Trip to Malawi. Summer 1991.

Trip to Malawi. Summer 1991.

(I started writing this from memory teusday 31 Oct 2023.)

My best friend from college Paul Slack and myself were having a two month trip to Southern Africa. We had just been in Zimbabwe staying at his uncles in Harare. We now booked a coach to Lilongwe Malawi. Mozambique was going through a civil war so we had to take a different route through Zambia. 

It was going to take over 24 hours to get to Lilongwe in Malawi. The bus travelled mainly through miles of African "bush" mainly comprised of dry grassy woodland-  acacia trees of a small to medium height with open grassy areas between. 

The occasional African village with many simple squarish concrete buildings. If they were shops they mainly had hand painted signs. The shops also often had round, red, factory-made Coca-Cola  logos ... Coke had gotten all over the world even in the 90s.

Amongst the bush were wooded rocky hills called coppies.

In the remoter areas we saw some wildlife ... Baboons at watering holes, a large Eagle perched on a dead tree , then my first ever wild elephant standing near the side of the road. 

Soon after getting the glimpse of the elephant ( the bus must have been going quite fast as I only remember getting a brief glimpse) we came to a vast escarpment below us . I realised we must have been travelling on a high plateau from Harare , or gradually going up one . Now before us and below us  was a huge vast plain of dry African woodland as far as the eye could see. This was the flat flood plain of the Zambezi which formed the border between Zimbabwe and Zambia. 

I've just studied Google maps and have decided the area with the vast view must have been on the A1 road  between Makuti and the Marangora Parks office in Northern Zimbabwe. 

I don't remember much about crossing the Otto Beit bridge over the Zambezi River into Zambia. I do remember when we got to Lusaka the capital of Zambia we stopped at an African style service station. And the toilets were the worst I've ever seen in my life - the long line of toilets were each full almost to the brim with excrement . The stench  Overpowering and flies everywhere. Sorry to Zambia for such a bad advert for your country but it's true. Hopefully this have changed in the last thirty years. 

The countryside in Zambia was similar to Zimbabwe... miles of bush. It got dark outside as we continued on in the bus.. then I remember seeing long lines of what looked like fire high up in the air. I couldn't work out what it was at first but then realised we were driving below high hills and these were grass fires high up on the hills ... Perhaps farmers burning the fields to clear for the next crop or perhaps just bush fires caused by lightening who knows? 

From Lusaka we continued on through Zambia close to the Mozambique border till we got to the border of Malawi. In Malawi I seem to remember the villages along the roads became much more traditional looking ... Many round mud huts with thatch roofs. Tropical fruit trees grew in the villages, I remember seeing a fine specimen of Papaya with lots of fruit growing high up below its palmate leaves. 

Above: Traditional mud huts in Malawi.

The bus stopped at one village and we got off the bus to look at a long line of wooden carved animals, human heads and other things. I swapped a couple of carved things for a pair of socks as clothes were not as available in Malawi he was happy to swap. I also purchased for a good price a lovely ebony walking stick with carved figures going up it including a fish eagle with a fish. The walking stick is still at my parents house to this day. 

We continued on through bush and past villages until we got to Lilongwe. Lilongwe bus station was a very bustling and vibrant place, full of Malawians , the lady's dressed colourfully. 

We weren't sure whether to get accomodation for the night but the lodging near the bus station didn't look very appealing so we decided whilst it was still light to get a taxi to Paul's cousin Ros' best friend Pamelas' house. It was a tobacco farm on the edge of Lilongwe. 

It was probably only a half hour taxi driver to the farm . We turned off the road and onto the farm track which took us through trees and areas of tobacco plantation , the tobacco plants recognisable with their large elliptical leaves. I seem to remember one ot two farm workers mulling around. I also remember there seemed to be a strange oppressive spiritual atmosphere at the farm. I've often wondered if there are such things as nicotine spirits associated with the plants. I actually have a video of me breathing out tobacco smoke in a Spanish bar and when I watch it frame by frame there appears to be an ugly ghost apparition amongst the smoke with it's mouth wide open and arms outstretched! 

