A brief return to London and back to Kerrera…with COVID!
Friday 1 July 2022
Apart from the bad weather, there has been another dark cloud over our heads.
Around the first week in June, the magnificent 250 to 300 year old Turkish Oak back in our communal garden in London just broke in half and collapsed onto our neighbour’s car. Luckily nobody was hurt. It was around 23:00 when it happened during a downpour. The huge issue we face now is that the heavy branches of the half which was left standing is precariously leaning towards our house! The council has given permission to fell this amazing old tree as it is posing a real threat to life and property…
Nobody thought it possible
The remaining half and our house
Luckily we were in Oban when we heard the news about the felling. In Oban you get decent good train services to Glasgow and London. We decided to jump on the train and let the bad weather pass. We wanted to see the damage for ourselves, move our cars out of the way and also some paintings from that side of the house, just in case.
When we boarded the 3 carriage train in Oban, I felt very thrilled to be passing such places as Crianlarich. Back in the early 80’, when we were living in Edinburgh, we often went by car to Oban, Fort William, Mallaig and much further north. Every time I was thrilled to arrive in Crianlarich, where the scenery changed completely and became much wilder. It was labelled ‘the gateway to the north’ in one of the Scottish songs by the Corries.
As I said before, the weather was really ‘special’ to say the least and to give you a taste of the view of our coach window I had great fun trying to photograph the rain drops on the window panes, while the landscape was rushing past.
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I will not go into much detail on our train journey from Glasgow to London, which arrived two hours later than scheduled. Firstly the train broke down twice around Carlisle with a battery problem. Then the train was diverted to Rugby. We all had to transfer to another train which was already packed. There was a scramble for the remaining free seats. We finally arrived home shortly before midnight.
We did not want to repeat this on our way back. We flew, which is something we really wanted to avoid if possible… But there was no other way to get back to Kerrera in one day.
And now we have both tested positive for COVID.
I think that when we are both feeling better, we will start going back. This summer’s wonderful sailing around the Western Isles of Scotland did not happen this year. We also didn’t sail to the Faroes. Of course we are disappointed, but now instead of trying to force things, we will take this disappointment in our stride and turn it around into something positive. (We are not quite there yet…)
There is still some interesting places to see on our way to Toon. We will be going back around the Mull of Kintyre, but wind and weather permitting we might reach it from the island of Islay. Who knows? I don’t like doing the same route backwards…And then there is all the work we need to do to prepare Easy Rider for the long winter.
Enjoying summer outdoor activities in Scotland...