Island Hopping

Island Hopping- Tuesday, April 8, 2008


Lots of big and small ferries in our future today. We leave Oban on an hour ferry ride for the Isle of Mull, drive down the island for about an hour and get on a much smaller ferry for about 15 min. to get to the Isle of Iona.


I’m not sure why it bothers me, but when our tour manager, Laureen, gives us all sorts of information -some aren’t listening. About 10-20 minutes later these “non-listeners” begin asking the folks behind or ahead of them the same info she just gave us. Grrr! pay attention!

An interesting note, locals come to Oban (pop about 8,000) to get groceries. They bring rolling suitcases to take their groceries back home in. Maybe I’ll take a suitcase to Brookshire’s next time I go.

Another interesting note, “Lambing” season is around Easter. Now I guess someone shows the Mama sheep a calendar and tells them, Easter is really early this year, dear. We saw lots and lots of really little lambs.

Iona means “yew tree”. The town is really tinyl and the Abby and nunnery are quite interesting. Very cold and windy, even tho’ the sun was shining most of the day.


We had a special tour of the Abbey, learned the history of the place—it is thought that the Book of Kells (which we saw in Dublin) was begun here.

I am reading a novel entitled IRELAND that is full of tales of Ireland and one of them “explains” why the Book of Kells was written. It is a fascinating book which has as its “frame” an old traveling storyteller and the young boy that he impressed at the age of 9. The author is Frank Delaney—I haven’t finished it yet, but I definitely recommend it to anyone who loves Irish tales.

After Iona, we went back to Mull, drove back the entire length of the island and visited Duarte Castle. We had 3 levels of castle to see, with dining rooms, kitchen (no electricity) and bedrooms complete with ladies gowns from various centuries.



This is the Castle of the MacLean Clan and we were given the impression that some of the MacLean folks live in the parts that we did not see.

The road from one end of the Isle of Mull to the other is, for the most part, a ONE LANE ROAD that twists and turns. When two vehicles meet one must pull over and let the other proceed. This road showcased our driver, John’s skill and driving abilities.

On the way back we had a “sheep delay”. The bus had to completely stop as a flock of sheep leisurely crossed the road on “sheep time”. That means whenever they got cotton pickin’ ready to go. Since we didn’t seem to be in too much of a hurry at that time, no big deal. Also on the way back, we saw a MOBILE DENTAL CLINIC (Good Samaritan folks- take note— This is an idea to consider —like a bookmobile—Go to the folks, don’t make them come to you).


Sometimes talking to the other members of the tour is as interesting as seeing the sights. We have a young lady from Seattle on our trip who asked us to explain Meals on Wheels, ( two of us from Bwd deliver for our churches and we were comparing notes about our routes). We also told her about making jam, jelly, pear honey and chow chow. She has been using her phone over here and she is w/ AT&T just as we are. We were told that our service wouldn’t work here. It’s just as well, we communicate just as well this way and it’s a little less expensive.

Other Non Texans are Ron, Shirlee, David, and Nancy—a family from California, Marilyn from Florida, Brandie from the Seattle area, and Pat and Shawn from Connecticut. It has been a pleasure to meet these folks and I hope we can stay in touch. Of course, the Texans didn’t all know each other when the trip began, and we all come from different backgrounds and experiences, but our Texan-ness is a common link.


Not sure how internet access will be at our LAST stop tomorrow in Falkirk. We'll add more tomorrow or when we return.