Leads to an unexpected instance of west coast hospitality.
In searching for a not entirely necessary travelling companion for the Beermoth, there were not that many suitable options. It had to be four wheel drive, old and cool and a lot harder than a VW camper, ideally it should sound very fruity and it had to fall within my meagre budget (that being the value of one argocat, sold for £1500). Ebay brought this oddity to my attention, a Land Rover 101. It is a late 1970's, mid engined, V8 powered. left hand drive artillery tractor, and it was in Tobermory, unseen, and finishing in a blizzard on a Monday afternoon, and what I thought was a hopelessly cheeky bid ended up topping the competition by a tenner.
So I mobilised the slow train and borrowed a huge trailer. The long route and the direct ferry to Tobermory is a stunning drive out through the Ardnamurchan peninsular but I arrived at Kilchoan to find the ferries cancelled with high winds. That meant doubling back to the slightly more sheltered port at Lochaline to catch the last ferry to Fishnish before they too were cancelled, and I ended up stranded on Mull for the night. Fortunately the 101 was housed at Sgrio-Bruadh farm, the home of Isle of Mull Cheese, and Garth who runs the place (but wasn't even the owner of the 101) gave me the use of one of their extremely pleasant cottages for the night. It might sound a bit odd taking a holiday cottage right up close to a working dairy farm but I couldn't hear anything and if I was heading back there and needed a place to stay, this would be very high on my list.
Now the 101 is home and the work / expenditure and skinned knuckles have started and next time Garth is in Aviemore he has somewhere to stay.
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