We had our first rain of the holiday today…. It’s been forecast all week and although the forecast keeps changing, Wednesday was always going to be the worst weather day. (at time of writing it is not going to be the worst day now…. 😬)

As I write this I’m sitting outside Abbie the camper van in shorts and a vest top! It’s hot again out of the wind.

So back to this morning…. For the first time I had to get up in the middle of the night to go to the loo. Someone brought a chilli sauce with us called “Shit the Bed”…. He who shall remain nameless put it in our lovely pasta dish last night leaving me, at 3am trying to carry out that actual task. ‘Scuse the disgusting nature of this conversation but there is a point to it…. I finally got to see the campsite in the dark, and hardly surprisingly, it wasn’t really dark when I got up. I could see to walk to the toilets without a head torch… I needed it for inside the toilets but there was a line of light on the horizon. We’re only a few weeks away from summer solstice which is the reason we’re on holiday in June. I wanted to get away with the lighter nights. We were outside in shorts until after 10pm again last night when the sun set!

I took lots of sunset shots…. The low sun was lovely.

So back to this morning. Moderately heavy winds and rain….. so we stayed in bed until 12.40pm!!! We had breakfast and read books and had a snooze… had a lovely lazy morning.

The rain stopped before lunch and it was still very grey and overcast so we headed to The Hynish Centre today which is run by Hebridean Heritage. It’s unmanned but very informative and we followed the heritage trail.

It explains how the Skerryvore Lighthouse was built.

Skerryvore is 10.5 nautical miles off the coast of Tiree. I can’t imagine how difficult the conditions were to build a lighthouse out there in treacherous conditions.

The lighthouse is 138 feet or 42m high and was built using Hebridean Gneiss for the first 4 layers and then Ross of Mull Granite as it proved easier to work with.

The fact they used no mortar on it at all is fascinating. The weight of the massive upper stones holds the lower stones in place and it withstands the onslaught of the Atlantic.

The sun came out as we walked around and it’s been a lovely day since.

The harbour is fascinating as it had to be open out to sea to allow ships to use it. This lead to sand filling up into the harbour and they had to find a way to remove it.

They built a flush out system where a reservoir fills up with water and the sluice gates are opened and the rush of water flushed all the sand back out to sea and then huge gates came down to keep the ship docked in water without more sand coming in. All of this in the early 1800’s…. It’s fascinating what they achieved.

We then drove back out to Scarinish for a wander and popped into the Co-op for tonight’s BBQ.

So as usual… loads more photos to share but will load these up for now.

The forecast isn’t great and everyone we speak to says the ferry might not run on Saturday…. We just have to wait and see. It’s been windy today but that is forecast to double by Friday afternoon….. 😳💨💨💨

And that’s not because of the chilli sauce. 🤦🏻‍♀️🤷🏻‍♀️🤣😘

Stay safe everyone 🏝🏴󠁧󠁢󠁳󠁣󠁴󠁿☀️

I am sleeping like a log this holiday…. A lazy morning today, pancakes and crumpets with butter and jam, with coffee, for breakfast sitting outside though we figured this morning was long trousers day and not for shorts.

It turned out the morning was cooler but the afternoon as been absolutely scorching!!!

So, I’ve decided I can’t do my Staffa post justice while I have such low internet connection and I’m also trying to spend time relaxing on holiday so Im going to leave it for today and just show you a few photos from todays beach scope.

We drove up the North East of the island today.

We drove up through Scaranish and straight up to Vaul.

This beach had been recommended to me. As with all beaches on the island it’s stunning but I couldn’t find anywhere to park…. My anxiety told me everywhere was someone’s land…. There was no parking particularly for the beach so we double backed and headed up to Caolas and back down onto Gott Bay.

There’s a high level cloud but it’s still sunny… just not as warm as it was the last few days.

We took Bhru for a long walk and then back to the van for coffee. Then drove further down Gott Bay….. it’s that big…. And stopped again for a seat in the sun as the clouds were starting to clear.

The sun then split the skies so we drove further down the coast and stopped at Crossapool Beach.

It was absolutely stunning….. breathtakingly beautiful.

The sun’s been fully out since 2pm. We took Bhru for a big run on the beach.

Of course we paddled.

And then promptly sat up in the dunes for about 3 hours and just enjoyed the view and the sunshine.

Honestly just out of this world.

So that’s all for now. Have so many more photos to share but they can wait till I’m home and have lots of time to share them.

We’re having the loveliest of holidays. Chilled and relaxed with no plans. Just taking each day as it comes.

Heaven.

Stay safe everyone 🏝🏴󠁧󠁢󠁳󠁣󠁴󠁿☀️

I have had THE most amazing adventure today.

