The Armin Grewe Homepage
Picture of a canal and houses next to it, a loch and another village in the background Picture of the sun glistening on a loch
I woke up to glorious sunshine after the fairly mixed weather the previous day. The day started with a nice morning run along the Crinan Canal. As I didn't have to be in Kennacraig for the ferry until lunchtime I took my time for the drive. First stop was at Ardrishaig, where I looked at the southern end of the Crinan Canal at the Ardrishaig Basin. The next stop was a few miles south of Ardrishaig in a layby of the A83 overlooking Loch Fyne. In the shade of a tree I had a picnic, reading my newspaper and looking out over Loch Fyne glistening in the sun.
Picture of a panoramic view over a sea loch
Picture of cars driving off a ferry The remaining distance to Kennacraig was quickly covered, the ferry from Islay arrived soon as well. The passengers returning to the mainland disembarked and then it was our turn.

It turned out that the ferry was fully booked, a lot of manoeuvring was required to load as many cars as possible on to the ferry. Several people had to get out of their cars before another car was parked next to theirs, otherwise they wouldn't have been able to get out. As the ferry was full we left slightly before the official departure time.

We soon found out another reason for the early departure: The tannoy came on and the captain informed us that they ferry would slow down while they were lowering their tender. I later found out that this is a regular exercise, it was the first time I've seen it though.

Picture of a boat being lowered on a cable Picture of a powerful boat picking up speed
Picture of a boat with a crew member catching a ropeThe boat is lowered on a cable hanging from a crane with another rope at its bow holding it steady and pointing forwards. Once on the water the cable and rope are disconnected automatically and the boat speeds off with its powerful engine. The return works similarly just the other way around.

With the rescue boat back on board we left West Loch Tarbert for a nice view over the Isle of Gigha and then set course for Islay.

Picture of a boat being lifted up again
Picture of a smaller low island Picture of an island in the distance, seen over the ships bow
Picture of Ardbeg distillery seen from the ferry Picture of Laphroaig distillery seen from the ferry
Picture of a pier with houses in the background The journey continued along the south eastern coast of Islay with good views over the distilleries, in particular Ardbeg and Laphroaig. Unfortunately the ferry was moving stronger than I would have liked making taking pictures with a long lens difficult (and I had a setting on the lens wrong, which I didn't notice until very late), so the two pictures above are the best I can come up with.

Mid afternoon we arrived in Port Ellen from where I drove over to Port Charlotte with a short stop in Bowmore. The rest of the afternoon was spent in the garden of the Port Charlotte Hotel with a pint of Islay Ale and the newspaper.

Driving south <- Scotland Summer 2005 -> Kilchoman Distillery