Unexpected Extra Day on Islay

We woke up to brilliant sunshine, which I felt was an appropriate compensation for being delayed on Islay for an extra day! After a very nice breakfast using the ingredients provided in the luxury kitchen of the apartment, we packed up and headed to Machir Beach on the west coast of the island. We went on a circular walk recommended by the Walk Highlands website. This started at the ruined church with its intricately carved Celtic cross in its graveyard, and continued through a field with lots of sheep and lambs, whom we were careful not to disturb, then up the hill. Eventually we arrived at the beach. Oh boy was it beautiful, a long sandy beach and blue, blue sea, with waves lapping gently on the shore. We had a picnic sitting on the sand dunes with a flask of coffee. It really was idyllic. Then we went to the nearby Kilchoman Distillery, a modern and (to us) lesser known Islay distillery. What a find! It is the most nicely set up (for visitors) distillery that we have seen so far. It is really spacious and smartly decorated with a big circular fire and comfy armchairs, and tables made out of the tops of whisky barrels. It even has a wee restaurant with a lovely display of baking. We didn’t take a tour but James was given two wee complimentary drams of whisky which he drank before his tea and cake, and we had a good look round. And then it was time to make our way to the airport for our flight, which was initially delayed by 50 minutes, but the pilot made up some time so we arrived back to Glasgow less than half an hour late. Another bonus of our unplanned extra day on Islay was that the lovely weather today enabled us to see lots of islands and coast during our flight - yesterday would have been too cloudy. 

Cancelled flight

As forecast, the sunny weather was a mere memory when we woke this morning and it was raining for most of the day. We thought nothing of this, feeling that we had been lucky with our two days of sunshine, and didn’t suspect that it would have an impact on us later. We checked out of the hotel and James went for a Distillery tour while I went to the Antlers Café and read my book. James joined me for a coffee there after his tour, and then we caught the ferry back to Islay - more terrifying reversing onto the wee ferry for me! We went to the Islay Life Museum in Port Charlotte, which turned out to be a great place to spend a bit of time on a rainy day. It had all sorts of objects from the old days on Islay; butter churns, a ship’s whistle, old Christening gowns (just like ours!), a cradle shaped like a boat, old agricultural tools and much more. It also had information on how World Wars 1 and 2 had affected the island; as well as young men dying on the battlefields of Europe there had been a bad air crash and two military shipwrecks in the 2nd World War which had unfortunately resulted in many deaths, quite a few American. The islanders had rallied round to rescue the survivors and bury the dead, for which they were praised by the American President. There were also old photographs of Islay life; dances and theatre productions and school days and milking competitions. We both found it to be fascinating. Back in Bowmore we had a mid afternoon coffee before heading to the airport. It wasn’t until we arrived that we found out that our flight back to Glasgow was cancelled because of low cloud. I had received a text message forty minutes before but hadn’t seen it. James, who knows a lot about aeroplanes, was surprised that it had been cancelled; the cloudy weather didn’t seem all that bad. However there was nothing that we could do, and more unwelcome news was to come; the morning flight tomorrow is fully booked so we won’t get home until the evening. This meant that we have had to cancel a curry at Rasoi with Heather and Ewan that we were both looking forward to (the company as well as the food of course!) To be fair to Loganair they booked us into a very nice hotel in Bowmore and arranged to transport us there by minibus. We decided to extend our car hire in order to give ourselves a bit of independence tomorrow, and set off to the welcoming and newly refurbished Harbour Hotel’s apartments, which are very smart and clean. So here we are, unexpectedly still in Islay. 

A walk at Tarbert on Jura

Today was supposed to be cloudy and indeed it started that way, but the clouds dispersed to reveal another sunny day - we have been so lucky! After another excellent breakfast at the Jura Hotel, we drove to Tarbert, the narrowest point on Jura, where sailors used to carry their boats across when sailing from Colonsay to the mainland at Kintyre. It avoided the dangerous Corryvreckan whirlpool and was a shortcut. It was a lovely walk and very peaceful, there wasn’t another soul around. On the way back to Craighouse (Jura’s main and in fact I think its only village, where there is a shop, a café, the Jura Hotel and the Jura Whisky Distillery) we stopped for a walk on Corran Sands. The colours were beautiful, the pale sand made the water turquoise beside the shore, changing into darker hues as it got deeper. It was an absolutely beautiful day. We went to the Antlers Café where it was sheltered and warm enough to sit outside in the sunshine to drink our cups of tea, and then strolled around Craighouse, down to the pier and back. During dinner we were eavesdropping (as is our wont) on the next table of young people and realised that they were executives from Whyte and Mackay, who own the Jura Distillery. They were chatting quite loudly but when their main courses were served they all became absolutely silent as they got tore into their food - a tribute to the fine cooking of the Jura Hotel! 

The Paps of Jura

We were delighted with the Jura Hotel when we arrived last night. It’s a typical old fashioned Scottish hotel in many ways, but has been well kept, is very clean, and the en-suite bathroom in our room is brand new. The location is lovely; right on the water with beautiful views of the sea and some wee islands, with Kintyre in the distance. 

