Day 12 Glasgow to Wivenhoe (Suzanne) and exploring South Cowel (Wendy)

From Suzanne:

Yesterday was a bonus day for me at Inchmahome Priory. I had planned to catch the ferry across to Glasgow in the morning but the thick fog that settled over Holy Loch made the Inchmahome trip  worth trying. We decided that fog would not spoil, and may indeed enhance, a visit to this retreat of Mary Queen of Scots and by this route Wendy kindly took me closer to Glasgow and I was able to catch a local bus into the city on the way back. Since our sat nav went a bit haywire near Glencoe no warming bells sounded as Wendy asked me to check our Scotland map and I could not locate the the villages we expected to find along the way to Inchmahome. It seemed just another case of a golf course or an estate forcing us to take the scenic route!

We had Inchmahome Island to ourselves for our visit except, as Wendy said, for nesting Canada Geese who did not take kindly to having their photo taken! The nesting mute swan's mate was not nearby thankfully as he may have claimed a much larger reserve territory than the geese. The Historic Scotland boatman told us of his encounter with the mate of a nesting mute swan when he was a boy, and his very hasty retreat from this white bomber shaped bird heading full speed across the water towards him with a clear intention of not altering his course.

As it is a Bank Holiday there are no commuter services to London today so time to take in more mountain views and beautiful rocky streams.  Being a bank holiday there was a noisy group of Scottish 14 year olds on a day out but not as noisy as the Essex babes and their tired parents on the Clacton train with me now returning from London. 

My Tobermory whiskey weighed heavily in my bag, along with the extra books collected along our way, as I got myself down to Glasgow Central this morning. No hairy coos to be seen through the train window though Wendy as we travelled though the Borders country! I am waiting for that coo photo!
Speaking of photos I looked out the train window with a eye tuned for a photo.

Two weeks with Wendy and 800 photos later I am a little dismayed that my phone takes better photos than the second hand digital camera I bought at work last year! My interest in photography has been awakened again.

London was warm and sunny, and Ryan had just finished work in the lab so he met me at Euston station and we found a pub near Warren Street for a catch up before he headed off for his train to Croydon.
I made my way to Liverpool St Station and am now on the train home. Hope there is enough Orkney fudge to go round at work tomorrow.

Back in Holy Loch the day started out looking much more promising than yesterday 

but by the end of breakfast cloud had come in - at least it was high cloud and not obscuring visibility as happened yesterday.  

I decided to head to Benmore Botanic Gardens, a short drive north of my B&B.  The gardens are huge, 120 acres according to the brochure, and a lot more wild and not as well signposted as I am used to.  They are mostly on the side of a hill so I headed for the highest point to see the view. It was worth the climb with views of the surrounding mountains and up the Firth to Greenock. 

The gardens contain a huge number of rhododendrons which were just past their best flowering. Two weeks ago they would have been magnificent although this one still looks pretty good. 

 There were forests of firs with a beautiful carpet of moss on the ground. 

I particularly wanted to see the arboretum and the “Tasmanian Ridge” adjacent to it.  Although I could see the arboretum at times from above and at other times from below, I wondered if I would actually ever get to it. Several times I set out on a track only to find that it was closed for maintenance but I eventually found my way.

The Tasmanian ridge is only now being set up so the plants are not yet established but it is a big ask to plant our Fagus and Huon Pine in the same location (a steep rocky hillside) and expect them to thrive in the same conditions.  The Huon Pines were not thriving and the foliage was very yellow compared to their usual deep green.

After the gardens I stopped at Puck’s Glen on the way back towards Dunoon. The path wanders up a gorge beside a small creek with lots of waterfalls and moss covered rocks. It was very wet and quite muddy and I could see why so many of those I met in the car park were wearing their designer wellies.  

Next on the agenda was to check out Dunoon itself. Pretty disappointing really. It was a bank holiday so not much was happening, but the town (pop 8500 so small I guess) was very quiet. Not a lot of interesting shops although I did find “The Pot Shop” (no not like the “Official Bhang Shop” in Jaisalmer in India) which had every possible pattern of Dunoon mug and teapot. 

I checked out the old Pier (undergoing restoration so closed) 

and the Castle House Museum (closed for the holiday?).  

By this time it had started to rain so I decided to return to the B&B and read my book. 

It occurred to me today that one of the things I have really enjoyed about this holiday so far is that none of the places we have visited (except maybe Glasgow) has been crowded.  Early in the season I suppose and a good reason to be here now.