but thankfully there were no stains on the bedding and room in general was spotlessly clean.

Not too bad. Clean and comfy at least.

So why Oban?

It's a major ferry terminal for boats that sail out to the Western Isles and as I mentioned earlier, its my mum's trip and she wanted to ride on a ferry, especially as she missed out on a cruise due to Covid, so I booked a quick day return to the Isle of Mull with the famous operator, Caledonian MacBrayne.

On a ferry called 'The Isle of Mull'!

The ferry runs every hour and a half during the day to the main port on the island, Craignure which is nothing more than a tiny village. It's worth taking the trip even if you're not getting off and simply returning straight back to Oban as the journey is spectacular from the observation decks, high above the waves.

Heading out of port, there doesn't look like a lot of space for such a large vessel but the red and green marker buoys help the captain steer a safe course.

The first thing after leaving Oban is the short lighthouse that marks the exit from the bay.

Passing Dunollie Castle on the way out of Oban. There is also a fabulous museum and visitor's centre.

This is Lismore lighthouse which guards the entrance to Loch Linnhe. On a really clear day, you can actually see Ben Nevis way off in the distance.


On Mull's rocky shoreline, Duart Castle rises majectically to greet visitors. The sea was a little bit choppy, but not a problem for our big ship.

A little over an hour later, we arrived at Craignure on the Isle of Mull where buses awaited to take tourists on a tour of the island, and in particular to see the famous picture postcard village of Tobermory. I'd brought the car along, so it was time to drive off and spend a few hours exploring before the ferry back. It was actually just like docking on the ferry to Koh Samui, complete with a green and mountainous backdrop.

Don't worry all the 'thrifters' out there. Even somewhere as remote as Mull has a charity shop.

Now at this point, you maybe expecting a number of pictures of the stunning Isle of Mull. It could even have made its own post but alas, no. Some idiot left his phone on the boat so couldn't take any more pictures. The wife took dozens but as she is Thai, every single one of them have her on them! A quick call to CalMac and the purser had found my phone and left it at the reception for my collection on the return leg.

Passing the smaller ferry that alternates sailings on the way back to Oban.

Passing through the busy harbour before docking safely back on Oban.

Time for a 'Spoons' I think!

The Next Day...

The next day we took a drive up to Fort William which for me, is much nicer than Oban. It's a bit overloaded with outdoor shops and tossers carrying brightly coloured rucksacks and wearing big hiking boots for no reason but it's a lovely small town in an amazing location, and close to Ben Nevis. I love it there.

Basically a one-street, self contained town with a Morrissons supermarket that does the greatest breakfasts!

It's just a pretty and very green, chilled out town. Yes, thats the missus taking selfies again!

I called in at the station just in time to see the very last Jacobite Express Steam train for the season to Mallaig leave the platform, headed by Black 5 Class number 45047, The Lancashire Fusilier.

I will bore you with more train pictures later!

The afternoon was spent by the locks watching the sailing boats pass through which I posted about earlier before we drove back to Oban under an ever more cloudy sky, only stopping to take a photo by the rather gloomy and foreboding looking, Loch Creran.

By the time we'd arrived back in Oban, the weather had cleared up and we had a drive round to Ganavan beach to enjoy the sunset.

And that was it, really. Time to head back South with happy memories and the beautiful scenery and sunsets etched into our minds. Possibly good timing as it had got noticeable colder in the few days we were there.

Of course, the wife was happy about the falling temperatures, she finally got chance to wear her furry earmuffs...to the animal lovers out there, don't worry, the two haggis's that were skinned to make the earmuffs were killed humanely!

That's it. I've come to the end of my trip to Scotland. Exhausted my photos and pinned the post to the wonderful @worldmappin

It just remains for me to say thank-you to anyone who dropped by and gave me an upvote, and to mention that the post has @commentrewarder set as a benficiary.

Best wishes for a lovely week ahead

Martin

@nathen007

Sort:  

Manually curated by ewkaw from the @qurator Team. Keep up the good work!

Thank you very much. Always an honour :-)

Hiya, @lizanomadsoul here, just swinging by to let you know that this post made it into our Honorable Mentions in Travel Digest #2390.

