Magical Coll and the journey home.

After the euphoria of Ben Nevis, we headed south to Oban to rest our legs and wait for our ferry to Coll. When travelling, I am always on the hunt for traditional music and having missed out on an Irish 'session', I was hell bent on finding a Scottish Ceilidh.. I was delighted to find that the one night we had in Oban was a ceilidh night - result! I booked online, but when we arrived in our 'gladrags' and dancing shoes we received the devastating news (possibly only for me!) that the event had been cancelled due to lack of interest. One of very few disadvantages of travelling outside school holidays is lack of ceilidh dancers! Luckily our evening was saved by the friendly barman who told us there was a pool table in the back room...an hour later and we had nurtured a couple of sharp shooters with an appetite for hanging out in bars...

Something else I'm on the hunt for when near the sea is fresh seafood. We made a substantial detour from Arrochar to Fort William to swing by the original Loch Fyne Oyster Bar and boy was it worth it?! I was never sure what the fuss was about the couple of times I had tried oysters at May Balls at Uni but my interest was piqued on Christmas Day when my brother and sister-in-law served them up as a starter. They were delicious but these at Loch Fyne were on another level - so meaty and at £10 for 6 they didn't seem overpriced (we won't factor in the added cost of petrol!!) I also love a crab sandwich - I get that from my Nan - and the Oban 'Local Shellfish' stall at the harbour front by the ferry terminal delivered a goodie. We were lured in by the smell of mussels being cooked in a creamy white wine sauce, and the guy giving out free mini-pots of said mussels to those salivating at the menu board. Small acts of generosity do wonders for sales :) However little did we know that Coll held two more fabulous seafood treats for us...

Our ferry to Coll was somewhat hairy. It was stormy throughout but we only felt the full force of it once we emerged into the open sea beyond Mull. No problem, but what I wasn't prepared for was the handbrake turn to enter Coll harbour! The horizon was all over the place. We then seemed to be stationary for several minutes, rocked by the waves, until I realised we had technically arrived but were slowly edging up parallel to the dock with much churning below water...no mean feat. All credit to the captain and crew. I imagine a lot of ferries are cancelled in winter. 

This trip has been enriched enormously by the people we have met along the way - often friends we haven't seen in decades - and our superhosts on Coll were no exception. Rob and Romayne, with two of their grown kids: Alex & Tash, really did us proud. We crossed with R&R at the ferry - off to Edinburgh for 36 hours - but were greeted by Alex at the house who gave us a cuppa and some peat-infused local water for the boys, and then got us settled at the end of what was effectively our own private beach. R&R moved here over 20 years ago to farm, and their estate, as well as many acres of fields, includes a beach, a couple of lakes, a golf course and a football pitch! (You can guess which one the boys were most taken with initially, although we convinced them that playing football on the beach was just as good...) 

Dougie climbing up the sand dune

The next 6 days passed in a glorious wild wave...we played sports on the beach, swam, rock-pooled, seal-spotted, fished, 'drove' cattle, ID-ed birds and flowers, cycled to the south of the island and ran down the tallest sand dune in the UK, dammed the beach stream in style and ate very very well. 

'Our' beach

I have to just elaborate briefly on the stream damming...every Whit while growing up we had a family camp on the Llein Peninsula, NW Wales, with Dad's side of the family. We camped at a place we called 'Mrs Williams field' (I can picture Mrs William's house set back behind a field of sheep as we drove up the drive after a loooong journey from Oxfordshire). Despite all the paraphernalia required for camping squeezed into the back of our Ford estate, Dad (King of Packing) would always insist on adding a full size garden spade. He, and brother-in-law Rich, long after the kids had lost interest, would continue to construct dams and build elaborate castle complexes and earthworks...they couldn't be happier. It was a delight for Dad when his grandchildren began showing an interest in sand and it could all begin again! Buzz, growing up in Cornwall, also remembers happy times with family friends 'tide fighting'. It's in the DNA...so when offered our own beach, with stream, there was some serious damming to be done. Buzz had mentioned this intention to Rob who added it to his to do list and after his farming duties were done he came down to help...with a tractor! Within 5 minutes our meagre efforts over the last hour were totally transformed. The stream was halted and a metre deep swimming pool began to build! Alex joined in too and told us how this was something they did as kids. Building the dam and pool and then releasing it and surfing the wave down to the sea! We didn't have surf boards but we released it and experienced the power of the flow, then re-dammed it and re-directed the stream to the sea. Mighty creators of our own environment - it kept us busy for hours. I wondered with a smile what Dad & Rich would have made of it all. It would certainly have amused them but they might have thought it was a bit of a cheat!

