Today, the 9th March, didn't really go to plan. The snow didn't materialise so we needn't have booked back into Auchrannie. As we had made sure we had seen all we wanted to see of the island, I called the ferry company to see if we could change our booking from tomorrow to today. The guy told me that all crossings from Brodick to Ardrossan, that day, had been cancelled due to strong winds, and there was a shuttle service running from Lochranza to Claonaig. All we needed to do was turn up at Lochranza and get on the next ferry. We could use our original tickets on this crossing. Great, we thought. We had originally wanted to do this crossing when leaving the island, as we had never been round Kintyre and would like to have seen what it was like.
Anyway, we headed off to Lochranza, and called in at the Lochranza Distillery on the way past. We bought a bottle of the 10 year old whisky that Alan had a miniature of the night before, and a stuffed highland cow for me, before heading to the port. The boat had just come in but needed to refuel before leaving. They prioritised cars getting on first, meaning there wasn't room for us on that crossing, so we waited for the next one. In the meantime, the wind had gotten stronger. They decided it wasn't safe to cross from Lochranza to Claonaig and were diverting the next crossing to Tarbert - this is three times longer than the crossing to Claonaig! This was the type of ferry where you drive on and stay in the vehicle for the whole of the crossing. This was far better for the dogs. I can't say I would like to repeat that crossing! The boat was swaying from side to side and the sea was coming up over the front of the ship all over Harry! It was pretty scary! We were very pleased to touch ground 85 minutes later!
The first thing we needed to do was find somewhere that sold calor gas. We stopped at Tarbert Holiday Park. They couldn't have been more helpful and part of me wished we had booked into there for the night. I would definitely recommend them to anyone looking for somewhere to stay on Kintyre.
We looked for places to stay on search for sites, but nothing seemed suitable. They were all too uneven and, as I've said on a previous blog, we don't like leaving anything outside the van incase we need to make a quick getaway, so we couldn't use our levelling blocks. Eventually, we found Bollachgair Forest site. This was a lovely stopover with fantastic walks for the dogs.
It was good to find somewhere to relax after an eventful day.
There wasn't much opportunity for walking today, but we still managed 5.5 thousand steps.
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