Oban; Sunday, 29 May, 2011

Overnight the rain and wind had continued and I woke to a pretty dismal looking day, but as so often happens in this part of the world, but the time I left the hotel after breakfast it was blue skies.

I walked down to the ferry terminal to catch the boat out to Mull for the tour, but at the ticket gate I was told that my tour had been cancelled as the seas around Staffa were too rough to allow a landing to take place, so I had to quickly pop downstairs and purchase tickets for the alternative tour of just Mull and Iona and arrange to pop back into the tour shop the following day to arrange a refund.

Having been out and back to Mull the previous day I was aware of where the disembarkation point would be so I was able to be first off of the ship and get the choice of seats on the coach for the tour of Mull. The tour runs along the southern part of the Island, through the hills and mountains down to the port at Fionnphort , through some of the most dramatic scenery the island has to offer.

On arrival at Fionnphort there was some uncertainty as to whether we would be able to get over to Iona. The rough seas that had put pay to the Staffa ferry from here were also threatening the much larger Iona ferry, but in the end they did run the service, albeit on a pretty rough crossing.

Having arrived on Iona I wandered up the tourist route through the ruins of the nunnery and past the cemetery, including the grave of former Labour party leader John Smith, to the Abbey to have a look around that.

From there I had a bit more of a wander around this part of the island, but time was limited as we had to be back on the ferry before 3, so I headed down to the harbour to grab a late lunch before catching the 2:30, very rough, crossing back over to Mull. The coach was already waiting when I got off the ferry, with about half the tour party, as we’d all taken a look at the crossing and realised it was getting worse. The final members of the tour did come across on the 3pm and they were looking much worse for having caught the later crossing.

The coach went back across Mull through the highlands and back to the ferry port just in time for the arrival of the Oban ferry.

Having arrived back in Oban I had a bit of a wander around town before stopping for a bite to eat in an Indian restaurant then heading back to the hotel.