Back in time :-)

My last day on Mull was nice leisurely affair, like a holiday even The Mule was finished and I was feeling pretty chuffed with myself and thought I’d visit a few of my old haunts from waaaay back in time. The era of Thatcher and the miners strike  https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/UK_miners%27_strike_(1984%E2%80%9385) when I seriously considered moving to Mull to salvage coal Luckily I saw sense and took a job on Scalpay managing a scallop farm instead. The coal was still on board the SS Meldon

a 2514 ton collier on the bottom of Loch Buie that I just happen to own, or at least a third share in it  

The Meldon struck a mine laid by U-78 in March of 1917 https://www.scottishshipwrecks.com/meldon/ but her captain managed to get her into Loch Buie before she sank in around 10M of water. Where she lies to this day

her iron prop and rudder pintle being quite a sight to behold  

As well as the Meldon the SS Maine, HMS Barcombe and several other wrecks lie in this area  all of which I visited many times in the past.https://lifeattheendoftheroad.wordpress.com/2018/10/06/a-hundred-years-on/

Chauffer driven

The first job however was to go and look at a digger in Salen with  my Mate, a baby brother to Calum the Kubota no less I’m sure he’ll makes as much use of it around his campsite https://www.tobermory-campsite.co.uk/ as I do of Calum around the croft. Probably he’ll ache a lot less too

After which he drove us back to Tobermory via Loch na Keal https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Loch_na_Keal  , Ulva ferry and Dervaig. A most enjoyable jaunt especially from the passenger seat After lunch at my caravan I headed off in the Land Rover to Loch Buie on the south west of Mull.

  

Once more passing through the village of Salen past three sad looking old fishing boats. When I was last here in 1985 there was only one, the ‘blue’ one nearest and it looked like it had been there years then It’s called the FV Glen Carradale but we always called it the Glen Scammeldale cos it had a Scammel truck tractor cab for a wheelhouse

You had to see it and know its owner to appreciate the joke

Then it was on to the head of Loch Buie where we parked up at the Old Lochbuie Post Office café  https://www.oldpostofficelochbuie.co.uk/ which didn’t open until the 11th I dunno if it was ever a Post Office as I remember it being further up the glen where the telephone box resides.

The new one is certainly a big improvement

Parking up at the café we left the aching Molly in the Land Rover and took the track that follows the loch shore towards Carsaig, yet another beautiful old stone pier but Bonzo and I only went about a mile down to where we used to camp in years gone by.

  

By the remnants of old farm machinery, fishing gear and the foundations of a shed to

 

a beach where we would launch the boat and camp whilst diving on the wrecks. Returning to the Land Rover after our trip down ‘memory lane’ to the monument just by the Old Post Office to ‘Loch Buie and his Highlanders’. Dunno what the inscription says you can’t read it now but 40 years ago you could.

  

I remember this monument very well cos I hit it with an Alfa Romeo Writing it off in the process but not before straightening the chassis with a tractor and strainer post, soldering the radiator over a camp fire, tying the bonnet and wing on with fencing wire and driving home 300 miles Those were the days

 

Can’t you read Bonzo, it says beware of adders One time I was up here we stayed in this farm at the head of the loch it was Easter 1984 and the gearbox layshaft bearings failed in my Series III LWB Safari Land Rover leaving me with only two gears, low and high 4th. Undaunted I got a Pal to bring me up a new layshaft and bearings and fitted them in the field at the side of the farm  

 

This tree is in the cemetery at the head of Loch Spelve on the way to Lochbuie I dunno if it’s a ewe but if it is it must be ancient as it’s the largest one I’ve ever seen

Saturday

Well that was a nice leisurely trip home via Lochaline and  the MV Catriona. Ferguson’s MV Harvest Anne and the MV Aqua Stadt heading down the Sound of Mull as we awaited Catriona.

   

Once on the mainland it was off on the single track A884 towards the Corran ferry

  

stopping at the head of Loch Sunart https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Loch_Sunart in the sunshine to walk the dugs.

Sopped briefly in Fort William for a Lidl shop before continuing the northward trek towards home.

 

Stopping briefly at the side of Loch Garry to admire the view

of some toe rags fly tipping

 

Home at last around 17:30