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Thursday, July 23: A' Chioch (Isle of Mull)
Scotland - July 2020
It may come across that I am surprising myself how things are going (which, by the way, fortunately, is regularly the case) but of course I have prepared the trip, properly.
For example, I spend a lot of time and attention preparing the routes to run but in between I see, literally, how it goes.
Read a nice piece on the importance of getting, on the road, into travel mode;
leaving behind the hurried Dutch life and accepting that you are traveling and not on your way somewhere!
Of course, you won’t escape the occasional train, boat or cab (see the next few days’ adventure) but other than that, mostly lots of not(s)!
First, a video of what the final location (tent) in Oban looked like.
The commentary begins with a brief weather report (drizzle in the morning and clearing in the afternoon according to Pelleboer) and then the plan for the rest of the day!
Shopping in Oban in the morning: gas tanks, hiking poles, some (good) waterproof bags and a Bodywarmer on sale!
One of my 2 hiking poles was broken but fortunately I was able to buy a similar pair in an outdoor shop. Sent the old one home, eventually returned it to Pauw and they were told through the supplier that this was a material defect to which I got my money back nicely.
Despite the fine writing, here too are learning moments: I knew from the map that the Ben More (the only Munro on Mull) was not directly on the harbor.
So plan was to take a cab and in doing so I trusted that there would be a line of Taxis upon arrival. (This was the case in Oban, where the cabs were next to the bus station.)
What I didn’t know was that it was a 45-minute drive from the port to the Ben More and only 2 cabs were available on the entire island!
When I got hold of the first one it could be in the harbor within half an hour whereupon I bought a delicious cup of coffee and enjoyed the beautiful view.
When this cab driver called me half an hour later and asked where I was standing because he could not see me standing, it took us a while to realize that he was not in Craignure, where I arrived by ferry, but in Tobermory, where a ferry also arrives!
No problem; he could pick me up at the end of the afternoon and still take me to the Munro. Other option was the second cab driver who was available but again took half an hour to get to my location. The weather was beautiful and at the harbor there was a good coffee shop but again we had to wait a while so.
Once I was in the cab I had already turned on my GPS at the end of the ride to make sure I got off at the right point. The video below gives an immediate idea of how this GPS works. The purple line is the walk to be walked, the arrow is the current location and the red line is the route traveled.
One of the great things about hiking in the mountains is looking back to where you were walking a short time ago.
Set goals (to the top!) and literally work toward them with small steps. During the “ascent” I keep a “rest” every 100 paces as standard; on the one hand to enjoy the scenery but in addition, above all, to recover! Consciously taking a break until “the head” but in fact my whole body can “move on” again.
In the video below, you can see the road where I just got out of the cab but also the fog that, again, came up very quickly.
Reason I show the above video, besides explaining between good and bad fog !!!??, is that it makes it clear how happy I am with my GPS! (and I explain that again in the video below)
Finally here too, after the A’Chioch (a mountain but not a Munro), we found another “beautiful spot” to pitch the tent.
