fluffymark | ARDNAMURCHAN

View from the cottage: Sunset behind the archipelago. Wheeeeeeeee!

After a frustrating journey, frought with rail-replacement coaches and missed connections, I met

mirabehn,

evil_nick,

borusa,

taimatsu and

smhwpf in the evening at Fort William, where they’d been kind enough to meet me. Then we drove west. The country became wild. Huge mountains and lochs. Winding roads, getting smaller and smaller until they became single track. Tolkienesque might be a very good word to describe the landscape around us. Something right out of Lord of the Rings, anyway (Glenborrodale and Glenmor were hastily renamed to Glenboromir and Glenmordor by us). There is even an old volcanic crater towering over most of the peninsula. The lava from this has created all sorts of odd and wonderful rock formations. I squeeeed lots and became very excitable as everything became pretty, the full moon rose over Mull, while the sun set in a most beautiful fashion behind Rhum, Eigg, Muck and Skye. Arnamurchan is the most westerly point of the UK mainland, and we stayed at Portuairk, right near the tip, at a gorgeous little cottage placed right where the road ends an the Atlantic Ocean begins. The cottage was an old crofter’s cottage, and is now pretentiously and sweetly named Tigh na Cladach. Awww. The view north of the islands in the archipelago is nothing short of spectacular. The view west was of the wild and open Atlantic. We were right on the shorefront, and sheep came into the garden! *amused*

Rural life is lots of fun. No internet. No mobile phone reception (without climbing a hill!). No landline phone. Nearest shop is 5 miles away. The hermit within me loved it. Fresh air, lots of time to relax and flop and enjoy all the pretties around us. Everything was a bit wet and windy much of the time (although I prefer that to heatwaves) but we did get nice days, and there was a nearby sandy beach to build sandcastles on. We visited the gorgeous castle Tioram nearby, which I loved. But then I always like old castles, ruined or not. A wet and windswept ferry crossing took us one day to the very pretty town of Tobermory on the Isle of Mull, where we indulged in shops and an enlightening visit to the local Whisky distillery. And other fun places too! Yay! One day I explored the nearby rocks at low tide for sealife in rockpools and other curiousities, and that was hugely fun. Another day we scrambled to the top of the nearby hill. Evenings we cooked delicious meals and stayed in. We played several board games, I won at Lord of the Rings Monopoly when my Legolas controlled Mount Doom and Barad-Dur. *evilcackle*. There was much lovely folk singing (yay Elly-singing!) and talented playing of guitars (yay Lucy-playing!) and fun readthroughs of As you like it and An Inspector Calls, the latter made possible after an epic bout of script-copying to produce a second script to read from. Yay! *happybounces*

Was sad to wave byebye to all the prettiness on Saturday, slight mishap with Air traffic control strikes, but got back eventually, via a little amorous visit to Cambridge *smallblush*. London is all wrong. It’s too hot and I’ve noticed how bad it smells again. Wah. Can I go back to Scotland now please? *hopeful*

Photos of Arnamurchan - do look, they are pretty. Also finally uploaded photos of Moscow and Berlin.