Arran and on to Oban...

(Friday, 15th April - Catch up)

Next morning, after a lightish breakfast, including some of Ann's home-made marmalade, we headed for Lochranza, which is our next ferry back across to the mainland toward Oban.

We went back to Brodick which is a much better drive, with some awesome views back down onto the Firth of Clyde, then turned up north toward the top of the island. A bit twisty in parts, but a good run, and then you come down a longish hill with the view over Lochranza, with a ruined castle, lovely houses and sailing boats all around.
Still very cool morning, even at 10.00am, and this is one of the smaller ferry trips that you just turn up and go, i.e. park you car ready to roll on to the ferry, and then pay on board. There are only 17 spaces on the ferry, and if they had any larger units, even less. It only takes 20 minutes to cross to Cloanaig.

This is part of the Cock of Arran, and it's huge. Don't ask!

 The first bit of road up from the landing is one lane, with passing places, and after that the drive up to Oban is quite nice and easy.
Stopped in Tarbert on the way, which is another of those places which have coloured buildings, and it is a really pretty town. Had tea in a little cafe, and looked at souvenirs and took some photo's of a church with a really interesting "spire" bit.

Drove on up to Lochilphead and Kilmartin, and then turned down a road to Ardfern, which had notices for a cafe, and it was lunchtime.
Got some really nice pumpkin soup, and when we ordered our lunch the girl said, "No worries!". She was from Perth, W.A.

Oban is the "capital" city of the Scottish west coast, and is very interesting, with lots of large hotels and buildings clustered around the harbour. It is a main departure point for many ferries going out to Lewis and Harris, and other ports on the further islands.

We found our hotel without too much bother and it really is right on the harbour. There are about 6 parking spaces for about 49 rooms, so we had to do the pay parking thing until 6.00pm, and then make sure we also were covered by 9.00am. Thankfully the parking costs are not high, like GBP2 overnight.

Our room was in the corner overlooking the harbour, which was a bonus, and was only let down by the lumpiness of the bed. The bathroom was good, but narrow, and in their eagerness to have all the mod cons in the refurbishment, had included a heated towel rail, which was set so hot as to be untouchable!
Dinner was at a restaurant I had seen on line and we settled for a shared pizza and some beer, More than enough!

We then had to think of what we would be taking on board the small cruise. We knew it was meant to be casual, but also had no idea of the other passengers and that perhaps our idea of casual might be different.
Needn't have bothered as we all fitted in quite well. (see later posts)

(Saturday, 16th April)
Today we have to take the car to a local place to have it stored for the week we'll be away, and that proved to be so easy, and would cost us GBP40 for the week. Walked back to town, which was quicker than driving, and found the hotel we were to meet the people from The Majestic Line, and the other guests.
 Signage wasn't so good, and we waited in a different part of the hotel, only to find later that a special area was assigned for our cruise. Not a problem, and we finally found the group area, and sat and had a glass of wine.
If I thought that some of the people around us were also on the cruise, I thought it would be a very interesting mix. We were to be the only "outsiders" (i.e. non UK residents), but the cross section of accents I was hearing, indicated people from all over the UK! As it turned out a large group had sat themselves in 'our' waiting area, and they left. By then we had indicated to those others around us that we were on the cruise, and started chatting.



Not long afterwards, we met the people from the boat, and they explained how and when we would be taken out to the vessel. (Lee and I had seen it from the hotel, and it did not look big enough for even 10 people!)

Next post...

Out to the boat and away, and being nervous about new acquaintances, and would it be as good as we have both hoped...

Oban city and harbour from our hotel window.