Sardines and showers in Tobermory.

On landing in Tobermory our first priority was not the Mishnish Bar but the  Fishermans Pier Fish & Chip Van. This has a considerable reputation for a decent fish supper. It was recommended in the Independent's top 50 fish and chip shops last Saturday and even has a  "Les Routiers" award. The fish is cooked to order (as are the frozen chips) so there is a short wait, which always carries the promise of fresh fish. We each decided to order large (rather than regular) haddock suppers, because we were ravenous after paddling for over 30km and still had about another 12km to go to our camp.

Well it was just as well we decided to go large rather than regular. David got the most generous helping but you can see how happy he was about it. Large haddock? It was more like a malnourished sardine. Having said that, it was delicious and expertly cooked with dry crispy batter. Even the frozen chips were very tasty and done to perfection. We left the pier still feeling hungry and the local seagulls were left starving. If the good ladies of the chip van are ever in Kircudbright, they should call in at Polarbites to discover what a large haddock supper actually looks like.

Only partially sated, we wandered round Tobermory Bay to the...

...new Harbour Visitor Centre. This is a superb resource with spotless toilets, showers and laundry, all for a very reasonable charge. This is somewhere any touring sea kayaker in the area should make a point of visiting.

Totally refreshed we wandered round the harbour area. This old wooden rowing boat had seen better days...

...in contrast to the newly arrived and ship shape MS Island Sky which had just emerged from a multimillion pound refit before dropping anchor In Tobermory. Her 116 passengers would be keen to disembark, we had been fed and watered, it was now time to go. Tobermory was a great place to spend some time in.

Tobermory, what's the story?

We followed the Morven coast for a further 1.5km north of Caisteal nan Con before we crossed the Sound of Mull to the Mull coast. The Sound carries a lot of shipping traffic so we chose to cross at its narrowest point in these parts. It was a relief to get out of the main shipping channel marked by the buoys. Several cruise ships had made their way up and down the channel just before we crossed. Fishing boats and speed boats don't stick to the channel though, so we still needed to be vigilant.

As we entered the NW part of the Sound, we could see Ben Hiant (528m) on the distant Ardnamurchan peninsula. Nearer at hand Calve Island partially blocks the entrance to Tobermory Bay.

We chose to enter the bay via the narrow channel between Calve Island and Mull.

The farmhouse on Calve Island is where the Canoe Boys stopped off (for some time) on their way north to Skye.

We were not the only visitors to visit Tobermory by sea.  Fortunately the MV Marco Polo had just departed. She was built in East Germany in 1965 and launched as the MS Alexandr Pushkin. She is not the first foreign built ship to seek shelter in Tobermory Bay. In 1588 a Spanish Galleon (part of the Armada)escaping from the English Navy is reputed to have anchored here but later exploded in mysterious circumstances. Some say she was carrying gold, which lies in bottom of Tobermory Bay to this day.

The MV Lord of the Glens was docked at Tobermory pier. She takes 54 passengers and is small enough to negotiate the locks of the Caledonian Canal and big enough to ply the more sheltered waters of the west coast.

As we made our final approach , we slowed to let this whale watching boat pass in front of us. The black building is the Mishnish Hotel, which has an excellent pub! Tobermory caters well for tourists.

The tide was out and we landed on a strip of sand below the gaily painted houses. Tobermory is the biggest settlement on Mull and was built in the late 1700's as a fishing port. The name is derived from the Gaelic 'Tobar Mhoire' which means Mary's well. If you have never been but Tobermory looks familiar, you have probably seen it as the backdrop to the BBC children's TV series Balamory.

A series of juxtapositions in the Sound of Mull.

North of Lochaline, the coastline of Morvern becomes much gentler  and is backed by large forestry plantations. It was to here the the last few St Kildans were evacuated in 1930. Those that were able worked in the forests. what a juxtaposition a St Kildan in a forest in Morvern! They had come from an island with no trees!

We found Fiunary boathouse in a little inlet beside Rhubha na h-Airde Luach. It was built about 1820. The air was fragrant with the juxtaposition of two scents: the sweetness of the white hawthorn blossom and the coconut like scent of the yellow gorse.

We continued through a series of rocky skerries...

...but on the other side of the Sound of Mull, the island of Mull began to draw our attention.

Ben More at  966m (3169 feet) is the most southerly island Munro (mountain >3000 feet)  in Scotland. One of the great joys of paddling in west Scotland is the juxtaposition of mountain and loch.

Talking of juxtapositions; paddle, diesel and sail, who has right of way?

The final juxtaposition is the 17th century tower house of Caisteal nan Con (castle of the hounds), which was built on an Iron Age fortified mound.

Mines a bacon butty in Lochaline!

As the flood tide carried us up the Sound of Mull we came to the little village of Lochaline, which nestles on the west side of a narrow inlet that is only 90m wide.

