It was no surprise but nevertheless, mid summer in these parts means very little dark. The sun set at exactly 10pm when we were at Craignure on the northeast coast. I know this as I watched it dip below the north west horizon.
At Fidden you can see a jetty and just up from there, a row of cottages, each with a brightly painted door. They are a lovely sight, better for us campers than the inhabitants. They look across to a field of camper vans and motorhomes, which is a bit sad.
The cottages are on Erraid, a small island cut off at high tide and only accessible on foot across the sand. There is no marked path over that sand and also, to get to the crossing point, you have to walk two miles along the road from Fidden.
When I say walk, we are the only people to do that. The very few other people had clearly driven round. "Oh you've walked quickly" they said when we caught up with a couple who had presumably passed us on the road. " Yes", I said, "we walk quickly if we're cross and I'm cross because I didn't look to see quite how far it is along the road."
On crossing the wide strip of sand between mainland and island, we headed straight up to the top of the hill. This is Mull though and you can't walk in straight line. So skirting the wet bits we got to the top and managed to see the view in-between the now frequent squalls.
Then it was onto an unused, small observatory, a circular wooden building that is painted white and was once... an observatory. Here we discovered that the island is owned by a Dutch family, the Mac Flinderhoorts, (I made that name up) and the inhabitants, the Erraid Community, live there rent free in return for the maintenance of land and buildings.
Each of the 6-10 members live there for three years or more and has an area of focus such as gardens, kitchen, wood, boats etc. They are a spiritual group and share, meditate and eat communal meals. It's not for me but I am happy for those who live there.
We were able to walk near to the cottages before striding out along the track above their beach. We had to stride, as the rain was being driven by a 'fresh' breeze and we were by this time in full waterproofs.
Back at the other side, we ate our picnic communally and shared our experience so far, of the wet walk and the trudge to come along the road back to Fidden.
If getting wet wasn't bad enough, I spotted a very poorly Land Rover 110 hi-cap behind a farm. It was too far gone and too far way from away home to be of further interest to me 😩
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