It became apparent very quickly that we'd touched down in Scotland as we watched a bloke crack open a bottle of duty free whisky and take not one, not two but three swigs as he waited for his luggage to come round.
After an evening in Edinburgh that included dropping into Los Cardos for another haggis burrito and a couple at The Hanging Bat we were on the road in the loudest campervan that the isles of Scotland would ever see. We named him Puff the Magic Wagon.
The first day was spent looping around the top of the world's most famous Loch and saying hello to Nessie. She looked happy to see us.
We set up shop at a campsite at the bottom of Loch Ness. Over the last year we've heard a lot about how great the "vibe" is at particular places we've stayed. Maybe we're just getting old but the vibe at this campsite was more up our alley. People actually look at you and say hello, they're not glued to their phones and they don't stare you down and judge you based on the number of patches stuck on your pack or the lushness of your flowing locks.
After freezing the proverbials off overnight in a van without any bedding we set off for the ferry across to the Isle of Mull.
Mull is spectacularly dramatic, has you reaching for your camera at every turn and put into real life the images of Scotland that previously only existed in our heads. Here is a selection of said amazing scenery.
And of our set ups each night.
As you can see, single malts played a fairly big part in keeping us warm.
The highlight of Mull was Arthur's expertly run Discover Mull tour where, surprisingly, we weren't the youngest people on it. We learnt all manner of things about Mull's history and the wildlife that we were there to hopefully view, and managed to spot White Tailed Eagles, Buzzards, a super rare Kingfisher (that got a group of about ten adults more excited about a bird than I had ever seen), Red Deer, seals and a heap of other creatures.
HOWEVER, the crowning glory of the wildlife on Mull is the possible sighting of an otter. We were fortunate enough to have not just one but two separate sightings and one we observed was from less than a hundred metres away as we watched him swim in with a fish, nom it down and then proceed to rub his scent all over the seaweed, in between power naps. It was one of those wildlife experiences where other than him coming over for a belly scratch, you could not have asked for anything more.
And that was Mull. Next stop, the Isle of Islay - a whisky lover's paradise.
A big shout out to Sarah and Andy Wood whose camera was able to capture what ours could not and the incredible hospitality shown by Arthur and his wife Pam who allowed us to park on their property overnight and even let us into their home for a welcome shower - obviously a few days without one was beginning to show!