We arrived at the residence a large colonial  bungalow painted white with If I remember correctly porches around it. 

Mr Wallace , the owner of the farm, opened the door and we had to explain who we were ... The cousin of Ros Slack and his friend, and could we stay a night or two. Mr .... Looked slightly bemused but welcomed us in. He had a home help or butler who ushered us into the back veranda and bought us a tray of tea in a China tea pot with the best China cups! 

This afternoon tea was a welcome relief after being so long on a hot sweaty bus . I went for a walk in  the enormous back garden, it was very open with lots of large trees spaced around, some probably Eucalyptus and Acacia . A type of hawk flew past up into a tree . I couldn't say what species but it reminded me of a Goshawk in appearance with similar barring . Later note - I've just done a bit of research, it might have been an African Cuckoo-Hawk, though can't say for sure, they do however frequent gardens in East Africa. (Latin name - Aviceda cuculoides.)

I've just also discovered to my amazement that there are sixty species of bird of prey in Malawi, including several owls and the secretary bird with it's very long legs.  This is a huge number compared to the much fewer number of species in UK which is possibly larger in area . 

The next day Mr Wallace happened to be traveling to Blantyre (the capital) in the south of Malawi and offered to drop us off at the turning for monkey bay on lake Malawi.

As we travelled South-east along the M1 road I noticed a long chain of quite high, sparsely wooded, light brown mountains to the east. Looking at Google maps the average height of these peaks is 1400 to 1600 m. 

They were in fact higher than Ben Nevis but they didn't look as high.  I think the reason for that is that even the lowlands of Malawi are quite high above sea level, being so far inland from the sea. Therefore because Ben Nevis rises up from next to the sea it looks a lot larger. 

It would be fitting to describe Mr Wallace at this point in appreciation for his hospitality to us two strangers. He was an elderly, slim man with a colonial look about him , in my memory his grey-brown hair was bryll-creamed back , he was not tall and was quite kindly in manner. 

Mr. .. dropped us off at the junction for Monkey bay where we could catch a bus. The bus turned up after a while and we eventually arrived at monkey bay . We got off at some kind of cafe or bar and got a drink. We asked a local how could we get to Cape Maclear . He pointed us to a couple of African chaps they looked business like and professional, smartly dressed in white trousers and polo shirts with baseball caps. They were holding hands. I thought they might be gay , 

but then Paul explained that in many parts of Africa men hold hands in a brotherly affectionate way. 

We approached the two men , it turned out they were workers for the fisheries department. They had a smart 4 x4 car, maybe a Suzuki or Toyota . We asked if they could give us a lift to Cape Maclear and they said with a smile, of course no problem.

We sat a bit precariously in the back , (it was an open backed vehicle) and set off along the very bumpy dirt track which gently winded between high rocky brown hills , the warm tropical breeze blew in our faces.

We rounded a bend and Lake Malawi came into view ... a vast, bright blue, shimmering expanse of water reflecting the blue sky  ...  it looked like the ocean, you couldn't see the opposite side of the lake just a blue horizon. The distance from Domwe Island near Cape Maclear across to the east shore at Kadanzhe is 19.59 Miles. Standing 5ft 6 (my height) above the level of the lake the horizon is about 8 miles away due to the earth's curvature , which is why we couldn't see the opposite shore. 

 

Other statistics about the size of Lake Malawi is that its total length going in a straight line from Matema in the north to Mangochi in the south is 348.25 miles. 

The width from Khazi on the West shore to Aldeia Chiuindi on the East shore is 43.65 miles ( one of the widest points on the lake) . I took these measurements myself just now on Google earth. Google earth is an incredibly useful web tool and also quite exciting as you can explore earth from your armchair. 

We arrived at Cape Maclear on the shores of the lake and looked for accommodation. We saw a sign saying guest houses and went in the reception. The receptionist took us to some incredibly basic square concrete huts built further up the beach that were a very low price . Inside each one was just a bed and a candle !  We payed the receptionist and dumped off our rucksacks inside. 