 The in going tide carried us through to Loch Aline at 7km/hr.

You need to be careful to keep out of the way of shipping in this very narrow and tidal channel. The Mull ferry, MV Loch Fyne passes through it nearly 30 times per day on her way to her slipway, which is inside the channel. MV Loch Fyne was built by Fergusons' of Port Glasgow in 1991. She is 54.2m long and can carry 36 cars. She originally served on the Kyle of Loch Alsh crossing to Skye but was moved to here after the Skye bridge was built in 1995.

Loch Aline is a beautiful loch with wooded shores but it has a hidden surprise. It is the site of an underground silica sand mine. It operated from WW2 until 2008 when it closed. The extracted silica is very pure and was loaded directly to ships. It was exported for the manufacture of optical glass.

We decided to land just inside the loch past the ferry jetty and the pier.

In the summer it is a bustling place. You can get water at the pier head.

But we were rather hungry. We were suffering from anaemia after the morning's midge attack. So we stopped at the excellent snack bar for freshly made bacon and egg sandwiches. Yum!

The Sound of Mull is very popular with divers and the Lochaline Dive Centre, just up the hill from the pier, offers accommodation, showers and a cafe with WiFi access. There is also a village shop and petrol station.

At the edge of the village, overlooking the Sound of Mull, you will find the Lochaline Hotel. It has a bar, which can be conveniently accessed from this little beach. Sadly it was still early in the day and the bar had not yet opened, so readers will need to wait for a review of its facilities after a subsequent visit by the thirsty staff of seakayakphoto.com.

Taking the Sound of Mull to the Next World.

The second day of our Morvern trip dawned still and calm but the peace of early morning (and our slumbers) was shattered...

...by the MV Clansman. She is the noisiest of the Calmac ferries at the best of times, as she burns the heaviest grade of fuel oil in her diesels. However, her crankshafts were just about to fail catastrophically and so the decibels this morning were deafening.

Unfortunately the racket had roused every midge in Morvern, as effectively as any luncheon bell. By now Phil was bitterly regretting his lack of protective attire. It is, after all, rather discomfiting to find that one's good self  is no longer top of the food chain.

It was with some relief that we found ourselves on the water and free from the local predators.

The Sound of Mull was like a full length mirror that wonderful morning...

...as it stretched away to near infinity, transporting us into another World.

The water of the Sound remained unruffled, until the flooding tide met with Ardtornish Point, which juts out from the Morvern coast. The modern lighthouse contrasts with the crumbling walls of Ardtornish Castle.

It was at Ardtornish that John of Isla, the first Lord of the Isles, died in about 1386. On the first stage of his journey into the Next World, his remains were carried away up the Sound of Mull by a fleet of birlins. Their destination was the distant and sacred Isle of  Iona. 

We paddled on in the wake of the Lords of the Isles.

A bed of bluebells in the Sound of Mull.

From Glensanda quarry the wild and remote SE coast of Morvern continued for another 12 km...

...until we approached Rubha an Ridire...

...which marked the turning point of our route.

We now ran before the light wind, to the NW, up the Sound of Mull which separates the Island of Mull from the SW coast of Morvern.

It was getting late when we finally arrived at a curving beach at the end of our day.

The sun was setting as we prepared our evening meal on the shore.

Unfortunately as the sun went down, the midges unleashed their attack. David was fine in his jacket but Phil had forgotten his in the rush to pack. Not even a fine malt was able to fully restore Phil's equilibrium.

We went off to explore a nearby bothy...

...as a potential sleeping quarters. It was clean enough but someone had left some food and some well fed mice had pooed and peed everywhere. It did not smell too fresh so we decided to settle...

for camping on the bluebell meadow outside.

Between a rock and a hard place at Glensanda.

All too soon we had to leave the oasis of Kingairloch...

...and continue our exploration of the  Morvern coast.

We passed huge beaches of perfectly graded shingle.

After some time, we became aware of a curious noise, a bit like waves sucking shingle down a beach, but more sustained and more artificial.

We had found the Glensanda super quarry, the biggest in Europe. The noise we had heard was graded rock falling in continuous streams from shutes emerging from the mountain.

A whole granite mountain is being removed and the crushed rock transferred through tunnels to the shore, where it is graded before being loaded onto huge ships at the deep water terminal. There is no road access to Glensanda, everything goes in and out by sea. Few people have seen it or even know it's there, which is possibly why it slipped under the radar of environmental groups.

Standing on its lonely rock at the foot of a shrinking mountain, we came across Glensanda Castle. It was built in the late fifteenth century by the MacLeans. We are certainly leaving more of a mark on the landscape than our ancestors.

However, these two swans seemed oblivious to the quarry and we soon left both it and them in our wakes.