Your post has been manually curated by the @worldmappin team. If you like what we're doing, please drop by to check out all the rest of today's great posts and consider supporting other authors like yourself and us so we can keep the project going!

Become part of our travel community:

Thank you very much and best wishes :-)

You are very welcome @nathen007! it was well deserved. ☀️
Keep up the great work 💪

Wow, that was quite a trip. I have a friend on Arran and I love the way they take a ferry like I take a bus.

Thank you, it was a lovely trip. The ferry network up there is quite expensive and I assume is subsidised. The tickets were not so expensive, less than a tenner return for foot passengers which I thought was very good.
Island life is amazing, but sometimes lacks a little convenience in respect of transport. The residents of Samui are campaigning to get a 20km bridge built to the mainland, the tourists and expats here are campaigning for it not to be built!

Reminds me of Hastings - residents didn't want the A21 upgraded, it would bring too many out-of-towners. They felt they had a nice and gradually thriving economy and didn't want it distorted by increased competition for housing, pricing local people out of the market.

Congratulations, your post has been added to The WorldMapPin Map! 🎉



You can check out this post and your own profile on the map. Be part of the Worldmappin Community and join our Discord Channel to get in touch with other travelers, ask questions or just be updated on our latest features.

Thanks @worldmappin and best wishes to the entire team :-)

Hey @nathen007 you are welcome.
Thanks for using @worldmappin 😘

Haggis fur is the best fur, lol

I do like Fort William. I notice when I am there the amount of folk wearing hiking boots who have never walked on anything other than a pavement in their entire life! In fact they quite often have those big weird hiking sticks too :OD

Oh yes! I'd forgotten about the silly sticks! Its funny, when you drive into Lochabar district, they proudly proclaim its 'the UK outdoor capital' hence there needs to be an outdoor shop every 50 yards down Fort William high street! We usually go up in the cable car to the Nevis Range resort for a coffee but my mum didn't want to this year as we were too early for there to be any snow! We did however call in the the Nevis Highland centre gift shop and terrible cafe on the roundabout before tripping to the lower falls to say hello to my Dad but its been a year or two since we went all the way to walk over the rope bridge. The Wife's not big on walking, she's like me really, loves the great outdoors, but only when observed from the indoors!

Haha, that gift shop/cafe on the roundabout, it's awful.

I love the way Nevis hangs over the whole town. I tried to get the family to walk up a good way with me but they all poofed out. Disgraceful.

Right, I better go get my hiking sticks, its raining out there :OD

Some idiot left his phone on the boat so couldn't take any more pictures.

Duh!!!! And £160 for a room!!!!! Have you not heard of Premier Inn?

Being the nice wife I am, I'm thinking of doing some Isle hopping next year, maybe to Arran, Campbeltown and Islay so hubby can visit some distilleries.

Premier In was the first choice in Oban and FortWilliam..fort William.was full and Oban wanted 168 a night! That's how full up it was. Bloody old folks! I'd knock off their pensions as well as their heating allowance. They have far too much disposable income ;-)

Island hopping would make for a wonderful holiday. He could drink whisky and you could wear Arran sweaters....happy days :-)

Great trips are always commemorated with beautiful pictures. I think the room was decent, nothing flashy. The fact that it was clean enough and the grandmother was happy, then good enough..

Exactly mate. Got to look after my old mum!

You take care and enjoy some of your hard earned crypto profits!

@nathen007, I paid out 0.804 HIVE and 0.231 HBD to reward 11 comments in this discussion thread.

Hello nathen007!

It's nice to let you know that your article will take 7th place.
Your post is among 15 Best articles voted 7 days ago by the @hive-lu | King Lucoin Curator by keithtaylor

You receive 🎖 1.8 unique LUBEST tokens as a reward. You can support Lu world and your curator, then he and you will receive 10x more of the winning token. There is a buyout offer waiting for him on the stock exchange. All you need to do is reblog Daily Report 494 with your winnings.

2.png


Invest in the Lu token (Lucoin) and get paid. With 50 Lu in your wallet, you also become the curator of the @hive-lu which follows your upvote.
Buy Lu on the Hive-Engine exchange | World of Lu created by szejq

If you no longer want to receive notifications, reply to this comment with the word STOP or to resume write a word START