Tobermory
Brave hearts or brave souls? As we sailed from Craignure to Tobermory along the Sound of Mull, an intrepid band of our fellow guests chose to cycle the coast road pedaling furiously to keep ahead of a following squall. Rain was the order of the day. It rained and rained, ‘a steady fall was well maintained’…
Jim Russell and Ian Bullock amused us during the morning sail with their accounts of the vagaries of Scottish weather. Scots English and Scots Gaelic have as many words for rain as the Inuit have for snow.
Arriving at the colorful fishing harbor of Tobermory we offered a number of options for after lunch. Konia Tack led a walking- tour of downtown Tobermory, the island bakery and chocolatier proving popular refuges from the elements. Later, David Barnes and Ian Bullock offered a longer interpretive walk through the coastal woodlands, the reward for the heavy rain being spectacular waterfalls almost menacing in their force. The walk turned into a fungus foray, our naturalist responding to the interest of the group by identifying the numerous fungi that had appeared in the woodland in optimum growing conditions. Some were served at dinner in a wild mushroom stroganoff.
Those who chose to explore Tobermory on their own enjoyed strolling past the brightly colored houses, the colors always freshly painted courtesy of the BBC who use the village as a film set for a popular British children’s TV program, Balamory.
After dinner, the famous Tobermory hostelry the Mishnish beckoned. This is one of the finest natural harbors in the Hebrides, protected by Calve Island, and the Mishnish is a popular gathering place for fisherman and yachtsmen alike.
Alternatively, there was the conservatory bar of the commanding Western Isles Hotel overlooking the bay at the town’s upper level. Here, during the Second World War, a training headquarters for the allied Atlantic convoys had been established and several commemorative plaques testified to this crucial activity. The only rule was to be back on board by 0500 hours, our departure time for the Small Isles.
