Mull Adventure Blog - Part 7

We have arrived at a very special part of this adventure dear reader as I am about to tell you of a very special day. We had one of the best sightings of any trip on this occasion and it would have been wonderful, had I not been in the office on such a particular day! However, walking through the car park in the Mull Mizzle that morning I did not feel disappointed in the decision which had landed me in the office. And so the trip set off, a boat full of passengers burning with anticipation, the guides curious as to what we might see and our skipper, as ever, letting that spectacular knowledge and sense of his deciding where it was they were to go.

A few hours later Natalie received a call from Popz letting us know what they’d seen so we could update our sightings board. What Popz told Natalie was that they were with his favourite animal. What is his favourite animal I hear you ask? It turns out it is the Risso’s Dolphin, a much rarer visitor to these waters than the Common or Bottlenose. Much excitement ensued! Any visitor into the office received an excited babble of information from me and the grin could not be wiped from my face. I do believe a little dancing was undertaken too! It must be understood dear reader that these particular cetaceans had not been seen by Sea Life Surveys in 2 seasons and, particularly for me, their oddities made them ever more endearing! They have a rather bulbous head, have scratches along their flanks and back and get very pale as they age so, as you can imagine, they’re quite unusual creatures, and although I hadn’t seen them personally, it was fantastic to know they were out there and that our best beloved passengers has gotten the chance to see them.

A few more hours later and the trip returned. Everyone onboard completely soaked through but happy at their sightings. The guides came into the office, hugging, giving high fives and sharing their experience with us. In that moment I have to say that I felt very honoured to be a member of the team and excited about what else we might see out there. It was a very happy day for us all, despite, as Ewan called it, the seven hour shower!

Now it came to pass, purely by coincidence that during this happy moment a man came in to ask information, to which I happily explained what he needed to know and then hastened to add the reason behind the grin, the dancing and the general excitement in my tone. Apparently this all made an impression on him as, next day he came in again asking for me. More specifically he asked for the enthusiastic one that looks like an Eskimo! Now personally I don’t see it, I really don’t, maybe it’s how pale I am but either way the remark took me by surprise when I heard about it!

I shall now move swiftly on to the events of, what was to be termed “MAN night!” This is an event in which the SLS team, or rather the male brethren of this team decided to get together and rejoice in a bit of testosterone fuelled activity. Now before you all get concerned, this just entails manly films, manly food and manly games. In the end the girls were invited too but, just to make sure I would be welcomed to the event when I arrived I decided to man up! I achieved this through the advent of facial hair! I drew a beard and moustache on my face. It was some very artful stubble that was added to my chin and amused the rest of the men greatly!

Most of us had arrived at Dunk’s house via my car and we had a little fun on the roads on the way. These particular roads involved hairpin turns and steep hills which were a delight and challenge to my driving skills. It has to be said that a little bit of under steer was undertaken and a few aggressive comments aimed at the tourists that did not move into a passing places fast enough but nothing too bad. Saying that maybe the testosterone fuelled events that were to follow were already having an effect on me! However, we arrived, got given a brief tour of the spectacular house and then settled down to watch the epic battle of COD – Call Of Duty.

Frazer, Duncan, Jimbo and Ewan (being the men) were all happily shooting each other into oblivion whilst Ruth, Natalie and myself were rather more content to watch. Manly food was eventually served and we decided to watch a manly film. Whilst deciding which film this was to be I asked if we had Casino Royale only to be shown it was right in front of me – fail! However we decided to watch that but half way through Jimbo and Dunk decided to head back to Call of Duty, being rather addicted to it I fear.

After the film we all played a few more rounds of COD, with me joining in this time and getting rather aggressive, screaming profanities at the screen whenever I got shot. It must be understood dear reader that I do not have a particular adeptness for the game! I eventually washed my beard off and we all got rather sleepy so headed back, again with a car full along the winding roads in the soothing darkness. A very good night although I thought it was lacking in poker!

And now we move to the exciting events of a few days later. The whole day had been glorious and I was itching to get the camera out after work, and so I did. I met up with Ewan (another photography enthusiast) and we headed west towards Loch Na Keal, myself hoping for otters and Ewan hoping for some birding action. Ewan got his wish and spotted some Red Deer as well but unfortunately, once again our little brown and furry friends proved elusive. However the light was dying in a most spectacular fashion and so we decided to follow it west along the north road of Loch Na Keal to see what we could find. There were some brilliant colours and, as ever, spectacular scenery as we drove in our little convoy, stopping off at the occasional passing place for a quick snap and scan before heading off again.

After passing through a typical Scottish traffic jam – a heard of sheep on the road – we stopped at a peaceful spot looking over towards Gometra. One startled beach bunny and two majestic deer on a hill later I realised something almightily exciting. There were highland cows in the vicinity! I hurried over with the camera and got some very Scottish looking shots of the beautiful and somewhat hairy bovines munching away in a field of thistles. All you needed was a bagpipe player and some shortbread! I tore myself away from the highland moo moos back to Ewan and his scope then decided to head further along past Eos Fors to chase the last of the light. A couple of birds of prey and an arty snap involving a tree later I drove back to Ewan and, given the light conditions we both decided to call it a night. We meandered slowly back checking out potential wildlife spots from our cars and mentally sifting through the photos we had taken that evening. For me it was nothing stunningly spectacular but I was content with the results nonetheless. I waved Ewan off as we went our separate ways through Salen and was once again overcome by that sense of tranquillity that manages to hit me almost every evening on Mull. Our epic
photography tour had been a great success and another night fell over the Island.

Next time on the Mull Adventure Blog team Yorkie beaches a boat...twice and I get put under the spell of mustelid magic in epic proportions!

Sarah
Guide