On the food front we were massively spoilt...Rob took us out twice mackerel fishing on his boat. The first time was in glorious weather...we were becalmed amongst a flock of circling shearwaters, moored up at a tiny island off the northern tip of Coll where the crystal clear waters lapped over a beach of crushed white shells...but just when we were ready to fish he realised he'd forgotten the fishing lines! Take two the following day, the weather had changed. Rob thought it best to only take 3 of us so, having mackerel-fished before, I gallantly said I'd stay in the warm, cosy van. Spent my whole time worrying about them though as they disappeared into the drizzle. A couple of hours later they returned wet, cold but alive and triumphant with a haul of 30 plus mackerel. Once they were in the right spot it was the easiest of pickings apparently. Some of the mackerel were breaded and fried for lunch (amazing), the rest were smoked that evening down by the beach house and we took some away with us (beyond amazing). Mackerel are so common as a catch in UK waters that they can almost be overlooked. I can see how if having them every day their lustre might wear off but, certainly for us, it would take a long time! One thing is for sure...it may not to be easy, or cheap, to get every type of food imported on to the island, but, while they have boats, the islanders won't starve. The other foods we were treated to during our stay were Rob & Romayne's own beef burgers and beef bolognaise...delicious even to a semi-pescatarian flexitarian. It's nice to know exactly where the beef has come from and, as Romayne said, to know that the animal has had a good life of 13 years roaming the local fields. But the final jewel in the crown has to be the langoustine...the boys love prawns and these prawn-monsters blew their minds! Rob demonstrated how to extract all of the meat from the legs as well as the body and for 15 minutes there was a feeding frenzy...all happily snapping, cracking, dipping and munching. Blimey - I hope you're not reading this blog hungry!

It was finally time to say our goodbyes to Coll and a huge thanks to Rob, Romayne and family for gifting us so many adventures. It's a wild way of life, the journey hasn't always been easy and is far from over (Romayne is still waiting for central heating in the house)...but what an adventure, and I can see how the place seeps into your being and gets harder and harder to leave. I felt it after just 6 days. No surprise that at least 3 of the 4 children are keen to return and settle on the island. The future of the farm is bright.

We were on the way home...We stopped with good friends in Eyemouth and Wensleydale en route to Loughborough and a chance for all of us, but especially the boys, to re-connect with our past life. It was the last week of the Leicestershire school year, and very kindly, the Head of their old school allowed the boys in for the afternoon on the penultimate day. They had only told their best mates and were mobbed by their very surprised friends as they arrived. I was particularly delighted for Trevi, who, having missed the last year of Primary, got to experience a bit of the end of year 6 'buzz' by seeing the play and joining the leavers picnic - special moments. I also got to go for drinks at The Beacon pub with the year 6 mums while the kids were at the picnic...more special moments! The boys seem really settled in our new life in Devon but Dougie still gave a big sigh as we left the M1 at junction 23, heading into town and said 'Ah...I'm home'. He's bound to feel like that for a while (gosh - if pushed on where I feel is home I may even still say Blewbury - where I lived from age 3 to 22!) but I hope having visited Loughborough twice during the year, and having seen some Loughborough friends at our new house, they understand that day to day life may have changed but Loughborough, and everyone we love, are still there and we won't lose touch.

Last stop: my parents, 'at home' in Blewbury. A BBQ on the top of the garage, a lovely pizza lunch at The Blueberry pub, the Didcot parkrun and the final yeehaa that took us full circle in our year...leaping into The Mathius' 'heated' pool!

It's not always been easy - sharing small spaces for long periods of time and completely uprooting our lives - but what adventures and experiences we've shared. Dad asked the boys, during our pizza lunch, what different foods they had enjoyed from our travels and both became animated and listed off all sorts: chicken souvlaki in Greece, snails in France, cuttlefish ink risotto in Croatia, the most delicious paella in a French Market (I know - wrong country but it tasted authentic!)...We did our best with the home-schooling but I think, like Dad's question about food, a lot has gone in that we're not even aware of and will hopefully emerge in positive ways throughout their lives. We're all very ready to settle now - the boys can't wait to go back to school (no offence taken and long may it last!) and they are wanderlusted out (just as well as we've run out of money!) For me, the trip came at a time when the kids were naturally starting to pull away from us, as their lives started to take off, and it has been a gift of a chance to connect deeper with them, a joy and a privilege. 

Now time to find jobs!!

Thanks for reading and sharing the journey with us. Hope to see you soon...in Devon...we're going nowhere! xxx