Day 15 Mom's trip, Monday 13 April

We woke up super, super early this morning in order to catch the 7am ferry from Oban to the island of Mull. Early. Really, Reeeaaaallly early. blech. Still, we'd been warned that the ferries were filling up and -- since we didn't have reservations -- we might not make it on at any "normal" hour... So early we went, tickets we got (as well as going ahead and booking our return for the morrow at a more reasonable hour!), and the ferry we took! It was not overfull at that hour! We reached Oban, drove off the ferry (I'm a fan of these ferries!), and took off at a leasurely pace across the island - it being 8am, there really was no rush! (From here on in, all the narration will be with the copious photos I feel like posting...) =D

I liked these lakes the last time across Mull as well! But look at that sky! What a perfect day!

A slightly different view of the lakes (included because I liked the scenery while the other one showed the sky better!)

Looking over at Ben More and back along our single-track road. It was actually a very friendly single-track road, with mostly considerate drivers and well-lined with passing places.

This highland "coo" was all about posing for us!

Approaching Iona on the second ferry, having left our car behind.

The Abbey, and -- LOOK AT THAT WATER! This is, remember, SCOTLAND! I was wearing a good 4 layers or so...

Inside a little chapel on the Abbey grounds.

Inside the Abbey Church, the trailey things from the ceiling were left-over from their Easter services.

Back down to the harbour to catch a boat to take us to Fingel's Cave up on the isle of Staffa. Regarding our boat, the woman at the main ferry to Iona in the morning had recommended the one we took, but also commented, "that's the one you row on"... eh, might as well take the time to see these things! But again, look at that white sand beach!

The isle of Staffa - slightly hazy, but this is the photo on all the postcards, now mine!

A lady kindly volunteered to take our photo - I think this was our first the whole trip (other than the few I tried to take myself of us...). Thankfully it even came out well!

Fingle's Cave, as seen from the boat. Fingle was one of the race of Giants, and in his battle with an Irish giant a causeway was laid out, but in (or after?) their battle it was destroyed. Apparently the rock formation here and at Giant's Causeway in Ireland is identical, and these are the only two places that have these vertical towers of volcanic rock.

The rock formations were wild and free flowing stone!

Momma, looking beautiful on our way across from the landing point to Fingle's Cave.

Me, mildly backlit, with my back to the way we are still to go. On the way back as I got more comfortable with the rocks, I scrambled a good bit more around, closer to the sea and less concerned with the rail!

Fingle's Cave, site of Mendelssohn's inspiration for the Hebredian overture (these are the Hebredian Islands, or Hebredies). It really was rather stunning to crawl into the cave a bit and listen to the bass rhythm of the waves and the higher tones as wavelets splashed against rock wall after rock wall on their way in to the cave. From here you can also see a bit of the colour of the water which apparently gets even brighter later in the spring/summer as the algae in the water flourishes.

Mom startled me by showing up when she'd first said she wasn't going to come in! The first bit (where she's standing) really was rather narrow!!!

On our way back (as I scampered around) -- see how tall those rocks are, though?! Crazy pillars!

Next we climbed up to the top of the island with the aim of making it to the other end (in very little time...) to try to see some puffins. Since we'd seen some earlier, I wasn't as urgent as I might have been and enjoyed the extra time at Fingle's cave instead of racing to do both. We went a good ways over, and apparently some people did get quite close to the puffins who are rather fond of humans apparently.

Back on Iona we wandered along the shore for a while before heading up to our hotel -- this was the boat we'd taken our afternoon adventure on, now at rest.

The hotel had a "Quiet Garden" in the back that was quite peaceful -- I suppose you couldn't help but be peaceful setting this close to the Abbey grounds.

The view from our window (which was an upgrade - our reservation did not have a sea view -- and it was so lovely to be upgraded like that without asking to such a beautiful and peaceful scene!) had shown me the lambs to be playing wildly right up by the fence, but I couldn't quite see what they were jumping onto and off of (quite literally playing king of the mountain). They were head butting each other and jumping up and down wildly -- mom had to drag me from the window eventually! But when we went over to the quiet garden I finally also got to see what the lambs were so excited about - several bags of hay! They were crazy, adorable, and so much fun for me to watch. That was a gift.

Dinner at the hotel was excellent, and then we crashed from such a long day! I'd been telling mom that we needed to stay up so as to see the stars on Iona since the dark there is blacker than most places - but it had clouded over in the evening and there was not a star to be seen -- so we didn't have to feel guilty falling right to bed even before it was fully dark (this at about 10pm!).