Packing and cleaning goes swiftly this morning and we are ready ahead of schedule to leave our little red-roofed cottage in the woods with the gurgling pipes and the peat-brown water.
We walk down to the jetty as Paul goes up in the quad bike to collect our luggage, and then we get the boat across. All too soon we are back on the mainland for the last time. We don’t rush though, driving to Ackarackle first to post postcards first and then quite deliberately in the wrong direction to the Arts Centre on the banks of Loch Sunart – a gallery run as a studio by a collective of artists. We see almost immediately a gorgeous picture of Castle Tioram with Eilean Shona behind by Andrew Stewart, but it is £1100. We do treat ourselves to a large, limited editon print though, from the honeymoon fund.
From there we go back on ourselves, through Ackarackle ofr the last time, and on to the road to the isles to return first to Glenfinnen where we have the most satisfactory lunch in a 1950s railway carriage and then a look round the station museum before we are back on the road to the isles, Glen Coe and Edinburgh.
We arrive uneventfully at the hotel just as they are rolling up the red carpet to a wedding reception, and with the sound of bagpipes ushering us in we frind our room and relax before dinner.
That is, we do relax when we are not disturbed by the raucous calling of baby birds within the wall behind our bed. It’s all a bit of a culture shock, with the TV and the free wireless internet, from the far away peace of Eilean Shona.
In the evening w have a lovely meal that is included in our stay and go for a walk around the grounds before we return to our room to plan our next day in Glasgow and/or Edinburgh.