This morning, after a hearty breakfast, I dropped James off at the bridge 5 km north of Craighouse for his hill-walking day. His aim was to climb the three Paps of Jura, so named because they are conical in shape, like breasts (yes, three breasts!) The highest one, Beinn an Oir, is a Corbett, another one to tick off on James’ list, and the main reason for our trip which is my Christmas present to James.

I decided to head up as far north as possible in the island. The main, and only public road in the island, is shaped like a giant letter J. We crossed over from Islay at the bottom left of the J, and today I headed up to the top of it. The road is single track with passing places, and it’s a surprisingly long way, but I was in no hurry and took my time, enjoying the views of hills and moorland and sea. I arrived eventually at the Lussa estate, where I had a bit of an unwanted adventure. 

When the road passes the distillery and farm buildings at the estate, it then descends to an absolutely beautiful bay. I decided to park the car and have a walk around. I carefully backed onto a piece of grass, which seemed firm because I tested it first with my feet. Meanwhile, lots of mummy sheep and their beautiful little twin and triplet lambs went past me, and there were some geese on the beach. Two friendly ladies rode past me on horseback and warned me that the grass (which is actually going to be a hayfield in the summer) is not as firm as it seemed. I was embarrassed to have backed on to their hayfield and went to move my car straight away. Sure enough it was stuck fast and when I tried to move it, the wheels just span. Claire Fletcher, who turned out to be the lady laird, phoned her husband Andy to ask him to tow me out of the field. She said that it would take him a little while to arrive because he was dehorning calves this morning. The delay didn’t bother me because I was just grateful to get the help and I went for a little walk up and down the bay. Soon Andy arrived and towed me out of the field. He said that they used to live in the West End of Glasgow and if his father hadn’t died, they probably wouldn’t have moved back to Jura, but they felt that they should hand it on to future generations. They live in such a beautiful place but I bet it’s hard work to make ends meet. For example he mentioned that they have tied cottages on the estate for workers, and they are now being charged double rates because they are deemed second homes, which is really not quite true or fair. To say thank you I went to the distillery in which Claire is a partner, and bought some Lussa gin. The lady in the distillery who sold me the gin told me that they were glad to hear that we were staying in the Jura Hotel because it’s really struggling to get visitors especially with the ferry problems over the past few years; people are reluctant to book holidays if transport is going to be a problem. 

I collected James from the bridge at 5.30 p.m. arriving in perfect time when he was only about 100 yards away from the car park, he was ravenous for his tasty dinner back at the hotel and told me of his adventures including some scary sounding slides down scree fields. He had managed to climb all three hills. That was a very big walk for him today and he was pleased to have achieved it. He fell asleep as soon as his head touched the pillow. 

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. 

Pierogi fail

I’m in the process of clearing out our freezers by eating things that have been lurking in there for a while. One of these things is a bag of frozen pierogi, which I bought last year after our trip to Krakow. I loved eating pierogi in Krakow so on our return to Glasgow I visited our local Polish shop and bought a big bag of them. This evening I cooked them for dinner, and served them with a beetroot and horseradish sauce. The results were rather disappointing, in fact James remarked that it was a new low in my catering! We put the leftovers out on the bird table, hoping that they won’t do the birds too much harm! This reminded me of a story that my Dad used to tell, about when my Mum put out for the birds the remains of a fruit cake that had turned out to be far too heavy. My Dad claimed that he saw a bird standing with its wing wrapped around a clothes pole, and the other wing holding its sore tummy! And that another bird tried to fly away but the fruit cake it had consumed prevented it from taking off properly and its belly kept bouncing along the ground as it tried to gain height! 

In other news I had a lovely facial and head & shoulder massage on Wednesday at Ocho Spa in Speirs Wharf, which was part of my Christmas present from Ally and Cat. It was very relaxing and my skin felt glowing afterwards. 

Back to good old Blighty

Today was last day of our holiday and we had pains au chocolat for breakfast in Café Mamatte on the Rue de la Republique. Our last stop on the way to the airport, appropriately I thought, was Compiègne to visit the place where the Armistice was signed on 11th November 1918. The railway carriage is not the original because the Nazis burned that after taking it to Berlin during the 2nd World War. However it’s very similar to the original one and there are a few pieces of the original in a glass case. The railway carriage was (and is) refurbished as an office, with desks and armchairs and a conference table where the last details of the Armistice Treaty were discussed and then signed.

Our onwards journey to the airport went smoothly, but we had a worrying moment when the car hire official found a big scratch on the front bumper of the car which she did not have noted in the paperwork from when we hired it. Luckily our hero Davie had taken photos of the car when we picked it up and one of them showed that the scratch was already there so we were in the clear. It was a slow process through baggage drop, security, and passport control, to the extent that we were beginning to be worried that we wouldn’t arrive at the departure gate in time for the flight! But we got there and shuffled on at the back of the queue. By 3.45 p.m, only a quarter of an hour late, we arrived in a drizzly Glasgow, noticeably cooler than France and Belgium have been. When we got home and said our farewells to Davie and Chanel, I dived into bed absolutely exhausted; my sleep last night was disturbed by early morning deliveries and bin lorries right outside our hotel. Flora was extremely affectionate and cuddled on top of the duvet beside me. Meanwhile James and Tom were having a loving father / son reunion, it was all very heartwarming! I got up for some supper later and I’m now back in bed looking forward to a good night’s sleep.