Lochs, Talk and Barrel

Good morning! After an exhausting day, I still could only manage about 5 hours of sleep. But this affords me the chance to write this post in the peace of the early morning. The grey light is filtering through our window and the scenery (broken record) is breathtaking!

Yesterday we began our adventures with a pleasant (read:windy, read:gale-force) ferry ride from Oban to Craignure. I really do have a thing for ferryboats. There were no dolphins, nor sea turtles to be seen as the water really is quite dark here.

I liken it to black liquid rubber, or oil... or some parts look like asphalt after a bit of rain. When the sun shines on it, well when the sun manages to eek out a bit through the lovely clouds, it doesn't shine in silver flashes like I'm used to seeing. No, its more like a large void was dropped onto a pane of black glass and shattered. If that makes sense?

I took plenty of pictures on this first ferry, as it was 'round about an hour long ride. We had 5 ferry rides in all yesterday, but none were as long as this one. We drove along the coast of the Island of Mull a short bit, bypassing Duart Castle, sadly, though we did get some good pictures of it from the ferry.

The road cut inland after that through some of the most gorgeous countryside I've seen. I realized I could live here quite easily. The road is a single lane, though it services both directions. How does this work? There are occasional widenings of the road marked by a black and white striped pole and a sign that says "Passing Place". As I am sure you can imagine, it is there where people can pass along side each other and carry on their respective ways.

The drive took another hour to get to the opposite side of the island where we embarked on another ferry, this time for only 5 minutes. Debarking stepped us onto the Isle of Iona where St. Columbus set up an Abbey. This island is said to be the "Seat of Christianity for Scotland".

It seems our sainted Saint got into a bit of trouble with regards to a copyright on a manuscript he was said to have written. They took such things very seriously back in the day and the two sides soon came to blows (The Battle of the Book). Quite a few people died and filled with remorse, Columba set off, away from his beloved Ireland and landed on Iona.

There is an Abbey and a Nunnery, the Abbey has been restored and is still in use, but the nunnery has been allowed to decay and sit as a relic of times simpler. In the courtyard of the abbey, the stone of the columns have been carved into beautiful scenes.

We stopped at a local convenience store and picked up some local candy, to see how this side lives. They are blessed to have the superior chocolate with which to work and the candy was quite tasty. It was sweet enough that you wouldn't be able to eat much of it, which isn't a bad thing at all really. Anna dropped her return ticket inside said convenience store, though we didn't know it at the time.

When she discovered it missing it was nearly time to return and so we ran, yes -ran-, up the hill, about a mile (no snow, though it was quite windy), to the Abbey and looked all around there. We didn't find it and she had just decided to buy another ticket on our run back down the hill when she thought to look inside the store. The clerk handed it to her and we ran the rest of the way to the ferry. The speed in which they left port once we got onboard leads me to believe it was a good thing we ran.

The rest of the day was spent driving through more and more amazing scenery. I took nearly 200 photos today, so there will be plenty to look through once we get back. I'll post a few here so you are not left completely devoid of the splendor.

The inscription on the bench reads, "Rest and Remember", I thought that quite lovely.