I hope you are sitting comfortably because this is going to take a while!

On 1st June 2008, my good pal Jim and I set off for a week touring in Scotland and, after a roughly 400 mile drive in heavy rain (apart from the last few miles), we arrived at The Ferintosh in Dumfries. Before we had even taken our luggage up to our rooms, the complimentary drams were offered and savoured - we both had, of course, arrived in kilts and so qualified! Later, Robertson and Emma, and Jim and I slipped out to the Casa Mia restaurant for a rather good meal and returned to The Ferintosh for a few more drams before hitting the hay!

Next morning, Jim and I left for the drive north to Connel by Oban which took us via Kilmarnock, the suburbs of Glasgow, the Erskine Bridge across the River Clyde, along the shores of Loch Lomond, Crianlarich and then west towards Oban. We arrived at our Connel hotel, The Oyster Inn, by mid-afternoon and so, having unpacked, decided to drive on into Oban to check out the location of the car ferry we would be taking over to Mull two days later - but not before snapping the view from the front of the hotel:



Here we are looking across the Firth of Lorn to the Isle of Lismore and, in the distance, the mountains of Mull.



Out of the picture, and just to the right, is the entrance to Loch Etive with its 'Falls' (The Falls of Lora) which occur when the tide flowing out of the Loch at a fast rate, meets the next tide flowing in at an equally fast rate. The waters really churn up in a very noisy and spectacular manner.

A few hours later and we were treated to a beautiful sunset from almost the same viewpoint:



............ and a totally different one, with a cloudless sky, the next evening:



On 3rd June we planned to explore the area south of Oban and were due to meet up with Chris ("Redshank") en route.

To be continued.