Since I was about 10 or 12 years old, I have wanted to visit the island of Staffa off the west coast of Mull. Mum and Dad took us on a boat trip from Oban that went round the island of Mull and passed Staffa in a loop back to Oban.

It fascinated me.

And finally today in my 50th year, I finally got there and landed and walked on Staffa.

I realise it sounds so dramatic…. But it was to me!

So I’m going to leave it hanging there I’m afraid as I’ve been away all afternoon while poor Craig had to stay in the van and nurse a poorly Bhruic. Sadly she had explosive diarrhoea about 20 minutes before we went on the boat….. it would have been horrific if she’d done that ON the boat.

It meant Craig had to miss out… which at £55 a ticket was pretty sickening but no point in getting upset about it.

Will tell you all about my Staffa trip tomorrow as we’re back at the campsite and sitting outside until sunset again. It’s cooler than yesterday but still a lovely evening. Spending time with my boy ♥️ and the pup with the scoots….. 🤦🏻‍♀️🤷🏻‍♀️😬😆🤣

Stay safe everyone 🏝🏴󠁧󠁢󠁳󠁣󠁴󠁿☀️

Tiree is called Hawaii of the North and it’s certainly lived up to its name today.

The sun is splitting the sky again.

I woke at 6 but I’d had the best sleep… all that sunshine and fresh air doing us the power of good.

We opened the scenic canvas of the van for only the second time ever. Love having the roof off!

We had coffee and crumpets with jam for breakfast.

We set off on a tour of 3 of the islands beaches via the Co-op on the way home!!

First stop was Balephuil Beach.

The sand is so white and perfect.

Bhru is in her element!

Of course I had to go straight in paddling.

It’s unbearably cold but if you can breath slowly through it then the pain passes after a few minutes but honestly, it was excruciating!!

The beach is so gently sloping that you can walk out really far.

Just throw the ball and stop taking photos Bhru says….

We carried on further up the coast, all the roads are one track roads with passing places. We turned onto a stony track for Sandaig Beach… this one wasn’t the most enthralling but put Abbie’s suspension through the mill big time. All that way for a stony beach and a field really… still that’s what exploring is all about.

We drove through a herd of awfy big coos to get to this beach and they were on the main road too. My experienced navigator was exceptional but really poor at photographic spontaneity! that means there are no photos of the coos or the sheep that crossed the road in front of us… 🤷🏻‍♀️😬🙄😆

We carried on up to Balevullin Beach which really was stunning. This is where they do all the windsurfing.

I tried to maroon Craig and Bhru on an island but they managed to walk off it!

None of these photos really do it justice. The colours are exceptional. Everything is so vivid in the sunlight.

We picked up the surf dog that is owned by the Balevullin surf shop. we couldn’t shake him for ages.

We drove back down through Scarinish and stopped at the Co-op for dinner then came home to have a BBQ.

Mussels to start.

With lamb and mint kebabs for me and hot and spicy chicken wings for Craig.

It’s 7pm and the sun is still scorching but I’m off for my shower now. Get rid of all the sand and suntan lotion in time for sunset and bed! I’m downloading my photos in the wee camp kitchen hut 🛖 😆

There are so many more photos, it’s so difficult to chose between them!

Boat trip to Staffa tomorrow.

Stay safe everyone 🏝🏴󠁧󠁢󠁳󠁣󠁴󠁿☀️

Oh wow…. We had no idea how beautiful this island was. Tiree is part of Argyll and Bute and is situated off the west coast of Mull and therefore, Scotland, right next to Coll.

It’s a 4 hour ferry journey but only because we stopped at Coll first. That must have taken a good half hour. I also would have hated to join the ferry from Coll to Tiree as they had to reverse on….. REVERSE ONTO A FERRY 😳😬😆 with everyone heading to Tiree already watching….. what could possibly go wrong??!

So we sailed into Scarinish and we are camping at Balinoe so we drove straight here yesterday. The scenery along the way was stunning…. Pure white sand and turquoise sea all along the coast.

The guy who owns the campsite wants everyone to come straight from the ferry so he gets you on pitch and then does an orientation with everyone that arrived.

The campsite is basic but functional. It has two portaloo’s and 2 Portaloo showers. There’s an old camping kitchen with washing up facilities and a third shower room which I used last night… way more space to lay your stuff out.

The weather is glorious…. It’s scorching yet the forecast only says 14C. It feels way hotter. About 3pm we decide to take Bhru out for a walk down to our nearest beach at Balemartin.

