Walter Snowdon and I have just got back from our sail on the Waverley around the four lochs from Oban in Scotland.... Boy was it a trip!!
We travelled up to Oban early on sunday, leaving home at 3:30am to make the three hundred mile journey.... The journey went well, and we arrived in Oban at 9:30am having stopped for breakfast on the way.
Once at Oban, we had a pleasant few hours wandering around the harbour and grabbing the all important cuppa - Boy, Walter likes his tea! At about 11:30 we headed for the jetty where Waveley was due to dock, and sure enough, she arrived bang on time - A magnificent sight as she steamed into the harbour... By that time the jetty was packed with people all waiting for a ride on this grand old lady - In fact there were almost 700 people once they had been counted onboard!
Once on board, we met up with Hans Freund (Scotfriend) from Switzerland, and with the greetings/introductions over, we set sail - Thanks for the gifts Hans, much appreciated!
The water was flat calm with only a very light breeze, but sadly it was very overcast and VERY cold, so cold that we had to keep making trips below decks to get warm.... Nevermind, it was a good excuse to watch those magnificent engines in action, have yet another cup of tea, and then a well deserved pint of beer :-)
Five hours later we docked again at Oban and said our farewells to Hans. Hopefully we'll meet up again next year...
Before setting off, Walter and I had arranged to borrow a friends static caravan for the evening so we didn't have to make the long journey home again all in one day - The caravan is near Ayr which should have been a 2 hour drive from Oban, but on the way back we came across a road block on the A82 which runs down the side of Loch Lomond - A MAJOR problem as neither of us knew the area very well, so it was out with the maps.... The route we had to take meant our two hour journey ended up being more than four hours, and both of us were struggling to keep awake and alert by this time! By the time we got withing 10 miles of the caravan, the rain started, so tired a weary, we found a chinese takeaway and got ourselves something to eat - Then spent another half an hour trying to find the caravan park which is in the middle of nowhere!
Anyway, we eventually got to the caravan, ate our meal and slept like we've never slept before!
The following morning saw us on the homeward leg of our journey, and thankfully it was an uneventful trip, getting home at about 1pm on monday.
So, it was a long haul, and I think we were both glad to get back, but I know we both enjoyed the experience and with any luck we'll meet up with Hans again next year...
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