Happy Birthday to me!
Trina was great and had brought over with us her birthday card for me so that I really felt like it was my birthday. I had some presents and cards before I left home, as we were already going to have a car full of stuff! I did feel like my birthday week – but I have no problem with that, obviously!
Breakfast with a lovely man, his daughter and their Spanish friends (who we had spotted the night before), talking about why we were there (swimmings), why they were there (taking photos for a book they hope to get published) and our plans for the next few days, before heading into the town for a bit of shopping. Leanne had told us where we could stow our bags so that we could appreciate Iona without lugging around all our luggage (I have just realised the words there – lugging luggage!).
Posting the postcards from the wee post office, visiting the craft shop, the pottery and gallery, the tourist shops and walking to the abbey. We decided not to go into the abbey as this would have taken up time that we didn’t really have to spare and hopped back on the ferry before lunchtime – with goodies in tow! You will not be surprise by what I bought with my birthday money, a mug with Iona on it, another mug for work that says “Oh I do like to be beside the seaside”, a necklace with a wave on it, and a pencil with Iona on it! Thanks to Joy and Lal for supplying the cash!
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Arriving in Fionnphort, we had a quick sandwich before diving across the centre of Mull, Highland cow spotting, and seeing all the other great place that we could swim, if we go back. Lots of lochs and coves to explore. We took the ferry from Fishnish (great name!) to Lochaline, rather than back to Oban as it put us higher up on the mainland to cut down on some of our driving – and as this is a littler, no so well known ferry, it is also the cheaper option.
A short drive on the mainland took us to our 3rd ferry of the day. We decided that it was a ferry, ferry, ferry, good day to have a birthday (sorry!). We caught the Corran ferry across Lochaber – a very short trip, before driving up to Fort William. Fort William is a strange place. A large town before you get up into the highlands it has a fair number of shops for a small place. We stocked up on supplies (mainly water as it has been so hot), but also a camping pillow for me (I forgot mine), and an iPod trip from Argos so that we could actually listen to the iPod – as you will probably guess, we had very poor reception on the radio for most of the holiday!
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A short drive out of town and along Glen Nevis – the glen that runs at the foot of Ben Nevis, to find somewhere to wild camp. We had a warning light come on in the car, but as it was 7pm, we decided to park up for the night and sort it in Fort William in the morning. The car was performing fine and sounded ok.
We spotted a layby and some campers far up the glen road, and parked the car to explore if we could camp too. We headed over the “trip trap” bridge to find a lovely secluded spot by the roaring river rushing by. There had obviously been campers here before, but noone here now, so we quickly got all our worldly goods out of the car and set up camp for the night!
I can not tell you how happy putting bunting up makes me! It made our camp our home wherever we went! Tent up and dinner on, Trina opened the 2nd bottle of Champagne for the week, quite dramatically, all over herself! much to our amusement! Birthday tea of pasta, followed by birthday cake, which Trina had managed to buy, and keep safe up to this point and get co-ordinating candles! I was spoilt! Followed by playing with sparklers – these are not quite for dramatic in July, in Scotland, where it actually doesn’t get dark, but we had fun all the same.
An evening stroll, slightly drunk, down the glen, we took some pictures, saw some rock climbers, young teens in their cars trying to impress their girls. We had a moment, trying to set up the camera on timer, Trina and me both falling off the log at various moments, and me lying on my back – it did give me a great view of the sky though – pictures to prove how lovely falling over can be! Such a busy, hot day, we hit the sack after a few games of cards, listening to the river as we fell asleep.
Pictures here...
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