Day 10 Mull to Holy Loch

Puffins are now wall to wall on the Treshnish Isles I think we were told (and there was a trip on offer) as we packed to leave Mull. Too late for us to go but now we do know they arrive in May.

The Tobermory Bakery offered a wonderful array of cakes, pastries and deli products for breakfast, and a view across the harbour too from their front tables. 

It was worth the seven mile trip up the steep zig zag road again from Dervaig and these cakes I'm sure came straight out of a Womble story (Tobermory & Co).

I just happened to see the ginger Tobermory Cat, of picture book fame, checking out visitors' cars along the harbour front and Wendy was tempted to buy the book when we discovered it later in a bookshop. The bookshop owner confirmed that the cat's territory did tend to be outside the bakery!

The Ironmongers and Wine and Spirit shop in Tobermory stepped us back in time and we duly waited until 10am to buy our last samples of local whiskey.

With a last photo stop beside a collection of wooden boat wrecks at Scallastle Bay, we managed to get the second last space on an earlier ferry back to Oban. 

Sadly the stray Greylag Goose that got itself left behind the flock at Dervaig was still on the beach at Scallastle Bay. I hope it attaches itself to another flock passing through Mull.

It was almost a summer's day as we sat on the upper deck for the crossing, passing Duart Castle (a location for the Katherine Zeta Jones' film Entrapment I was told by my guides on the 'out' crossing) and the Lismore lighthouse. 

We drove off into a very busy and crowded Oban with a music and dance festival in full swing and on to our route circling Loch Etive, Loch Awe and through Inveraray to Loch Fynne and along Loch Eck where we stopped for a late lunch.

Holy Loch is so close to Glasgow but feels as far as the Inner Hebrides we have just left. The Manse did recommend an excellent B & B George and a perfect place to end our trip enjoying an evening meal in their front room and a view past Strone and up the Clyde to Greenock. The last of the fishing boats passed at dusk as the mist settled across the water.

I catch the ferry across to Glasgow tomorrow. But the holiday is not over for me. I look forward to enjoying the remainder of Wendy's trip online.