Wilderness and Whisky - Islay Left us Ardbegging for More

Mull was great however it lacked something. Namely, a high concentration of the world's greatest whisky distilleries. Enter the Isle of Islay.

Eight distilleries for a population of about three thousand people. By my calculations that's one distillery per 15 people. Brilliant!!

Whisky is an acquired taste. Whisky from Islay is sometimes a leap too far for even the most discerning of whisky drinkers. The reason being is that most single malts produced on Islay incorporate malt that has been kilned by burning peat cut from the peat bogs of Islay which results in a very distinct, extremely smokey style of whisky. Notes on the nose and palate from these whiskies regularly include iodine, medicine, band aids, like chowing down on the wrong end of a cigarette. Mmm...

This is one of those circumstances in life where once you take that first step and fall for the intensely smokey whiskies of Islay there is no going back. Any future single malt without at least a hint of smoke will feel boring and bland, will lack guts and will basically taste inferior.

At times during these travels I've felt like we were cheating life and that surely we weren't awake. This was one of those times and the four nights on Islay were seriously dreamlike.

At this point it was time for me to relinquish the driving duties. I drove on Mull, Nix drives on Islay. Seemed fair to me. It also meant that the quality of conversation coming from the passenger's side went up a notch.

The best way to take in all Islay has to offer is tagging along on a few different tours.

First up was the Laphroaig Water to Whisky tour where we had lunch and a dram next to the water source,

cut our own peat (rewarded with a dram of course),

viewed the germinating grain

go from smoked malt

to a sloshy beer-like mixture

to the new spirit

ready for maturation,

tasted the finished product 9, 12 and 15 years down the track and walked away with a flask of our preferred dram self-filled from the barrel using the traditional valinch. Not a bad way to spend an afternoon.

We also claimed our square foot of land at Laphroaig and then slept on the grounds of the distillery as driving was no longer an option.

The next day we toured Ardbeg's facilities learning that not all whisky on Islay is made the same and subtle variations throughout the process result in key distinctions in the end products. The tour finished with a tasting, naturally.

It was on the final day that Islay really hit it out if the park though.

On the previous day we'd walked in to Lagavulin hoping to do a tasting when a Kiwi stopped me and said something along the lines of, "Shet bru, we've just done the Warehouse Tasting and we had like sex wheskies and it was bloody tops". Not ones to look a gift horse in the mouth, we rocked up the following morning and the Kiwi had come good for us.

Over about an hour and a half the head distiller, a man that's been at Lagavulin for over forty years, took us through six whiskies, all sucked straight from the barrel, that went from strength to strength to strength.

We finished on a 1966, the age of which I'm still trying to get my head around, but it was the 21 and 32 year olds that were truly something else, something beyond any whisky that I've tried before. They both slipped out of the glass and over your tongue like velvet and had a room of about 25, mostly men, scanning the room for a pillow to cover up their whisky induced shame. This was whisky porn at its absolute finest.

All in all, we hit up seven of the eight distilleries, imbibed innumerable drams and capped off an immense year in Europe in some serious style.

Now for a change of scenery...

Wilderness and Whisky - Otterly Magnificent Mull

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!

Up Close and Personal with Haggis and Milkman

Haggis.  Yes, it's made primarily of lungs, intestines and other animal bits but god it's tasty.  Rich, earthy, meaty and available in more iterations than you ever thought possible.  We certainly didn't leave Edinburgh thinking we'd missed out on the full haggis experience.

We almost had to talk ourselves into trying it the first time given the bad press it seems to receive outside of Scotland and also due to the hangovers we were still nursing from the night before.  But we bit the bullet and shared some in its more traditional form which came as a gigantic stack of tatties and neeps (root veggies) with haggis on top and covered in a whisky sauce (which was strategically selected in case it was as bad as we'd been lead to believe).

Let the obsession begin.

From that point onwards we tried haggis burritos, a haggis pie, haggis on a hotdog and haggis wontons.  Each an interesting interpretation on the same base ingredient.  The burrito was the standout and is something we'll genuinely attempt to recreate at home, along with chucking haggis into everything else that we possibly can.

Eating adventurously isn't bravado, it gives you an opportunity to experience different countries' food cultures and cultures in general.  The real people of a city, town, village aren't stuck in the museums, art galleries or other dime a dozen sights.  They're eating their food and their drink in their restaurants, at their street stalls and in their bars.

Yes, we spend a lot of time eating and drinking and blogging about it but that's what we do at home and how we like to travel.  I could tell you about the Scottish National Portrait Gallery, the Scottish National Gallery or the Museum of Edinburgh (all three of which we did go to) but what fun would that be?  You can go to Edinburgh yourself and see them and you'll quickly understand why we didn't write about them and will want to know the name of the place that does that good haggis burrito...

Another Culinary Delight 

You can't come to Edinburgh and not try a deep fried Mars Bar.  Essentially a heart attack in your hands.  Gooey, creamy and way better than you'd ever expect it to be.  Give me a good kebab and one of these after a night out - drunken heaven.

The Water of Life 

You certainly can't come to Edinburgh and not consume a s load of whisky.  The Black Cat was a great starting point so we lined up a couple of tasting trays of some really great stuff and dived in.  Most interesting was probably the unfiltered Ancnoc 1998.  V good.

The Hanging Bat

The best bar that we have been to outside of Belgium.  Welcoming staff, heaps of sour barrel aged beers from UK brewers (at this point we didn't realise that Buxton did such good sour brews) and awesome fast food styled noms (like beer mac and cheese).

Wallabies v Scotland

We managed to semi-fluke hitting Edinburgh the weekend that the Wallabies were to play Scotland and weren't going to miss out on that.

Murrayfield was at capacity and the Scottish national anthem sent chills up both of our spines.  It did the trick for the Scots too, they scored a try within in a couple of minutes and had us a bit worried.  However, the Wallabies controlled most of the game from that point on and even though it was a bit scrappy at times, it was great to be amongst it.

Nix also managed to meet Milkman (aka Milko/the Honey Badger/Nick Cummins), her rugby idol, and get within spitting distance of her rugby fancy, Quade.

This was a particularly good weekend to be an Aussie in the UK.  We won this game, made it through to the Union World Cup and knocked off the Poms in the cricket.  Happy days.

Arthur's Seat 

As you've read above, we had a few calories to burn after our time in Edinburgh so climbed Arthur's Seat and a few of the peaks around it.  The panoramic views provided by hills that are just outside of the city centre are breathtaking.

Four nights in Edinburgh disappeared extremely quickly.

The Beers 

Buxton Wolfscote Black Sour, DIPA, Brown Indian Raspberry Sour
Wild Beer Co Madness IPA
Wild Beer Co/Good George/Burning Skies Schnoodlepip
Alpha Project Vengeance Imperial Stout, Intrepid Traveller
Arbor You Ain't Seen Me
Alchemy Panacea, Almighty Mo' Fo
Cromarty Ghost Town
Windswept APA
Tigertops Black Hop
Magic Rock Barrel Aged Dark Arts Sour Stout
Swe/Bat Staff Appleton of Smoke Creek
Brewdog 5am Saint, Hardcore IPA, Watt Dickie
Brewdog/Evil Twin Hello My Name Is Sonja
Dieu du Ciel Isseki Nicho

The Whisky

Ardmore 1993
Craggenmore 12 Year
Glenkinchie
Dalwhinie 15 Year
Aberlour 10 Year
Glengoyne 12 Year
Ancnoc 1998
Glendronach 14 Year
Caol Ila Moch
Laddies 10
Springbank 15 Year, Calvados
Auchentoshan 3 Wood
Tobermory 15 Year