The photos don’t do it justice. It’s immaculate and virtually empty. There was a wedding here yesterday…. Can you imagine?! A sunny wedding no. A white beach with turquoise sea and in Scotland…. They were soooo lucky!

Back up to the campsite and made a lovely pesto pasta for dinner. There may have been a weeeee but of cheese on it too….

It appears we are in the sunset pitch on the campsite. We got a stunning view of it last night. I have many photos!

I did some sunset shots with Bhru!

The sun finally went down around 10pm. This was the reason we came on holiday in June. I wanted to camp with the lighter nights. I haven’t seen it dark here yet.

I haven’t even started todays blog… but that’s ok. We’ve seen so many stunning beaches. It’s just out of this world!!

More to come!

Stay safe everyone 🏴󠁧󠁢󠁳󠁣󠁴󠁿🏝🚐

I am in my element…… it’s 07.43 and we are already coasting up the side of Mull on board CalMac’s MV Clansman.

I’m standing right here writing this….

Absolutely stunning. There’s barely a breath!

We are so lucky with the weather.

We had a lovely walk last night after the rain stopped.

There is a chance I may be wearing this hoodie all holiday…. 😆

So we had a fairly uncomfortable night in a random street in Oban. I slept a fair bit but we didn’t make the bed up so we weren’t that comfortable… I woke about 4am and it was really cold. So by 5.15am we were in the queue for the ferry. It’s a beautiful day.

We are one of the first to board. Bhruic is not a huge fan of a ferry but she’s settled down now.

And we’re off….

Now I’ve told this story on the blog before but I used to always want to live in this house on the island of Kerrera. It looks right over the bay to Oban. It was knocked down years ago and rebuilt into this stunning house. I would love to live there.

This is the view from inside the coffee shop on the ferry…. Wow.

Arriving into Coll.

Our first glimpse of Tiree. It’s very flat so photos are not doing it justice!

So I’m gonna leave this here for now, it’s only 10.42 and I’ve taken a million photos already. Straight to the campsite for a lovely relax.

Don’t know what the signal will be like so will take it as it comes. It is a holiday after all!

Stay safe everyone 🏴󠁧󠁢󠁳󠁣󠁴󠁿💙🏴󠁧󠁢󠁳󠁣󠁴󠁿

Of course today did not go as smoothly as I thought it might. We had a lovely morning pottering and getting ready to leave whenever we were ready. There was no timescale, no rush.

We’re travelling lighter than we ever have I think. The last few trips have taught us what we actually need versus everything we would normally want to take.

So you know that I struggle to travel with all 3 dogs…. Well it doesn’t make it any easier to leave these 2 behind. I was almost in tears when we left Calaidh and Freya to wait for their Gran and Gramps and Cookie the Chihuahua to come and look after them for a week.

Madame Bhruic on the other had us all set ready to go.

I started to get a little bit anxious before we left. I think it was my hiking boots that set me off…… yup, you heard right…. I was only going to take my new hiking boots and flip flops and I started worrying it might be difficult to drive in my heavy soled hikies…. Just before we left I added a third pair of shoes into my armour…. Driving Converse of course…. That was better…

This is the trip was are making this time. Stopping in Oban overnight tonight.

It was a beautiful drive up. the sun was shining but the roads were heaving and my anxiety kept building…..until I questioned my position in the road every time a car drove past me on the other side of the road. My eyes felt like they couldn’t focus properly, I think I was panicking that I would make some huge mistake and ruin everything. Drama, drama eh?! I tried to talk about it, tired to ignore it, tried to talk myself “down”…. But I didn’t enjoy one minute of the drive as a result. I was determined to do it though, To hand over driving to Craig would have meant that I was giving into “it”… whatever “it” was….

When we arrived it Oban the heavens opened…. The rain was torrential and the queue for the town was right up to the top of the hill.

We found a great parking space on the road up to the ferry terminal. We sat for a bit and the rain stopped so we headed out for a wander.

And the heavens opened again so we went for fish and chips and came back to the van to eat them. We were soaked.

Eventually it stopped again and started to brighten up so this time we went for ice cream!

I had Turkish Delight and Craig had Vanilla.

We had just commented on the lack of union jacks on our way up north.. given that our village is festooned with them…. And the first ones we saw were in our ice cream!

Craig said he’d get a photo of me so I fixed my hair!!!

We sat down on the rocks and watched the shops coming and going out again…. We saw CalMac’s Isle of Mull, Loch Striven and the new Loch Frisa.

We took it in turns to walk Bhru.

