Day 3: From ‘Campermory’ to the golden beaches

After the wonder of the previous day, the next day started dull and overcast. At times it also became a little fraught. But ended in a flurry with a lovely road trip, dazzling golden sands and even a paddle in the sea!

Like holidays we’ve been on together, this morning started with me being up so much earlier than anyone else. I was up and showered and ready to go before 7 am, leaving everyone else still sleeping.

Having done some in-van clearing away, or what I could do without waking Mikey, I went for a walk.

At that time in the morning, the weather wasn’t great, it was ‘waterproof weather’. So suitably wrapped up, I went down to the beach for a look around.

Although the scenery was stunning, the beach wasn’t much of a beach at all. Covered in pebbles and boulders with nowhere to walk.

Instead, I walked back the way I had come, past the campsite and started to stroll toward the small village of Salen. I got into step with a fellow camper, also out for a morning walk. We chatted and marched to the village, both getting in our morning exercise (she walked considerably faster than the leisurely pace I had planned for my morning walk, so I also had a pretty good workout that morning!)

Sometime later and once back at the van, it was time for a cuppa, breakfast and to get this show on the road!

Campervan 101

Here is a little bit of education for all you would-be campervan / mobile-home travellers…

As you are leaving a campsite with a van, this means you will first need to ‘service’ said van. So there are a few things that become routine:

Switch off and unplug the electrics
Put everything that moves away and lock all doors (something we frequently forgot this …but luckily not on this occasion!)
Fill up with fresh water
Empty the wastewater (from washing up or the shower)
And… emptying the loo! (Not being sexist here… but this is most certainly a boys job)
In relation to the above, minimise using the onboard loo anyway!

These are all the things we should have learned through those videos I mentioned before, instead we sort of learned them on the road. Perhaps not the best approach, but we got away with it without too many incidents! …well, kinda!

Now…

Back to the story of the day

With us and the vans all sorted, our convoy was ready to roll again, so off we went…

Now look away if you don’t want to hear the bit about teeny tiny roads, steep hills, nowhere to park (especially for two big vans) leading to some tension brewing…

What am I saying! Of course, you don’t want to look away! This is the juicy bit and you lot can’t wait for the gossip…

Well in short there is no gossip, we didn’t argue or come to blows …as you will see, it was just a little hot air.

We arrived in Tobermory, the town made famous for its brightly coloured houses along the harbour front (and for some TV show that has passed me by called ‘Balamory’). And as beautiful as it is, that harbour is utterly impractical for one large Mobile Home let alone two travelling in convoy!

When we arrived, we did do our now traditional tour around a car park …twice.

(For those keeping track of such delights, given the lack of an Aldi, we had to make do with the small aquarium car park)

Enthused by such wonders, we then did a tour around several of the quaint teeny tiny streets trying to find somewhere to park. This is where we started to get a bit ‘hot and bothered’, both figuratively and metaphorically (fabulous weather but when confined in a campervan and the internal combustion of the driver is already beginning to rise, it’s not quite ideal).

We had almost decided to forget it and go somewhere else when all of a sudden we found two separate places to park on a couple of different side streets. HOORAY!

And as quickly as that, all tension was gone!

Yummy food

From then on the day went with a swing; a lovely walk along the beautiful harbour, not to mention scoffing down great seafood from a seafood shack on the harbour wall!

I know I keep talking about food and that’s because it’s simply amazing. From this shack, Pete got a mountain of Scampi and Mikey had enormous scallops caught fresh from the bay (allegedly called Kevin, Bob and Stuart …sometimes Mikey’s love of the Minions from the film Despicable Me creeps into other aspects of life, including scallops it seems!)

Fi and I had delicious salmon fish cakes. All of this came with a couple of portions of chips. The food was all so fresh and soooooo tasty, all thoughts of diets on this trip had long been forgotten.

Of course, after such a great lunch there was only one thing for it, ICE CREAM!

Well, we were at the seaside and by now it was roasting hot …yes, you heard me right, not only was the sun shining, it was roasting hot and there wasn’t a cloud in the sky! Who said Scottish weather was crap!?

All too soon though, it was time to head back to the vans, which were parked up a steep hill. Time to walk off the chips. Obviously, in normal circumstances, we would have run back up the hill to the vans, but alas we had to nurse our ice-creams as we walked so it was more a slow plod.

Once more we had to head along the harbour, but at least with good reason this time, as the Tobermory ferry port was at the far end. What followed was a 35-minute crossing to the mainland.

[Cue seasickness]

Although this was a very short ferry crossing, and it was sunny, this was not a happy crossing for me!

When we got onto the ferry we were told we had to stay in our vans.

…Arghhhh!

That was fine to start but as we got out into the sea the ferry started to rock and roll …just enough to make me realise the ice cream maybe hadn’t been such a great idea.

Screw the rules, this was an emergency!

…and so, a quick exit from the van and sitting outside on the deck, in the cool breeze, soon sorted me out.

The mainland and beyond

I have to say the journey from the Kilchoan ferry port to Sunnyside Croft at Arisaig was one of my favourites. It didn’t have the drama of some of the other places we have visited but it was simply beautiful.

It seemed to Mikey and me that normal roads lay ahead, well that’s what it seemed like at the beginning…

(Remember, dear readers, we were blissfully unaware, every step of the way. For us, this was a Magical Mystery Tour!)

Very soon though we were onto single track roads again.

It’s hard to describe them, but I’ll do my best. The roads were lined on each side with trees and greenery occasionally giving way to meadows with wild flows. Foxgloves and cornflowers growing out of rocks, and just loads of other plants I don’t even know. Just astounding. And then an amazing hidden beach, which seemed to have no way down to it…

The whole leg of the journey was simply stunning!

Our spirits weren’t even dampened when a massive tractor pulling a combined harvester suddenly sped towards us out of nowhere. That said, Mikey and l were thankful we weren’t the lead van …poor Pete and Fi! – We salute your courage and bravery!!

(By the way, and for the uninitiated, typically everything seems fast when compared to a motor home, even tractors …well that is unless Pete ‘Schumacher’ Higgins is driving!)

We meandered along like this for a while, I’m not sure exactly for how long because I happily lost track of time, gazing at the wonderful scenery, changing with every twist and turn.

Eventually, we could see the sea and our leaders were indicating that we were turning.

Wow …double WOW!

We had arrived at an amazing campsite right on a beach with beautiful golden sands. Out of the whole trip, this is the one thing I said we absolutely had to do …walk on a golden beach with crystal clear water lapping at my feet.

Sunnyside Croft was a fab campsite. The pitches were massive, the site was quite small and intimate, and every pitch had an incredible view.

Once we were hooked up with power, naturally we went for a walk down to the beach, where I immediately kicked off my shoes and paddled in the sea!! (…and was photobombed by a kayak too!)

The sea was surprisingly warm, which started a trend with our small group and before long we were all paddling.

Well, I say ‘all’…

Mikey was in such awe at the place, and was so busy taking photos, he didn’t notice the tide coming in – rapidly – around the sandbank he was standing on. Very soon it became an island! …and he had to take off his shoes and roll up his jeans to escape his Isle of Mikey.

Back at the vans, we did get that BBQ. Not quite on the beach but close enough. A BBQ of steak sandwiches and salad, washed down with gin and wine.

Great food, brilliant company, and a golden place.

Another wonderful day!

Post-script

When reviewing these pics later in the day, we noticed Fi had this rather wonderful (yet inadvertent) Marilyn Monroe pose she happily fell into whenever a pic was taken…