Sunday

Our second day in Scotland, Argyll

After sleeping like babies, we woke up quite early to get ourselves ready for whalewatching trip. Had a coffee, went to the garden to see the birds and rabbits, it was really nice.

The cloud was gray and there was spitting rain, but we did not receive any phone call that the trip will be cancelled, so we did not bother. We got in the car, typed the destination to the GPS and then off we went.

The road was only one lane wide for about a mile until it turned on the A85, however it was supposed to be two way traffic there, luckily noone came in front of us. Easdale Island was not so far from our place, it was about 35km. About 5km from the final destination Mrs. Smith's phone started to ring. She picked up, and became disappointed quite quickly. The lady called her from the ticket office, and she said the trip was cancelled, because of the weather conditions. She said, however the weather was not bad, it was not raining or anything, but the waves could make impossible to see whales, and she did not want us to be disappointed, so they decided to cancel the tour. However she has offered their 2 hour wildlife cruise around the isles, which we accepted. The Wildlife cruise departed one hour later that the whale watching was supposed to be.

I have to say we were very disappointed as we were planning this whale watching trip for a long time now. I was very sad.

We got to Easdale, looked around in this small town. There was not many things to see to be honest. The time has passed quickly and the weather got much better, sun began to shine upon us. :-)

We picked up the tickets for the wildlife tour then started to dress up. We got waterproof trousers, jackets, with hood, lifejackets, etc. then we were getting in the boat. This was a modern Rigid Hulled Inflatable Boat, with a quite powerful engine. We had our healt and safety training, then the tour has started. We had aboard the "captain", a guy in his fifties, and his daughter, who was our tour guide. The guy knew this area very much, and he was a very experienced "driver". There were no proper seats on this boat, rather to say saddles instead. When the first guy sat down on his "seat", he squeezed around 1 liter of seawater out of the leather seat. Well, that moment we knew our waterproof clothes was needed.

The boat went with incredible speed, water splashed in our face many time, as it climbed up on the waves then fall back in. My first boatride was in Llandudno, with a similar boat, but this was even faster. We were heading along the islands, and stopped many times to see wildlife. There were some goggles provided against the splashing water, but to be honest, they were anything but transparent, so I did not wear them. We have seen different birds, stopped at seal colonies, salmon farm, deers, goats on the islands. Then finally we have seen our first porpoise. Birds were circuling above them, and they got out of the water many times with their flippers. It was incredible feeling. We saw many nice things, islands, lighthouses, porpoises, experienced the atlantic ocean to act like a river between two islands because of the tide, but the best was still to come.

Our captain has led the boat to a marvellous place. I will try to explain the situation for you to understand. The place is the 3rd biggest Whirlpool system on the globe, called: Corryvreckan.

The whirlpool is created by the Tidal flow, between the two islands Scarba and Jura. The 1 m difference in sea level at tide, makes the enormous ammount of water to flow with incredible speed up to 8 knot (15-16 km/h) between the narrow channel of the islands which is a quite high speed. At the bottom, there is a rock, called Pinnacle, which erects up to 29-30m under the sea level, then there is a hole with its 219m deepness. The uneven bottom enviroments and the incredible speed of the flow, make the water the flow around and circulate, and when the tide is the highest (couple times in a year), it creates a huge whirlpool, with an incredible noise you can hear from 10 miles. When we were there we have seen some smaller whirlpools, which were great. The captain has led the boat in the middle of the whirlpool area, and we could experience the waves hitting, turning, moving the boat. Waves were striking over the edge of the boat, and all you could see were waves from EVERYWHERE, in every direction. There were no system in it. The air was filled with moisture, (I could not make many pictures unfortunately). We really needed fully waterproof clothes. There ware 1-2 cm deep water in the boat.  

In the waves one time a porpoise emerged then disappeared again. Probably it came in to play around :-). We were cruising above the pinnacle, and the 219m deep holes, and could experience the strength of water in every way. The captain was quite experienced as he moved to boat always to good directions, so we did not capsized. As they say, not so many people dares cruising to the whirlpool. I have read, there are some crazy and experienced scuba divers, who are diving into these waters, and swim down to the pinnacle to 29m deep. They have only 15 minutes and have to dive in a very specific time, and if they don't return back in time when the tide is changing, they are being sucked and tossed down to 219 m deepness. Auch. Not many people dare to do it for sure.

After the whirlpool, we continued our journey a bit out to the Atlantic, then returned back to our port. The whole trip was indeed 2 hours long, and probably the best boat trip in my life so far. Everybody was happy, amazed, and a fully wet after the trip. At the ticket office they told us, when the tide is the highest only couple times of the year, they have a cruise just to the whirlpool. A two hour journey, just to "mess around" and "play" in the whirlpool. :-)))))

Unfortunately we can not manage to go back in these times, as the coming dates are not on any weekend, but weekdays.

After the trip, we have made some pictures, climbed some rocks, eat, then went back to our place to change shoes, socks, as they were soaking wet, even tho they were supposed to be waterproof.

The second destination for the day was Castle Stalker. It was north from North -Connel, in the place Appin. Driving towards it, we have found the viewpoint for the castle, which was on the top of a hill. They had parking lot and a caffeteria, with gifts shop. We had to walk a couple meters, then we had a very nice view of the castle. It was standing glumly on the tidal islet Loch Laich. Incredible view it had indeed. However I wanted to go down to the shore, not just only watch it from the distance, so I went in the giftshop and ask the lady there how I could get there. She told me I couldn't because there is no way to get to the castle, then I had to explain, I could see I should swim to get to it, but I just wanted to get closer :D.  She did not know the proper way, just only directed us towards is. After some driving around, we have found the way (of course there were no signs) to get closer to it. The rain began fell, but we still went for it and made some nice pictures.

Leaving Castle Stalker we went to Oban and had a dinner in a family restaurant. Then drove up to the hill to see the Oban Tower, and see the panorama over the city. It was very nice, to see the islands and the atlantic at the distance. We got home again absolutely exhausted, and tired after that day. Tried to watch some tv back at our place, but we fell asleep instantly.