I follow the Scottish Maritime FB page and they’ve been following the progress of the Loch Frisa all week, there have been so many posts about her and she hoves into view…. What are the chances?! (that’s a Blackadder quote there…. Hoves into view 🤦🏻‍♀️🤣🤣)

I love this place…. It enchants me for some reason. It’s a transient town as people move through it to get out to the Inner and Outer Hebrides. I always wonder who all these people are and where they are going and why? I’m so envious of ferry traffic… we passed the queue for Colonsay today. Never been there…. But we’ve never been to Tiree either and we sail at 7am tomorrow.

So we’re sitting in the van now and I’m shattered. We won’t get the best sleep but that’s ok. We have a week to rest. My anxiety is gone. I am disappointed it raised its head today but hey… it’s the gift that keeps on giving. I just have to keep fighting it. Even on holiday.

Stay safe everyone ♥️♥️♥️

Into work super early so I could wash the van only to find that there was no car shampoo left….. 😳 so I washed the van with water… and hosed it with a trickle of water since the fancy hose head seems to have disappeared…. 🤷🏻‍♀️

It looks great from a distance!

Look who was in again today…. My Peanut Pal… just gonna pose in front of this van, he said!

So today was totally different to how I expected, but thankfully, I was so organised for holiday that I was able to do everything that needed doing and still get away on time.

A cheeky trip to Edinburgh Airport to pick up Lockie the camper van and straight back by 3.30pm and now I am home!!!

I’ve honestly spent the whole of this week making ridiculous mistakes.

Hoody on back to front so my face was covered by the hood… saying one thing but meaning the other…. Losing everything… dropping things…. It’s actually been so funny. I’m glad I can laugh rather than get anxious about it.

I’ve just been to get my holiday toenails done, a nice dark red, here’s hoping I get to see them on holiday… it just needs to be warm enough!

I’ve decided not to finish getting ready tonight, I’m shattered and aware I could be grouchy…. So jammies on, feet up and I’m going to relax. The rest of it can wait until I have a fresh head in the morning. As soon as I decided that I felt a sense of calm wash over me. It’s ok to be tired.

So we set off as soon as we are ready tomorrow. Heading for Oban and maybe via Glencoe. Not sure, we will see. No plans other than the ferry to Tiree at 6am on Saturday morning.

And relax….

Stay safe everyone ♥️♥️♥️

I have swithered about writing tonight but I fear it may be a slippery slope. I have so much more time on my hands 🙌 😆

The best thing is that obviously I’m in a good place which really helps. That could be because I have one more day at work until we finish up for holiday. Everything has gone smoothly this week.

I spent last night on the Village Hall accounts and enjoyed getting them up to date. I had a total drama when I realised last years hadn’t saved properly and did not lose my shit! (I have to say it like that as my reaction was incredible for me. I honestly couldn’t understand it but… it was what it was so I just had to do it again. Took an hour or so and it was done. Instead of a whole evening of panic.

It’s finally getting a wee bit warmer… in time for our holiday…. So it’s been lovely to see the sun and an amazing sunset last night.

Our village is all set up for the Queen’s Platimum Jubilee celebrations at the weekend. The wheelie bins are out to protect the newly laid car park as this is where the garden party will be held at the weekend… directly across the road from our house. 👸🏻👑🇬🇧

We will be in Tiree…. 🏴󠁧󠁢󠁳󠁣󠁴󠁿 Of course.

The pub is looking lovely in the morning sun at 5.30am this morning.

The hall has its high level bunting up and Rachel two doors down has the Royal Family in her front window…. Some have eyes and some have holes for eyes…. 😆

I’m not massively into the jubilee… I’m incredibly impressed that the Queen has been a Queen for 70 years, that’s going to be a difficult record to break in future. I’ve just never felt particularly Patriotic or British if I’m honest.

There’s a prize next week for the best decorated house in the village…. My lovely in-laws are moving in to look after dogs 1 & 3 so no pressure…. Well huge pressure if they want to win!!

I do like the jubilee logo! I had a cupcake in the Lake District with this logo on it. 😬🤫

The farm was stunning this morning….

We were first there so couldn’t resist an Avery VW silhouette photo shoot.

Look at the colour of that sky!

I feel super organised at work and genuinely calm about finishing up tomorrow for 10 whole days!

I’m meeting the Crochet Hookers tonight so looking forward to a good natter.

I’m actually glad I wrote this tonight… it flowed more easily than I thought.

Happy that my boss can catch up on my “pish” tonight… he’s been missing it 🤦🏻‍♀️🤷🏻‍♀️🤣🤣

Thought I’d finish up with the puppers in their beds last night… Calaidh was looking particularly cute.

I realise most of the UK are on holiday tomorrow, so enjoy……but one more day for me and then I’m done…. Woo hoo!!

Stay safe everyone 👑🇬🇧👑