Day 27 - South of Oban
Today's parkrun was Ganavan Sands. Before checking I assumed this would be a beach or promenade event but no! Probably the hilliest I have ever done and very steep ones. It was a short walk from our B&B so Paul didn't come down.
We had no plans for today but had hoped to give the car a rest and catch the bus into Oban and then the train to somewhere within an hour of Oban. This didnt work out because the bus times were very irregular and they dont run to Ganavan after mid afternoon, so we looked at a map and decided to go south of the town as our route out of Oban tomorrow takes us north before heading towards Glasgow.
We saw a little historic place called Clachan Bridge, also known at the Bridge over the Atlantic. This little stone, hump back bridge links the mainland to Seil Island. We drove over the bridge and stopped in the car park of a hotel/pub called Tigh an Truish and walked back over the bridge.
The name Tigh an Truish is gaelic for House of Trousers because after the Battle of Culloden in 1746, the British Government banned the wearing of kilts. The people of Seil felt safe wearing their kilts while on the island but used the pub as a place to change into conventional dress whenever they needed to cross the bridge to the mainland.
We drove through Seil Island to a place called Cuan Ferry and parked up. There was a little car ferry sailing to the next island of Luing. We decided to go over and have a walk. The Ferryman told us that it was the last morning sailing before they had their lunch break. It was a 5 minute trip and no seating for foot passengers. It also had a dog that belonged to one of the crew who went round sniffing cars and people.
On Luing we walked along the very quiet road for about half an hour. We did see an eagle, joined briefly by another. This time I got some videos.
On the way back we met a man who lives on Luing. He arrived at the ferry on a motorcycle, travelled as a foot passenger and had a car at Cual, on Seil Island. He said it was cheaper to cross like that. I asked him about the eagles and he agreed that when soaring it was difficult to identify from buzzards but when they beat their wings it was easy.
Once back on Seil we stopped at a very large church, considering the size of the population and then continued to the mainland and parked up in a layby overlooking Loch Feochan where there were families of Eider and Mallard Ducks and a noisy Common Sandpiper.
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