Epilogue

Signing off last night seemed a bit premature as we are now back on dry land. The sail from Loch Spelve was advertised as “likely to be choppy” but in the end, it was absolutely fine and nobody was ill. We bade our final farewells to the crew and our fellow travellers on a wet and misty pontoon in Oban.

How Rob managed in the cot beds is anyone’s guess – he must be 6’ 4” at least! Husbant and I walked along the prom to drop our bags off at our hotel and then headed straight for the Oban chocolate shop. We needed to find a way to fill 4 hours before we had access to a big shower and an even bigger bed.

We managed an hour in the chocolate shop – eating another breakfast (unnecessary) and having more coffee and hot chocolate. When we stood up to leave we both felt quite landsick so tottered out like a couple of drunk tourists. Husbant suggested a tour of the Oban whisky distillery which I wasn’t sure about but we did have to find somewhere warm to dry out. The tour was booked for later in the day as they were fully booked so we went to the Oban War and Peace Museum. Oh my! The lengths you would go to to stay out of the rain and keep warm while feeling a little landsick. I sat through a 15-minute film and examined every piece of memorabilia. Sadly the museum had no public toilets – maybe they don’t expect people to linger – so we had to set off to the ferry terminal so I could spend a penny. But that penny was 50p!! I was outraged but there was no choice and Husbant kindly paid the entrance fee. I used the hand drier to dry my trousers – making full use of the 50p entrance fee.

Next door to the public toilets was a restaurant I had had my eye on from our last visit so we went in and had lunch (again, a warm place to hang around and eat more food). I had langoustines which were delicious and Husbant had deep fried monkfish with chips (I managed to grab a few chips before they became adulterated with ketchup).

Time for us to get to the whisky distillery – we were both still feeling a bit wobbly. But what a fab idea it was to go for a tour. We were given a wee dram at the start of the tour and two more wee drams around the tour. By the end of the tour, I was no longer landsick. Husbant was still a little woozy but I had given him most of our final free wee dram. I was hoping to buy the 14-year old whisky given we were here celebrating our 14th wedding anniversary, but Husbant preferred the ultra-exclusive, could-only-be-bought-at-the-distillery bottle. Am not complaining though as I am not a whisky lover!