I went for a quite walk along the Lakeshore until I came to a place on the local map called Otter point. 

Otter point was a promontory of rocks jutting out from the sandy beach North of Cape Maclear. I was amazed when I stood and looked out at the lake to see two otters swimming ten or twenty yards out. I had no idea that otters existed in Africa I thought the name otter point was named by European colonialists in memory of the otters  back in Europe. 

Above: Spotted-neck Otter.

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I found this info online ... 

Otters and Gillnet Fishing in Lake Malawi National Park

By Lance Smith

Lake Malawi National Park, P.O. Box 48, Monkey Bay, Malawi

Abstract: At the south end of Lake Malawi, the small national park is home to Spotted-necked and Cape clawless otters. The park contains five enclaved villages that depend on gillnet and longline fishing for their livelihood. The author surveyed the fishermen of Chembe village for fishing methods, gear and problems with animals. Theft of fish from nets by otters was complained of, but there were no reports of otters drowning in gillnets. The author intends to extend his survey to the other four villages in Lake Malawi National Park.

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Above: Cape Clawless Otter.

I headed back to join Paul at the huts . Two young African boys about 10 or 12 years old approached us and asked if we would like them to cook dinner for us for a very good price. They made a small fire on the sandy beach and cooked a couple of Chambo a Malawi fish ( a type of cichlid, Latin name Oreochromis lidole ) , boiled some rice and a couple of tomatoes also boiled. The al fresco meal on the beach was delicious, especially eaten in the open air and with the  freshest of ingredients. 

We slept well that night in the concrete huts. The next morning the same lads ( I think it was the same lads though it's hard to remember)  asked if we would like a boat trip to Thumbi island . I was impressed by the entrepreneurial spirit of the boys. Thumbi island was probably half a mile from the shore, it was a densely wooded hill emerging from the lake. Around it was an underwater nature reserve for the many species of Cichlid fish found in lake Malawi. I discovered that different parts of the vast lake had different species of Cichlid and that apparently some of these from other parts of the lake had been imported all the way south to Thumbi.

I was very keen to see these cichlids as I worked in an aquarium shop in Woking where we sold some of these Malawi cichlids. 

The boys lead us to a rather precarious looking dug out log boat on the beach and the four of us got in. Me and Paul looked at each other apprehensively the island looked quite far out , the water was a little choppy and the log boat seemed quite small and easy to overturn ! 

We set out across the lake, the two boys paddling, one on the front and one at the back if I remember rightly. The warm tropical water from the moving oars splashed us and the sun beat down.

After maybe 15 minutes we arrived at the island with no misshaps . I don't remember whether the boys dropped us off and headed back or whether they stayed in the island. The first thing we did was don our snorkel and masks along with a disposable waterproof camera. Then me and Paul jumped in the warm water and started exploring around the many submerged boulders. 

It was stunning … a myriad of small brightly colored Malawi cichlids swam around us , many different species. The commonest colour was bright blue, many species of Malawi cichlids are blue,  but there was a lot of  the striped gold and brown cichlids called .. and also a lot of duller cichlids in various shades of brown. 

Deeper out I spotted a number of conical nests in the sand, like little mini volcanoes made of sand, each one guarded by a larger, deeper bodied species of Cichlid which I might find the name of if I research - - - - -

We got out the lake and dried ourself off on the island.

I had also brought my little telescopic fishing rod. I'm not sure whether I used a lure or some kind of small bait , maybe bread, but I caught one or two little cichlids , studied them in my hand and quickly released them. 

Next we trekked up through the small trees to the summit of Thumbi island . It was very hot, I was just in shorts , no shirt. At the summit I saw a hollow tree I looked inside and found the shed skin of a large tarantula! 

Paul took a photo of me standing at the summit and behind me in good focus is an African fish eagle soaring in the sky. It's one of my favourite photos ever . 

