Thursday came around very quickly and although we were tired from all the exertions we'd made so far, we decided that today we would go even further and see the rest of the Mull of Kintyre Penisular.We left our base near the Crinan Canal and followed the same route we'd done the day before and arrived at Tarbert; the place where the Mull of Kintyre starts.
We drove straight through the town and also West Tarbert, where the ferries leave for the Isle of Islay. At this point we were following the banks of Loch Tarbert along the main A83, but we soon turned left and struck off for the other side of the Peninsular, taking a quiet B road(B8001)that was more to our liking.
We climbed the foothills(in our car) of Cnoc A Bhail-Shois and stopped for a while at the top to take in some wonderful scenery. It was a shame about the weather because when we reached this point the weather was very windy with lots of low cloud. Undeterred, and hoping that the wind would blow the clouds away we descended to Claonaig, which contained not much more than a telephone box and a sign pointing Skipness Castle.This was a dead end, but we decided to take a detour as the map showed the road ran along the side of the Sound of Bute and our dog, Buzby, was in need of a walk.
When we reached the end of the road we saw the signs for Skipness Castle, but decided to give it a miss. It was too windy to walk far, and architects in the olden days always seemed to build Castles on the top of hills, which is pretty thoughtless and damned inconviniet for elderly tourists like me. Anyway, on the way way back to Claonaig we got fed up with Busby whingeing about going for a walk, so I gave him a little walk along the foreshore despite the weather.
It was very windy and I could only admire the courage of those who were queuing up, a few hundred yards away, to catch a ferry that would take them across a wild sea to North Arran. We soon recommenced our long journey down the east Side of the Mull, following the side of Kilbrannan Sound and as we did so the clouds gave way to sunny periods. I suppose we'd travelled about 10 miles down this almost deserted road when we came to a bridge that crossed a gorgeous stream, so we got out of the car to take a closer look.
The wind wasn't as bad here because we were in the shelter of some low growing trees, so we wandered about the stream for a while, taking lots of photographs and revelled in the fact that it was all free of charge, free of noise and free of litter. If this water fall and stream was in England it would cost £5 to see it and you'd be surrounded by ice-cream stalls and souvenir shops.Having had our fill of quiet serenity and beauty, two commodities rarely found together, we carried on along the lonely road to Carradale, a village with a quaint working harbour. There were no shops or cafes here, so we sat in the car and had a cup of tea from our flask and admired the view.
I'll leave this post here, but in my next one we will carry on down to Campbeltown which is the main settlement on the Mull of Kintyre.
Before I go I would just like to remind my readers that my first book in The Fishing Detectives series which is entitled Carp Rustlers in now available on Kindle and smashwords.com.
As a special offer to my blog readers and those who frequent my website, I am making a special offer of 25% off the cost of the book. If you go to Smashwords, (click here) and put in the following coupon code, YX49Y when prompted, you will get the 25% discount, but you will have to be quick because the offer ends next Thursday. You will get a complete book for about the same price as a good daily paper.
If you want to find out more about my other books or my pyrography work please click here
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