Flight to Islay

To the confusion of the cats we were awake particularly early and left the house at about twenty past six in the morning, in order to catch our 7.50 a.m. flight to Islay. I nipped along to the postbox to post a letter and Tom followed me all the way! I didn’t even notice because I was hurrying along but when James drove along to pick me up at the foot of Calder Drive he pointed Tom out, still standing beside the postbox, and said that he had been at my heel the whole way! All went smoothly on our journey although when we arrived in Islay it was raining and we were even treated to a burst of hailstones after we picked up our hire car. On the other hand there were also lengthy intervals of blue sky and sunshine; the weather is very weirdly mixed today. 

Neither James nor I have been in Islay since we were teenagers, each with our own families, so it was interesting to see it again. There are lots of Whisky distilleries around the coast of the island so we naturally called in at a few. First was Laphroaig, then Bowmore, and then Bruichladdich, where James booked a tour with cask whisky tasting. Each distillery was beautifully appointed next to the water, with comfortable lounges and / or tasting areas, and very knowledgeable and friendly staff. When James went for his tour I walked along to a nearby café where I got into conversation with some pleasant Ileachs (they explained to me that is the same for someone born on Islay.) But when I asked if they might have known another Ileach (Maggie’s Mum) who came from Port Ellen, they said “Oh no, that’s another place entirely!” One elderly man told me that he had been in the merchant navy and he had travelled all around the world twice before he first visited Port Ellen when his ship put in there. He then took the bus across the island back to Bruichladdich, seeing places in Islay that he had never visited before! 

I went down to the beach and took some photos of a shag standing rather magnificently on a rock, and I read my book for a while until James appeared back from his whisky tour. 

We made our way to the ferry at Port Askaig which was called “James” and after being expertly guided by the ferry man to reverse onto the boat, we had a rather choppy crossing which was great fun. This is the first trip to Jura for either of us.