The best of Mull

We have a glorious day on this island. We see the best of Mull with the best of new acquaintances. We visit weavers who have yarn to dye for, Fingal’s cave which inspired music to die for. Finally we see puffins and dolphins in a way that you can only long for.

To dye for

A visit to the Ardalanish Isle of Mull weavers  

There are jars of organic dyes sitting on a windowsill when we enter the premises of the Ardalanish weavers. I used to dye like that years and years ago. Would have little pots with bark of oak or root of madder brewing away to colour my home-spun wool. This feels like greeting old friends.

Which is quite fitting because it turned out to be a day of new friends too.

We get on well with the German couple with whom we share the B&B, he calls her Mauschen, she calls him Nobie. We have lively discussions during breakfast. Reminiscing about history: If Martin Luther had been born somewhere else, would the German language sound different today? About culture: our different interpretations towards our hosts’ admonition to always take our shoes off before entering the house. Comparing our more western approach: ‘not so very welcoming’  to the former East-European approach: ‘a natural courtesy towards the host’.  Followed by a deadpan remark by Nobie: “from now on in our house we will wear one shoe on and one shoe off because this solution takes both cultural approaches into account”. As it turned out we were all teachers, the men had the same hobbies, and interests: similar taste in music wine, cars and miniature railways, so did the ladies: painting, walking.

Fionhport

Since we are visiting the same spots anyway, we decide to spend the day together; and what a glorious day it is turning out to be. After the weavers, and chatting away over coffee we drive to Fionhport, where we chat further over salmon sandwiches. The abbey of Iona enticingly in the background. However, this time Iona is not our destination. The sun is coming out, there is a fair breeze. The boat will depart after all. We sett off.

Fingal’s cave

It is said that Mendelsohn composed the ouverture to the Hebrides  on a visit to Fingal’s cave. It is a memorable trip, and  an experience that is difficult to describe adequately. So, one can imagine him wanting to put this to music. Have a look at the video if you want. Someone took the trouble of setting the same trip we did to Mendelsohn’s music.  Their trip was on an overcast day, though,  not a gloriously sunny one like ours.

Fingal’s cave looms like a little speck on the horizon but in the course of an hour it grows into a big lump of a rock until finally you see the huge mouth of the entrance to the cave itself.

A fair swell, white waves, we arrived at Fingal’s cave

What an incredible place to be: magnificent, isolated, cathedralesque, is that a word? There is definitely the feeling of entering a huge cathedral. This by itself would have been enough to constitute a memorable outing, but things are getting better and better.

Puffins

Puffins are to be found on this large rock in the ocean. So I head upwards. Last year in Orkney all I saw was a few dots in the ocean through a telelens. Would this one hour we have on the island be enough to spot some puffins up close? I hasten onwards an upwards and there, plopping up from the cliffs are many, many little puffins. They know that natural predators won’t come near, if these strange two legged animals appear. So, they are not shy at all, and happily land a mere half a meter in front of you. I could have stayed on top of that cliff for hours, but had just ten minutes before heading back to the boat. Clicking my camera to my hearts content in those ten minutes that I have, before heading down again to catch the boat back.

We say to each other what a wonderful day this had been so far, the weavers, the cave, the glorious weather with the sky and the clouds, the waves and the wind each setting each other off to form an exhilarating picture. Then as the boat was riding those waves at a fair pace someone shouts:

Dolphins!!

A pod of dolphins follows the boat, racing with us and coming incredibly close. You see them just under the surface by looking over the side, as if you can touch them by putting your hand in the water.  They lag behind, then suddenly jump out of the water very close to the boat. Then they are gone, only to appear a moment later at the other side of the boat. We must have been quite a sight as well; the whole of that boat in uproar, people standing up, not knowing where to look because the dolphins where then here, then there. Pointing out to each other there! there they are, racing alongside the boat. A mother and her calf as well. It truly was a magical moment to see such speed, grace and ease up close.

Difficult to catch on camera but something that will stay etched in my mind. What a glorious day indeed.

It ain’t over till it is over

Before the day draws to a close we stop at the beach near Uisken.

 

We stood chatting and looking out over the sea, before we headed off to the Pennyghael hotel to have a meal. We did say to each other how very nice it had been to spend this day together. In fact we talked about all sorts of things. When first breakfast preparations got under way and, finally the lights in the dining-room were turned off, we got the message and called it a day as well.  A glorious day.