The boys rowed us back to the mainland and cooked us Chambo fish , rice and tomatoes again. Then one of the boys pinched some wooden fish pendants I had bought out of my hands.. It was a bit of fun  he wanted me to chase him around the beach to get them back but even though I was still young myself, 21, he was too nimble for me and it gave up, out of breath. He gave them back in the end.It  was maybe that evening that I took some beautiful photos of the beach one of which is at the beginning of the article. Below are two more... 

Next morning some men approached us asking if we wanted to go and feed the Fish eagles. We set off in a fishing boat (rather than a dugout canoe!) to the other island , Limbi island I think. There was only a narrow gap between the mainland and the island . We went through the gap and the men made a load noise to alert the eagles. One was waiting on top of a tree on the mainland. The mainland was forested and hilly here .

The men threw a fish out onto the water and the eagle swooped down majestically and grabbed the fish with it's talons. I got three photos of it grabbing the fish with my SLR camera.

Below is the three weird video clips I took of a nicotine spirit when I was at a bar in Spain , mentioned earlier in the text. 

Weds 1st Nov 2023 Storm Ciaran, Curlews, Geevor and Brent geese.

 Weds 1-Nov-2023 Storm Ciaran, Curlews, Geevor and Brent geese.

I left the flat at midday. The U4 bus took a different route into Marazion due to roadworks. As a result I saw from bus lots of curlews -  approx 40 in the field  opposite St. Teresa's by Marazion.

Then as we went past Marazion marshes I noticed the Great white egret that's been frequenting there for a while. There's several pools, He seems to always use the same pool, maybe that's become his territory.

Headed up to Penzance library I've got a couple of projects on Google earth including mountains of the world.Today I marked down the positions of Mont Blanc in France and Italy , Mount Mulanje in Malawi and Massif Central, France amongst others.

Next I got the tin coaster bus to Geevor tin mine in the far West of Cornwall. It's only about 30 minutes from Penzance, the bus passes through the small "granite town" of St. Just before arriving at Geevor ten minutes later.

 The first thing I did when I arrived was to video the little garden and Memorial Statue of a Miner at the entrance to Geevor. There's an exotic plant there that I don't recognise.

Then I went over to look at the shed containing the compost toilets.  I helped to install this a couple of years ago with Penwith landscape partnership volunteers . It started raining , I wanted to shelter inside but unfortunately both doors were locked.

I walked down past the cafe towards the sea , I found two side-shafts dug into the hillside supported with strong pit props. They had locked gates so I couldn't enter. 

There was a large area of gravelly spoil and sweeping views of the abandoned mine areas down to the sea with cliffs to the side. Lots of heather growing on the slopes. There was an small area of mine machinery slowly rusting. In the distance were the chimneys of wheal Mexico and Levant mine.

I headed back up the steep track to the cafe. The cafe has a huge window taking up the entire wall with views across the sea and across derelict mining land.

 I had a cup of tea and chatted with a nice local lady who works in the cafe called Moira, she's from a fishing family in Penzance. I got in the bus and headed back.

On the way back, just after St. Just, near Leswidden, there is a flooded quarry two or three acres in size. I noticed a small flock of Brent geese swimming out on the water ... Probably taking shelter from the coming Storm Ciaran which was due to reach it's worse at 3 am that night.

I was meant to go to the Wednesday Bible meeting in the bridge café Hayle but storm Ciaran was brewing when I got to Penzance , with 90mph winds predicted. I decided it was too risky in case the buses got cancelled or I got into an accident , so I went home to the flat early and wrote some of my memoirs and finished writing about today.

Trip to Southern Africa ... an adventure of a lifetime.. summer 1992

 This trip was (unbelievably) thirty years ago and many exact dates and some details have been forgotten but I hope to give a general overview.

My travelling companion for the next 8 weeks in Africa was Paul Slack my best friend at six form college. He originates from South Africa and still had relatives and friends in South Africa , Zimbabwe and Malawi. We also planned to visit my Uncle Ray who lived in Zimbabwe.  

