RLS-2 getting of Mull

 

 I opened the tent fly net zipper and exit flap to go for a morning pee, planning on setting up a nice morning coffee with terrific views from my tent, I had pitched it the previous evening with the opening facing ben mull for my morning coffee view, the place was absolutely hoatching with midges I couldn’t stand still never mind laze in the tent with a coffee enjoying the view! I packed as much as I could inside the tent, then donning full midge PPE I set about placing everything except the tent a distance away from the camping area, I hoped this would fox the midges away from my stuff while I got the tent down with head net on and gloves, the coffee would have to wait! It had rained through the night the tent was packed damply

Once on the go it was all single-track road with passing places nearly all of mull is, I had been walking a couple of hours before the drizzle rain started, this is the sort of rain where you wonder is it worthwhile putting on waterproofs for? I opted to play safe as once soaked I wouldn’t get dry, whilst changing into the waterproofs I guess the lid had came off my metal mug as I kept my coffee sachets and matches in there, these I have not seen since that morning I am gutted I may have caused some rubbish more than the loss of my lid and sachets, note to self-make sure things are more secure in future! The scenery on the walk was wonderful though as the road was at the lochside, with views to the mountains on the other shore and the islands in the distance, that coupled with all the wildlife made for pleasant walking

After walking for a couple of hours I seen a wee van approach, stepping to the side of the road backpack out the way arms at sides to let it pass, the wee van put on an indicator pulled over and flashed at me! I wondered WTF can they not see it will be much easier for them to pass me now? The driver got out and smiled now there was a site to make me smile gladly, it was Sheila she knew she would pass me at some point in the morning as she had a client to visit in the area behind me, she had time to spare and had prepared me a travel mug of coffee along with some breakfast snacks, absolute goddess I sat in her wee van out the way of the drizzle and midges for the most awesome coffee ever, Sheila had to go soon for her appointment but informed me there was a café three or four mile up the road that does a great soup and sandwich at a place called pennyghael,

The walk along this area was nearing the end of the loch where the road splits, left fork takes you along the coast to the normal tourist route up ben more, which was poking out of cloud as I walked thinking over my options, the right fork cuts through the mountains a quicker way to the other side of Mull, listening to the narration of kidnapped describing David Balfour`s  adventures on mull, also from the study of the map the most likely route to be taken if you are trying to follow the book would be skirting ben more towards Craignure, personally I wanted to go up ben more as part of this adventure but had come to realize the huge undertaking this would be, there is what looks like a good walking trail away from the road into a forest, there is also the old road which roughly follows the new road through the glen with what was for me a surprisingly scenic mountainous glen, had it been closer to the mainland it would have been a tourist trap but now mostly uninhabited sheep infested heather covered hills, 

In the book, David Balfour says that although it was only 50 miles, as the crow flies from Erriad to Fishnish, but that he must have traveled a 100 miles. RLS does not give any clues and so we are free to find a suitable route across Mull. However our job is not made easy by the volume and speed of the traffic rushing to and fro between Carsaig and Iona. In addition Mull has some VERY rough ground in places.

A resignation came upon me that last nights thoughts to this being a journey more for research (this time!) into the best way to do the route justice than to actually do the whole thing, it’s a journey through the land over the sea through time in politics and peoples not a walk from A-B, yes there is an A -Erraid and a B -Corstorphine, but the route between them is such a wide and varied Landscape joining the start and finish deserves a bit of flare! Even this early on I realized I wanted to make a definitive route on how it should be tackled and what are the must stop must dos and which could be accepted as no longer perhaps never were a doable part of the route/journey/adventure

               Once at Sheila’s recommended soup and sandwich place,( turns out I was too early for the soup,) I ordered a coffee and a bit of dairy free cake, I try to follow a plant based diet and at that time had taken no dairy for a year and a half, its not easy when you are on the move as much as I am I’ve not had much cake due to this, when asking if there was any dairy free cake then finding out the cake was dairy free, this was a good replacement for a bowl of soup, I also bought mum a postcard and sent it off while sitting at a picnic bench outside (due to pandemic nobody could sit inside) no sooner had I sent the card and finished the cake than Sheila appeared and joined me, she was going for a ferry to oban no time to stop, A lift was offered to Craignure? At that point I had decided on the rough track through the hills with my heavy pack and the drizzling rain, this would have taken me all day to get to my next destination fishnish, on the spur of the moment I opted for the easy option the hike through the glen would have to wait for another day,

               Once at Craignure there was two welcome sites one was the wee spar shop for provisions, the other was an open public toilet, I was now set for the hike mostly alongside the main road to fishnish, the sun had come out for this walk on tarmac by the time I reached the ferry pier my feet were roasting I took of my boots and socks and read my book with a can of beer bought from the spar waiting forty minutes for the ferry, everything was shut at the little ferry terminal including the toilets, tickets had to be paid for on the ferry via credit card tap only

This crossing from mull to the mainland was the main crossing area in the 1700`s in DB`s time, the boats were all rowed or sailed, nowadays the main crossing is the longer ferry journey to Oban, in the book the passengers of this ferry help with the rowing and can hear the lamenting of the highlanders on the sailing ship, these people had been forced out their homes and were being forcibly shipped off to the new worlds during the clearances, some sold as slaves they were singing in the Gaelic (by then a banned language) lochaber no more , I on the other hand enjoyed this pleasant short ferry journey, the only foot passenger on board and wondered if in future I could kayak the crossing?

Once at the small town of Lochaline I considered walking half a mile in the wrong direction to visit the pub, to see if a pint and a bowl of soup would be available? Nobody in town seemed to know if it was open that I spoke to, it was by the 15:30, I bought a coffee at the harbor café to have a look at my map? This area is called the Morvern peninsula its almost an island mostly empty in the middle with the land heading north, my route was to get to the Corran ferry somehow, I opted to just start walking and struck for the road over land, knowing there was no chance of me making it to either the camp site at strontian or the ferry port at Ardgour-Corran 32miles away that day

I walked for 12miles enjoying the scenery on this very undulating road, the evidence was all around in these parts that the highland clearances were a success for the rich landowners, there was one very impressive round turreted palace on the shore of a loch surrounded by hills of heather devoid of trees but plenty old shielings now covered in moss, there was one small section of extremely beautiful forest the type of wet woodland where even the rocks in the streams are covered in green. A large group of dear fled from me as I walked but the countless sheep seemed very familiar with or unafraid of humans

Finding a spot to camp before it got dark near some running water can become  a hap hazard affair! you pass a potential spot and think for the next twenty to thirty minutes I should have taken that spot? as the next few always seem worse, then eventually you just know that the next viable spot will just have to do, this was the case that night I ended up near a cross roads on the road near enough to a stream for water but too close to the road and not much shelter from the wind, once in the tent and phone of flight mode I got some messages from Gary warning me of the approaching bad weather (he wasn’t wrong) maps and books were brought out in the tent head torch on planning to do?