Easter in Mull

31 March to 02 April 2018

You really don't need to go far away to find amazing places, even more true if you are lucky enough to live in Scotland! In line with our “let's fly less” plan we decided to spend a few days cycling in the Isle of Mull in the West Coast of Scotland. I still can't believe that it took me 10 years to get to visit it, it's now in my top list of favourite places for landscapes and wildlife. Truth is that we were extremely lucky with the weather, while most of the UK was sinking in rain we were in the only corner blessed with sunshine, well some gale wind too but not a single drop of rain. The weather put off many people from traveling, so that the roads were not too busy and most of the time we were alone in stunning places. Alone is not probably the right word since wildlife abounded and regularly entertained us.

Day 1: Getting to Tobermory – 45km and 340m up

Friday 30 March

Mull is easily accessible with public transport. We took the 7am train from Edinburgh, changed train in Glasgow and at 11.30am we were in Oban waiting for the 12.00 ferry, by 1pm we were on the island ready to get some km in our legs. The journey went smoothly, gladly we did have bike reservations for the train, while a poor guy was turned back as he didn't...Scotland, what's the point in promoting cycling if you don't facilitate transport and infrastructures for cyclists? 

Heading to Haymarket station

help...

About to board the ferry to Mull

 

Anyway, the first 10 miles to Salen were flat and passed quickly, then the road turned to a one lane roller coaster, with a final climb with beautiful views on the North East isles and mountains. All that goes up has to go down, and in no time we found ourselves in the cheerful village of Tobermory were we had a room booked in the Youth Hostel. It was only 3pm, 2h before check in time. We dropped our panniers in the kitchen and decided to go and try our luck with otter watching...not before refilling ourselves with some chips. I'm usually very good with what I eat but somehow when I cycle I turn into an omnivore...

Battery recharged we headed North for the Ardmore Shore Walk, a few km cycle out of town and a 8km loop to reach the coast where we could spot the peaks of Rum and Skye. Apparently it's a good spot to look out for otters, but the tide was high and we saw none, still, it was a good stroll and by the time we got back we could check in and replenish energies with a good dinner. The hostel was full and a bit messy but we managed to get a (stinky) room for ourselves with a superb view on the sea and the luxury of a full moon over it!

Sorry Mr Tree

Ardmore Shore, no otters

Day 2 – Cycling the North part of Mull – 85km and 1400m up (yes, 1400m!)

Saturday 31 March

The day didn't look big on the map but turned out to be quite demanding. We had an earlish start at 8am to beat the hostel crowd and headed toward Dervaig first. We planned to cycle the North loop of Mull clockwise and to avoid the bit to Salen which was busy with cars the day before, we followed the dirty road along Loch Frisa instead, with a beautiful scenery and absolutely nobody around. 

13km dirty road along Loch Frisa

 

The bit after Salen was truly stunning, and within 20 min we spotted in order: 2 seals, 1 otter, 1 buzzard and 1 golden eagle, not bad to start the day with! All the bit to Calgary was a true roller coaster and sucked all our energies. The scenery made up for the effort but still, my quads were badly worn out and we could hardly get to Calgary Beach with the only thought in our mind being a hot coffee! We stopped in the cafe in Calgary and were slightly disappointed and how slow and disorganised the service was but they opened it the week before and were still trying to get organised.

Otter!!!

Frozen in Calgary Bay

The last few miles back to Tobermory were still hilly and beautiful, I'm just glad that the last hill to get to town is downhill at the end of the day as it's a true killer! We arrived at 4pm and after our chips stop we decided to go for a wee walk to the Lighthouse North of town to relax a bit the legs. I didn't expect it but it turns out that the total climb for those 85km was 1400 m! No wonder we were both dead tired, sure enough I slept like a log that night! 
 

Redeveloping the "Great Divide" look..

Day 3 - Tobermory to Fionnphort, and Ben More – 78km and 800m up

Sunday 01 April (Happy Easter!)

And a happy Easter it was indeed! I still quite can't understand how we could possibly have been so lucky with the weather. Statistically it must happened once at every 4 years, and we were there!! Completely sunny and no wind, happy days! The plan was to leave Tobermory and cycle to the other side of the island, Fionnphort, and climb Ben More in between. We could see there was still quite a lot of snow on the top but we decided to give it a go and see where we could get.

We thought it would have been a very long day and set off at 7.30am (which turned out to be a good choice as in the hostel during the night there had been some bad toilet accident...). The morning was freezing cold, with frost everywhere and even ice on the shore. On a positive note the road was deserted and in no time we passed through the known territory and continued on the road after Gruline. It must be said that a few car drivers were real ASSHOLES!!! True the same can be said for cyclists,but I doubt a cyclist can end up injuring a car driver quite badly. The roads in Mull are narrow with passing spaces to allow overtaking. We would always stop everytime it would be possible to let them pass, but jezz, if the passing space is 5 metre away just wait! Quite a few overtook leaving less than 5cm which just drives me crazy! Anyway, the day was way too good to get pissed off so that we promised each other we would not get upset, and it worked! 

Bring it on!!!

 

We reached Ben More car park at 9am, parked the bikes behind the rubbish bins and started climbing. We didn't push it too much as we still had 50km cycle afterwords, but steadily we reached the snow line in 1h 15m. The path follows a river and had it not been frozen the ground would have been boggy beyond my taste, but again, that was our lucky day!

We probably had a 30 min walk left to reach the top but there was too much snow and we decided to turn back. The views from were we were were fine enough and we didn't want to push our luck too much. On the way down we had this amazing sight of a buzzard chasing off a golden eagle, scene of ordinary life! 
 

just watched the buzzard vs eagle chase off

Back at the bikes we had our lunch and slowly slowly kept on absorbing every inch of that amazing road. This was by far my favourite bit. No cars around we would stop at every 10 minutes astonished at the beauty of the sea, and the cliffs, and the hills, and the lambs, and the baby cows, and rocks, the infinite harmony of shapes and colours around us, nature never fails to surprise!
 

The last bit to Fionnphort was kind of endless as the energies were getting low and the increasing number of cars around was not helping. The highlight was when we stopped at a bench by the sea and were lucky enough to spot another otter, the true treats of life. We reached the village at 4pm and rewarded ourselves with some chips before checking in the best B&B ever, the Sea View B&B, handily located between the Ferry Shop and the Pub. From our window we could see Iona, the Abbey and a bay. John was extremely helpful and told us about a few walks. The weather was still good so that after dinner we went to inspect the surrounding bay and beaches were we got the best sunset ever. Cherry on the cake was a highland cow grazing on the beach right at sunset, and a flock of geese flying over her, a perfect way to end a perfect day.

The otter was splashing around those rocks

what we think were otters prints

 

Day 4 – Iona

Monday 02 April

We were aware that the Beast from the East 3 was heading our way, but somehow we got away with one more day without rain...no rain but 40miles/h wind! Out Staffa tour was cancelled for high winds and instead we spent a great day visiting Iona, first with a walk to the North end and then the South end to St Columba Bay. The wind was really merciless and cold, but with 6 layers on I even managed to feel warm!

The forecasts for the day after were not encouraging and we opted for a bus back to Craignure to get the ferry back. At the end the weather was not too bad but the journey back was long and getting some rest was not a bad idea after all. On the train back from Oban we realised that everywhere else the weather had been miserable, it was snowing all the way through, we still can't believe we were so lucky, and as I'm writing now it's snowing outside! Anyway, this trip made me feel like planning some more island adventures, maybe next time it will be Jura and Islay...