slowly she turned

Up early to eat a marvelous breakfast at Glenspean Lodge, and since the day’s plans were almost entirely on the bus or the ferry, Sandy decided to give it a go. I wore some acupressure wrist bands that another tour member gave me and took only half a Dramamine. This worked very well and didn’t knock me out, which was good since normally twisty roads on buses and boat rides can trigger my motion sickness within a minute.

Our bus took us to Oban, where we were cut loose for a little while. Sandy nosed around the shops some before returning to the ferry terminal to sit. His shoulder and arm weren’t the only parts of his body hurting. I ventured a bit farther away and bought us a couple of toboggans at a Harris Tweed mill shop that looked very old fashioned compared to the ones that we saw everywhere.

It was quite comfortable on the large ferry over to the Isle of Mull. The weather was a bit wet, but the scenery was pretty.

We were whisked onto the bus and transported to Tobermory, a beautiful little harbour town. They served an excellent seafood chowder at MacGochan’s Pub and Kitchen.

There were palmettos in the parking lot. In Scotland! The Gulf Stream is a powerful force on the west coast of the British Isles.

I rushed out of the pub to take this photo of the rainbow that appeared beside the rainbow colors of the harbour buildings.

After lunch we didn’t have much time to look around Tobermory. This was my main criticism of the tour. I appreciated the time spent riding, especially since Sandy was in pain if he walked too far, but I wanted more time to poke around. The small area I had time in had some photo-worthy scenes though.

Once again, our bus whisked us away to another small ferry. On the way, the bus driver pointed out that these boats were some of the most photographed boats in Scotland.

I often couldn’t tell if he was kidding, since his humor was so dry.

The roads were mostly one lane with places for one vehicle to pull over to let the other lane’s vehicle(s) pass.

I finally figured out that if I wanted to take clear photos of the countryside, I would need to take short videos from the bus and trains. Since I always rode just behind Gus, it was very much like being on the front seat of a roller coaster. I did okay, though!

This ferry had room for a few cars and our bus.

We went back on such isolated roads that I didn’t see any houses or cars for miles. When I remarked to Gus that we were taking the back roads, he said “Oh, this is the main road.”

I think he was joking.