Today, on an overcast morning, we left our little cottage at
Crieff for the final time to travel due west on the A85 to Oban on the Scottish
west coast for two nights at a B & B.
On the way we travelled through the very beautiful Loch Lomond and the Trossachs National Park and Glen
Dochart through which the River Dochart flows before the waters enter Loch
Lubhair. We then traveled through Glen Lochy alongside the River Lochy, past
the northern end of Loch Awe and finally along the southern side of Loch Etive.
(Plenty of Lochs, Glens and rivers around here mate!).
About 15 klms out of Oban, Lyn saw a very large Aussie flag
fastened to the side of a shed in the grounds of a very nice house and Mick
said that we should go in and say hello. We did a quick u-turn and rolled into
the drive through the nice double wooden gates.
A guy about Mick’s’ age (quite young) came out to see what
we wanted and all we had to say was "g’day mate" and we were soon sitting
down for afternoon tea and chocolate bikkies.
It turned out that he was in fact Scottish (a retired policeman) and 15 years ago his daughter
had married an Aussie who she met whilst he was on a round the world back
packing holiday. They now have 3 daughters and after living
together in Richmond NSW, they came back to live with her dad, who had been
widowed for 7 years, in this quite large 10 year old house in the Scottish
countryside.
They had 2 boxer dogs, mum and son, 10 chickens and a
rooster and 4 young peacock chicks. Apparently his daughter is a sucker for
animals.
We chatted with him for about an hour before taking a couple
of pictures and headed off to Oban.
Our B & B, which was on the road just before the town, was
in a house where a young family live. They have converted part of it into 4
ensuite rooms. The room was very neat and clean, although it was a twin (2 single
beds) and had a nice Samsung 19” flat screen TV mounted on the wall.
We dropped our cases off and went into the town to find
bumper to bumper traffic chaos but managed to drop into a spot barely a foot
longer than our car. Having a large car around the UK can be a distinct disadvantage
and the ability to quickly reverse park is a must.
We then walked a short distance down to the quay where a
very large passenger boat was just arriving. Mick said that it was probably a
ferry to Mull or other islands off the coast.
As we walked round the town it started to rain, as it had
been doing on and off all day, so we decided to have an early dinner of king
prawns, freshly cooked in garlic butter which was very nice. As it had become
quite chilly we then went back to the B & B for an early night in.
At the Aussie house
Our friend who is actually a Scott. His daughter married an Aussie bloke.
Put an Aussie flag on the side of your shed and you never know who will visit!
They have even called their house Uluru
Inter island ferry leaving Oban
A large welly in a shop in Tynorum on the way to Oban.
Interesting story about the Aussie flag. It must rain so much in Scotland I am surprised that the land is not already under water.
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