 Flight London Heathrow to Johannesburg. Approx. 10 hours. 

Two memories I have of this long flight.

1. Flying over the Sahara desert and seeing many crescent shaped sand dunes. The Sahara seemed to go on and on.

2. Looking east out of the plane window to see the enormous snow coloured mount Kilimanjaro. 

When we arrived at Joburg we stayed at Barry's house. Barry was a good friend of Pauls from school. Driving from the airport to Barry's it was getting dark  I remember in the dusk seeing bare coppys or hills poking above the city and as it got dark many streetlights and houselights stretching into the distance on the hillsides. It was late when we got to Barry's parents house and Paul and I were given use of the " granny bungalow" in the back garden. Quite a nice size bungalow. We both crashed down into our beds and went straight to sleep.

Next morning I was surprised as I stepped out of the door of the bungalow to see .... frost !! This was this last thing I expected to see on my first morning in Africa ! Johannesburg is surprisingly high above sea level (1,753 Meters ... higher than Ben Nevis)  and not forgetting we were there in July ,which although it was mid-summer in UK, it was mid-winter in southern Africa being south of the equator.

That first day Paul Barry and me went into the centre of Joburg. I don't remember too much but we went up to the top of one of the highest buildings in Joburg and also I remember a big group of tribal dancers (probably Zulu) with their animal skin shields and war attire. 

Another day we went with Barry to a high rocky outcrop and cliff in the suburbs of Joburg , where I did my first ever mountain climbing and absailing . Climbing the cliff with ropes was much harder work than I expected using muscles in my body I don't usually use. When we got to the top we had to absail back down and that was pretty scary as you leaned back off the top of the cliff and started descending . 

Perfect July early morning Fishing 19th July 2021 5:55 am

 The sun is only a couple of feet over the horizon but I can already feel it's heat on my neck. I'm fishing for Pike, Perch and Zander on the old mill pool in Tewksbury. Thanks to the low sun the colours this morning are vivid bringing out the different shades of green on the rushes and lily pads. The pinks of the purple toad flax next to me, the almost identical pink of the great willowherb, the yellows of the mustard and Brandy bottle water lilies flowers.

Crows are cawing to each other nearby, gulls are congregating on the recently mowed ham field behind. . A warbler , I think, flitted across the water into some reedmace earlier on. Pigeons are sitting spaced apart on various parts of the Old Mill House , peeking over , welcoming the new day. A swan and five large cygnets are dabbling away opposite me, a moorhen trots over the lilies to my right and little fluffy balls follow her... must be her second brood of chicks.  A heron just called quite far off to my right. A coarse rasping call. I admire the red tinged flowers of the reed near me, hoverflies and bees are buzzing around near them. In fact there's a lot of insect activity all around this morning, probably due also to the recent very hot weather.  Earlier a swallow zoomed past close to me and mallards dawdled nearby. I'm not having any bites on my rod so far might be that the dead bait is from last night and has gone off a bit. Or could be that no pike or Zander has passed it or smelt it yet. Sparrows Twitter on the old Tudor houses opposite me.

The Secret Spanish Canal

 The Secret Spanish Canal

I often like to explore places using google maps .Once whilst I was exploring the areas on google maps around Los Alcornocales and Grazalema in the far south of Andalucia I noticed an interesting looking canal that went along the side of a mountain and then descended down the mountain along a steep straight channel. The map said this canal is abandoned . It looked like an interesting place to visit .

 On the map the canal is labelled thus ... " Conduccion de la Central del Guadiaro (Abondonada) " It flows in a south west direction following the course of the Guadiaro River , only uphill of the river , however unlike the river the canal stays at pretty much the same level and therefore appears to be going uphill as it follows the side of the mountain , whilst the Guadiaro valley deepens as the river is travelling towards sea level . The canal after some distance turns in a more southerly direction before it reaches a dam which is labelled on the map as "Salto del Corchado" Here is where the canal is sent down a steep chute into a Hydroelectric Station at the base of the mountain where the canal rejoins the Guadiaro river . 

