RLSWay day 1 Erraid

 

Sheila along with everyone else I spoke to was amazed at how little planning I had put into this adventure, (I mostly always do wing it for my adventures with minimal planning) this one was on reflection worse than normal due to the funeral/work the pandemic the lack of research material for the route, all made for a bigger wing it than normal! BUT on this day at least I was mega lucky and grateful in that Sheila knew exactly where I was going (well to get on the island anyway) she wasn’t sure what I wanted to do once on the island but then neither was I?

               We parked up in perfect timing for low tide the water was at my knees as at its deepest, once over we aimed for the lighthouse workers cottages which are now part of the Findhorn foundation, stopping ton take a few photos I was mostly unaware of the history of these dwellings but they were built for the workers of the lighthouse builders, the quarried and shaped stones were made here then placed into boats from the small pier, the Stevenson’s were long known throughout history for their lighthouse building, RLS was only seventeen years old when training to be an engineer to keep the family lighthouse building tradition going, when he came to live on this island for three weeks and had fond memories of it,

               We walked along past the houses to the small pier looking for some sort of marker to signify the start of the Stevenson way route? Fortunately we got speaking to a very helpful young chap, who said most people accept that Balfour bay over the other side of the island was the best start point as that is where David Balfour was washed up, the OS maps have even changed the original name of this bay to Balfour bay in the books honor, this friendly great guy even shown us the way to the path through the houses over a garden past the cottage RLS stayed in whilst on Erraid, over a dear fence and then pointed over a sheep track to a hillock; over there and down he said leaving us to go back to his woodchopping,

              

It was a pleasant walk but one of those where you keep thinking it must be close where is it and all that while thinking we better be quick before the tide comes back in! or we may get stranded just like DB, when the bay did come into sight it was a wow moment! such a beautiful big secluded beach with gentle waves sheltered from the wind on all sides very picturesque, we took plenty pictures before speed marching back over the island, but there was no need the tide was still low enough we did go further up the sandy area for our crossing as our original crossing was much deeper but all good a perfect start to the trek

               Now for the unplanned stage? I had no idea the route to take over Oban briefly considering a visit to lovely Iona which I could clearly see with its famous abbey shining in the sun, the ferry for Iona looked ready to go when me and Sheila parted company at Fionphort, heaving on my three stone backpack I smiled to myself as I always do at the start of a backpacking adventure, as once the self sufficient pack is on your back and you hit the open road/trail there is a great feeling of freedom for me HERE I GO! A sense of freedom from everything, even mobile phones in remote areas of Scotland it is still possible to have absolutely zero signal on your phone for miles, if you are to save your phone battery at all you must accept this and switch it to flight mode, or your phones constant searching will drain the battery in a matter of a few hours 

               I had my headphones (the set I can still hear the world around me) on as I marched along the audiobook version of kidnapped playing to me as I marched (absolutely fantastic it was me and David Balfour adventuring through the same part of the world together three hundred years apart) smiling away to myself and marching along I met with a gentleman at a gate he stopped to ask me directions and to ask what was around here as he was an Irish tourist? I switched of my audiobook and gave him some time showing him where we were on my map and what was what around the surrounding area, he eyed my map and asked where he could buy one? Of which I had no idea, he had parked his car up and was going for a walk I explained I was on a mission with a long way to walk to Edinburgh! And had best get going as I had only just begun

               This section of the walk was on a nice walking path set aside froem the road, but typical of Scotland far too many gates on it and not long enough it finished within a few miles and that was the only walking path I had on my time, the rest of the time on mull I was on single track road with passing places, when hearing traffic from behind or seeing traffic from the front I would turn to the side of the road big pack away from the road and wait for vehicles to pass, I done this for a vehicle approaching from behind but it sopped alongside! It was the irish fella (turns out his name is David) a few more questions and the offer of a lift further along the road? At this stage I wanted to get myself along not truly understanding yet the nature and size of this journey, I declined!

               By the time I had walked along to the next reasonably sized town Bussiman which I had noted earlier had a shop a hotel restaurant and bar, I had ideas of stopping for a bowl of soup and and a pint then grab the shop for something nice for the tent that evening, not to be it was Sunday the bar and restaurant were not opening at all and the shop had only been open for two hours that day I stood outside looking at it for way longer than necessary to let this sink in, maybe if I had accepted that lift from David even just to this town?

          

     I walked for another couple of hours bumping into David yet again this time it was near the cottage he was hiring, I asked him if he had noticed the eagles? He had but wasn’t sure of bird types, I did consider asking him for a lift to the base of ben more which would have been my preferred camp spot that night, but I never this was probably another mistake I was starting see that this journey is not all about hiking its not way marked or even set to a defines route its about getting to certain definite sites of the book, where I was marching that day was not truly mentioned in the book and even if it was the modern road was not where the people in the 1700`s would have travelled for most parts,

               I kept walking until it was close to the time I would need to find somewhere to camp before it got dark, the scenery was stunning and the weather was very good I found an excellent flat grassy camp site surrounded by ferns (kept the wind away adding a bit of shelter) near running water for a nice cup of tea, close to the shore for a loch side sunset with ben more and the other mountains clearly visible braw.

             

  Once in my comfy tent I read the maps and my books trying to work out where DB went on mull and where Kenny should go on mull! This was great planning the adventure while having the adventure, head torch on switching between books and map, I came to a realization that I would have to adapt the route to suit the twentieth century and my personal preferences, it wasn’t then that I came to realize this actual journey this time would need to be a sort of rekey for further work but the seed was planted that night eyes on map