Although it was a nice conversation and good breakfast, we were eager to leave to ensure to catch the ferry. However, this was not helped by the landlady being very friendly and talkative! However, we got to the ferry terminal with about 20 minutes to spare. The ferry was larger than I expected, and thus calmed any sea sickness fears.

Isle of Rum photos

The scenery was amazing on the ferry, and a helpful  and knowledgeable passenger pointed out some significant mountains / areas of the mainland, most noticably the Knoydart peninsular. The quick stop off at Eigg showed us the impressive edges of the island, and finally we started to journey to Rum proper. The views up Glen Kinloch starting at the castle – truly amazing, but the views up Askival and Hallival rising majestically from the sea were concerning – we would be walking up their tomorrow….

Anyhows, our initial impressions of Kinloch Castle (after the 1/2 mile walk) were good. A beautiful building in fantasitc surroundings, but as we entered, the confirmation of some slight apprehension became apparent – it was definately more hostel than hotel. Further walking thrugh the building took us past a veritable building site. It’s funny how your views change – intially we were both dissapointed at the state of the room and building internally. Much dust, and lack of new building comforts such as locking bedroom doors didn’t help. Finally, the meals were tasty if basic.

However, it was through staying on the island and speaking to the locals did we start to understand the community nature of the island. Most people on the island live and / or work at the hostel carrying out work from cooking / cleaning to basic maintainence and simiar. Not like normal ‘hotel’ staff. The hostel is the main focal point in the community – its the employer, the hub, the drinking point, the reason people come to the island and contribute so heavily to its finances.

Isle of Rum photos

Its also strange to see the layed back and trusting nature of the people living here – little things like people using other peoples cars without asking – unthinkable in our modern town lifestyles.

The next morning saw our first main walk on Rum – from the Castle, through Coire Dubh onto the Bealach Bairc Mheall. On reaching the Bealach, we would skirt Hallival to the East contouring above Atlantic Corrie along the scree slope on the north ridge of Askival. The walk to the ridge was ok, but as we started the final scramble up on the north face of the summit, the scree and exposure became too much and we decided to eat our sandwiches, the descend east to meet the coastal path back to the castle. I was initially dissapointed to not reach the true summit, but all was forgotten when Cheryl noticed a large bird in the sky – surely not – yes, it could be… Yeah, it was definately an eagle – a massive creature that at one point flew pretty much straight over us, albeit probably 500 ft above. And it’s flight flicked between soaring on thermals and upwinds to acrobatic falling and turning. However, I could not identify it as either Golden or White Tailed.

Isle of Rum photos

Anyhow, the we continued down, off the summit meeting the coastal path, which provided great views of the mainland at the beginning, then as we changed direction, the Isle of Sky’s dramatic black cuillen dominated. Some local features such as deer and waterfalls provided some interested and we arrived back at the castle approx 16:00. A laze around the castle followed by dinner concluded with some wine and whiskey back in the bar with lots of locals. A relativley early night fuelled us for the next day – my introduction to midges!!!

As we saw initial signs for the first motorway service station, we noticed the Marks and Spencers sign. Although we had only had breakfast an hour ago, the wish for some nice M&S sarnies was too much to ignore, so we popped in to grab some – their purpose would be a dinner backup in case our initial research into lack of pubs in Mallaig was correct.

The drive was interesting upto Loch Lomond, having to drive through Glasgow proper, lots of complicated dual carriageways through the city, but luckily TomTom didn’t let us down. Now, I always wanted to try some authentic Scottish cuisine during the trip, so we decided to eat at a local Scottish restaurant in Balloch, south of Loch Lomond. A place called McDonalds, where I tried a ‘Big Mac’ and Cheryl had a burger and ‘McChicken Nuggets’, and nice they were too.

Back in the car, we stopped for the last time at Inverglas, parking at the visitors centre and taking pics of ‘The Ben’ – our target for the following Thursday. Loch Lomond is a beautiful lake, with some majestic hills surrounding. However, I was getting excited….

Buachaille Etive Mòr

The drive up the A82 had already seen some great roads, nice bends etc, and I knew the best was to come – from the Bridge of Orchy through Glen Coe then the A830 Road to the Isles. So back in the car, and I took great pleasure from the pretty  open roads, and lack of slow cars in front. A few easy overtakes and we were through Glen Coe. However, a a reminder about road safety was clear – a police car and ambulance were on scene just before the visitors centre to assist a car that had made it over a ditch, albeit it upside on it’s roof. Pretty hairy scene. Anyhow, a couple of brief photo stops by The Buckle and a sea loch just before Mallaig satisfied by urges to see the best of Highland scenery.

Eigg and Rum from Mallaig

We finally got to The Moorings Guest House at Mallaig about 8ish, booked in and took the landladies advise to walk over the hill overlooking the harbour. Quite a hill, the walk taking about 1 hour though this did include eating those M&S sarnies and taking many photos of Eigg, Rum and Skye. Fantastic scenery, beautiful weather rounded off by a bottle of Rosé whilst watching The Apprentice Finale in our room.

Drive to Mallaig, ferry to Rum, do Askival, then ferry back, and camp at Loch Lomond hopefully doing my first Munro – The Ben. However, to break the 453 mile journey between home and Mallaig, we would stay in the Lakes during the weekend before the ferry to Rum  and camp in Yorkshire on the way back.

After some thought about where to stay in the Lakes, I decided upon Clarence House, Keswick which was great – nice and close to town thus enabling any drunken stumbles back from the pub, and breakfast was nice. Saturday morning was spent around town buying some nice Salamon Quest boots for cheryl – very light for relatively high ankled boots. Props to George Fisher for excellent boot fixing service.

Once we had recovered from a wallet bashing, we tried some authentic lake district grub  from Greggs the bakers – a pastie and sausage roll eaten outside a women’s clothes shop – classy!  At least we managed sufficient calories to enable us to complete Catbells despite the hail and rain. Gear report alert – Cheryl’s boots and new Pacer Poles both performance brilliantly!

Walked up Catbells, but was cloudy and hail was persistent!

Back in Keswick, we had Saturday dinner at the Bank Tavern which was great, although we did break the no pudding rule of the holiday! What the hell, we still had a Corbett and Munro over the next few days to burn it off, and that sticky toffee pudding was worth it.

Sunday morning, we enjoyed breakfast before starting the mammoth drive north to the fishing village of Mallaig to get the ferry to Rum.

More to continue…