The Armin Grewe Homepage
Picture of hills with a little bit of snow over a loch After travelling to Carlisle on the Thursday evening I had hoped to have plenty of time on Good Friday for driving down to Kennacraig and taking lots of stops on the way. Unfortunately roadworks on the M74 near Hamilton and a bad accident just before Glasgow with long tailbacks as well as traffic on the M8 through Glasgow cost me a lot of time. Nevertheless I found time for a few stops on the way:

My first short stop was at Loch Lomond, where I looked over the water and towards the Arrochar Alps from Firkin Point. While not a lot there was still some snow left on the top of some of the higher hills, in particular the Munros. Not a big surprise considering that it snowed even on Islay less than a week earlier. Hopefully it was going to warm up soon for the walks over the next week...

Picture of Inveraray, whitewashed houses overlooking a loch
Inveraray was my next stop, first for a view of the castle and the village from the old bridge. I parked my car just before the bridge and then walked up the bridge for some excellent views. Then I drove into Inveraray for a quick visit of Loch Fyne Whiskies (although I didn't buy anything this time) and a short walk around to stretch my legs.
Picture of a castle Picture of a village seen from a bridge
After some more driving it was time to get into the walking spirit: I only had time for a quick 45min walk, but I still stopped at Port Ann to go on a short forest walk. It was a nice refreshing walk through the forest to get some fresh air until I reached a good viewpoint over Loch Fyne and the Argyll coast. After taking a few pictures and enjoying the views I returned to the car to drive the last stretch to Kennacraig.

As it turned out I had just enough time for a last quick stop before Kennacraig, this time in Tarbert. I only had time for a quick walk up the road to take a few pictures of the beautiful natural harbour, then I left for Kennacraig and the ferry, arriving at the terminal exactly on time.

Picture of a coastline
Picture of a village around a natural harbour
Picture of the silhouette of an island on the horizon Picture of three mountains on an island
Picture of a harbour The ferry wasn't as full as I had expected, there was much more space than I had expected. Loading went quickly and soon we were on our way.

Once we had left Loch Tarbert we had some fantastic views to the Isle of Jura, first just the silhouette on the horizon, then the famous Paps of Jura as we travelled closer. The clouds over the Paps lifted giving us excellent views over them despite some haze.

Then it was into the Sound of Islay and after two hours we arrived in Port Askaig. A quick drive over to Port Charlotte, check in at the hotel, dinner at the restaurant and then it was time to go to bed to get some rest for the first walk the next day.

Islay Walking Week April 2006 -> Next: Storakaig and Islay's Fruit Basket