Mike's Moz Blog: Trip to Tiree

Back in June I needed to go back to Scotland to sort out the renting of our house. We had not managed to arrange anything before we left for Mozambique and our neighbours Jay and Debs had kindly been been keeping an eye on it for us. While back in Scotland I went with our friends Diana and Robert for a long week end to to the inner Hebridean island of Tiree. It was a fantastic little trip.

The most westerly island of the Inner Hebrides off the coast of Scotland, Tiree is just 10 miles long and 5 miles wide. Mostly flat and almost treeless it is a stunningly beautiful and peaceful place. It is one of the sunniest places in Britain and during the summer has really long daylight hours. It is also really easy to get to with direct flights from Glasgow airport to its airport which was originally a Royal Air Force station in the second world war.

Whose turn is it to wind up the rubber band?

The plane on the outward journey was a small saab turboprop and we had great views of some of the Scottish islands on the 45 minute flight. I got chatting to one of other passengers on the plane who told me that this was actually the big plane and that when we flew back we would be going on the small plane!

Diane and Robert were staying in a small hotel in the main town, Scarinish, on the island. Because I had not been sure whether I would be able to make the trip my booking was made later and I was staying in a guest house about a 20 minutes walk down the beach.

Tiree Towers

The guest house had just reopened after a long closure, was having a few plumbing problems, and was occasionally a bit like Fawlty Towers, but the couple running it were lovely.

We had assumed that we could just pick up a taxi at the airport but when we got there found out that there weren't any taxis on Tiree. Our mobile phones wern't working on the island either. The airport staff came to our rescue ringing the island's dial a bus service for us. This is an on demand bus service which you can telephone to book. The bus turned up about 20 minutes later and the lady driving it told us she had another couple to pick up at the other end of the island before dropping us off. So we got a bus tour of the island for the £1.50 (about 75 metacais or 24 rand) bus fare.

We did begin to wonder if we would make it. Nearly all the roads on the island are single track with passing places to pull in and let other vehicles pass. The island and roads are covered in sheep which had right of way. Also every time we met a vehicle coming the other way the driver would wind down her window and have a chat. We picked up a young french couple that were camping on the island and they were trying to show the driver where they wanted to go on a map, but she told them she didn't have her glasses so couldn't see the map!

The commute between our hotels

The weather during our stay was just fantastic with brilliant sunshine every day apart from the morning we left. Walking around the island coast was a delight. Every corner we turned revealed another beautiful beach or bay. The colours were stunning. It was as if someone had taken all the most beautiful bits of coastline in the world and and put them together in one place. When we were walking we hardly saw another soul and at times it was like we had the island to ourselves. The journey between my guest house and Diane and Robert's hotel was along a lovely wide white sand beach and the walk back after an evening meal and drink as the sun was setting was a real pleasure.

I thought you said the island was flat!

On one of the days we hired some bikes from a local garage and did a 16 mile round trip to Hynish at the other end of the island which was used as a base for the building of the Skerrymore lighthouse off the coast of Tiree. This had some interesting exhibitions on the lighthouse and on the local islands natural history. Although still sunny there was a very stiff breeze which made for tough going sometimes. Neither Diane and Robert had been on a bike for a few years and it wasn't just the wind making a groaning noise on the way back. We all felt a bit saddle sore the next day

2013 Tour de Tiree winner

. On the cycle back we had planned a stop at a cafe which turned out to be closed, but the cafe owner was in doing some cleaning and gave us a coffee anyway. Eating dinner in the hotel restaurant that night Diane realised our waitress and the barman were the people who had hired us the bikes at the garage. I had begun to think all the islanders looked alike.

Bye Bye Tiree

The day of our return was cold, wet and windy. Our return journey to Glasgow was on the smallest commercial aircraft I have ever been on (a twin otter). The wheels didn't retract and there wasn't room for a stewardess. The captain of the aircraft came into the cabin from the cockpit to give us a very amusing safety briefing and weather report advising us that summer was now over.

The island has a really good website well worth a look if you are interested http://www.isleoftiree.com/ Some of my photos below.

One of the things Jane asked me to do while back in Prestwick was buy some clothes for her from a local clothes Boutique, Emporium, that she really likes, and a pair of shoes she had seen on Prestwick street shoes facebook page. Clothes shopping, especially when it involves the mine field of choosing clothes for Jane is not my idea of fun but as meatloaf said I will do anything for love. Lynn the owner of Emporium is a lovely lady but thought it was all very amusing and didn't waste the opportunity to tease me a bit. While helping me pick out clothes she would shout across the shop "not that one, it will never fit him". She even press ganged her other customers to model clothes for me. Anyway with her help I managed to get some lovely things that Jane was very pleased with.