The red line above gives a very approximate position of the canal in realtionship to the River Guadiaro .  By following this link you can get a more detailed view of the canal on google maps Salto del Corchado - Google Maps

Anyway approx 2018 I was travelling from Algeciras to Ronda . Usually I would take the train but because of the recent flash floods the train line was unusable up the Guadiaro river valley so i had to go by bus 

More can be found out about the Salto de El Corchado by following this link ....  Azud de El Corchado or Salto de El Corchado in Gaucín (andaluciarustica.com)

Trip to Bridgnorth, Shropshire UK 30Nov2020

 I was in a frustrated mood when I woke up with a yearning to be in sunny weather as today was very dull and miserable. Also a yearning to be in woodland somewhere. However I started counting my blessings and thinking about God and how great he must be if he created Zander , Pike, Rattlesnakes, Tigers etc. not just the soft cuddly animals some people think about. As I started meditating on this and singing little songs quietly on bus to Shrewsbury about God creating Zander I started cheering up !! 

Anyway previous to getting the bus I hung up two teapots in my parents garden for my mum who wants to attract robin's nesting in the garden. Robin's sometimes nest in old teapots. 

Anyway back to the bus ...the original plan was once I arrive in Shrewsbury to get another bus from Shrewsbury to Bishops castle . This plan was scuppered as the bus wasn't till 2pm ... a two hour wait. So I decided to go back to Bridgnorth. My second ever visit, the first one only being a week or two ago. 

I headed to the castle this time which is situated high up on the high half of town looking down onto the river Severn, quite far below.

I was amazed to see as I rounded the corner a huge tall, thick,  slab of castle wall leaning over at a very steep angle .  Apart from this there isn't much else left of the castle just a few scattered small bits of wall Apparently Cromwell destroyed most it. 

 I then looked around the gardens , there were some good topiary bushes in the shape of a tank, a battleship and a bomber plane. 

Above: Topiary in Shape of Plane and Battleship , Bridgnorth

Castle Gardens. 

There were also plenty of other pleasant ,mainly evergreen plantings of shrubs. At the edge of the garden are railings with views overlooking the lower part of town including the stream railway station. In the corner of the castle gardens was a small red caravan selling coffees. The paper cups came with paper caps instead of the plastic ones ... everything, including the stirrer, was compostable. I bought a coffee £2.10 not bad price either. The pleasant young chap who served me is the proprietor and we had a good chat about saving the environment . He told me there was a compost heap in the corner of the gardens where I could put my cup when it was finished. Some people threw them in the council litter bins, which to me is a waste as they will just go into landfill instead of being recycled into compost.    

I headed back into town stopped and looked again at the steep railway track that brings people up from the lower part of town and vice versa. It's close at the moment due to Covid . 

Before getting on the bus back to Shrewsbury I purchased a sheaf saw made by Wilkinson sword which will be ideal for use at camp ibex when I get back to Cornwall. 

There were several students on the bus coming back to Shrewsbury and even more on the bus from Shrewsbury to Oswestry. In the evening I downloaded Spanish music and did a water colour which I was only half pleased with..  boats on the river Fal with a Cornish cottage and woods in the background. 

Isle of Mull Sept 2nd to 15th 2020

 To get from Cornwall in the far south west of Britain to the remote village of Bunessan on the Scottish Island of Mull is quite a trek... taking me two days ( not including my time in Cheltenham) . I headed up from Cornwall to Cheltenham by train where I stayed with my friend for three days to catch up with life there. I then headed down to Bristol airport where I flew up to Glasgow.

This was the first time I had flown up South to north through England. Although it was mainly cloudy I did manage to get get good views of the Bristol channel, South coast of Wales, a couple of mountain peaks poked through the clouds in North Wales possibly Snowdon. Then later a good view down onto Preston where there was a break in the clouds, Morecambe bay , lake Windermere and a couple  of other lakes of the lake District. Then it went cloudy again until we got to Glasgow . 

