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Except in the western isles... (12th - 13 July 2021)

The word ‘community’ crops-up a lot in these parts and there’s something nice about it. Community gardens are common, even produce sold at a side of the road stall can be labelled “community produce”.

These new, timber clad houses we being built “for local occupation”, on a hillside on the west coast. I wanted to get out and walk around but it felt intrusive and I was content with a photograph. A lady was tending the community garden just above too .



The pub in the village of Dervaig looked inviting. There was a certain bustle around at the end of the afternoon and we tried to manoeuvre into the small car park. We were hoping that we could align in a private sort of way to enable us to stay for the night. We didn’t know if the pub allowed this but anyway there was no ‘private alignment’ as we found that we were overlooking houses and the back entrance to the pub.

So sadly, we turned on the windscreen wipers again and drove up the hill and back into the swirling mists and very very wet drizzle. It was time to scour the Park4Night app again and we saw three possible pull-ins on the road over to Tobermory. We already knew that the campsite at Tobermory was closed that night for a private gathering. So it had to be a pull-in.

I think we checked all three and drove back to number two. It was next to the road but just set back. There was nothing to do except lift the roof and stay inside. Drizzle poured down (Scottish drizzle does do this) and it was yet another ‘inside evening’. These are a little harder to deal with when you simply can’t put anything outside but we have a good method, stayed dry and didn’t starve.




We were resolved to move away from the western isles as we were suffering from heat and sun envy. The rest of the UK was basking in sun and warmth and we would listen to the weather (when we could pick up a signal) to hear the familiar “except in the western isles...  

So the next morning we closed the roof and sorted ourselves out in a damp atmosphere but it wasn’t actually precipitating. Then we drive to Tobermory and actually got there just as the first ferry of the day was loading, with a single vehicle.

It’s a turn-up and go ferry and we motioned to the crew that we would stay and wait for the next one and with that they were off.

Tobermory has a well known waterfront and even in the cloudy weather it looked pretty.








We had a coffee in the converted church I think it was and also used their wifi. Yet again EE has no useful coverage with only a gprs data signal which is about 2.5G in decimal  



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