Although the flight was only one hour in duration the late time of the flight meant I had to stay overnight in a hotel in Glasgow . It was called Charing Cross Hotel and was a pleasant clean hotel. 

Next morning, early, I caught the bus from Buchanan bus station to Oban . This was a three hour trip. I don't really like cities and was relieved to leave the conurbation of Glasgow. We then went through some stunning mountain and loch scenary.  Unfortunately it was a very rainy day and visibility was very poor in some places eg along most of loch Lomond I could see the loch through the trees but couldn't see the mountains on the opposite side. 

A particularly memorable part of the bus journey was between Ardgarten and Cairndow. The bus followed the valley of the Croe Water burn , up from Loch Long. A wide forested valley with high mountains on each side culminating at the pass between the two high peaks of Beinn an Lochain and Beinn Ime .

We passed several other lochs on the way to Oban, plenty of forest and high mountains. An interesting town was Inveraray on the coast of Loch Fyne.  Most buildings were painted white and there were expensive looking restaurants and shops... catering for the obviously large tourist industry here . There was an arch over the road which the bus only just squeezed through and signs for Inveraray castle. I was pleasantly surprised as I had always thought Inveraray was in Ireland!! 

Above: Inverary on the banks of Loch Fyne

I arrived at Oban around mid-day. My first impressions were a very pleasant Scottish harbourside town. Gayle my friend I would be staying with gave me a big shopping list of things to buy in Tesco , as it's not easy to get certain foods on the Isle of Mull, there's no supermarkets. I found the big Tesco in Oban and purchased a couple of bags worth of shopping. After having a coffee I lugged the shopping along with my huge rucksack to the ferry terminal . 

Above: Oban, where I had to do a big food shop for Gail in Tesco ...

there are no big supermarkets on Mull!  

The ferry crossing was at about 2 pm . It was still rainy so visibility on the crossing wasn't too good, but good enough to see I was in a beautiful part of the world. We headed out onto the strait  in the direction of Craignure. We passed Maiden Island on our right and the Kerrera lighthouse on our left. Around this area there was a strong current clearly visible and the ferry rocked more than earlier in the trip.A few Gannets flew past singly or in pairs on their way to feeding sites where they would dive from a height into shouls of their prey fish. 

The crossing from Oban to Craignure on the Isle of mull took approximately an hour. When I arrived at three pm ish there was another wait of an hour for another bus which travels down to the South West end of the island terminating at Fionnphort. Bunessan is the penultimate bus stop before Fionnphort. I noticed a small oak tree near the ferry ticket office that was absolutely festooned with shield ferns (Polypodum) living epiphytically on its branches.

The bus took over an hour from Craignure to Bunessan . The weather was still very rainy and misty . I could see halfway up the mountains. Water was everywhere. Silver waterfalls ran in torrents down the mountain slopes. These joined to become peaty brown burns ( rivers)  and we crossed over several bridges which spanned these numerous burns. One or two of these burns were raging torrents due to all the rain we were having.

 There was a considerable amount of broad leaf woodland and conifer forestry to be observed on  the first half of the journey .. ie the area nearest Craignure, but as we got into the Ross of Mull the countryside opened up into mainly moorland. 

We came to Loch Scridain on our right and the road followed fairly close to the loch all the way to Bunessan.  It was still mainly heather moorland right up to the loch with many rocky outcrops.

At last we came to Bunessan a quiet village not much more than a Hamlet by the side of a pleasant horseshoe shaped natural harbour . There was a hotel where Gail worked and two or three shops ... Gail also worked in the spa (and still does at the time of writing). There were of course quite a few houses , some terraced nearest the harbour along  the main road and further back a few detached houses scattered up the hillside.

Gail was waiting at the bus stop to meet me and carry the shopping . We greeted each other with a kiss and hug . She was once you could loosely say my girlfriend for a couple of weeks. It never lasted due to the interference of another girl. I seem to have a curse where when I meet one girl I meet another girl at the same time and things get confusing which one to stay with. Up till now I usually choose the wrong one and regret my decision.