L2L Day 81 Oban

 Oban - a rest day.

The weather forecast for the next 'wee' while is promising to remain unsettled and certainly the weather we've been receiving so far has been changing not just from one day to the next but from one hour to the next.


The seagulls seem to have learned to take advantage of good vantage points whatever the weather.



In a break in the weather, we headed up to McCaig's Tower - a colosseum on the skyline of the town. 




Great views over the harbour and the nearby islands of Kerara, Lismore and Mull.



On the way down we spotted a Gaudiesque garden wall and a pair of  inverted wellies in the background.


We called in at Timpson's to find that my boots had been repaired and were all ready for collection. Brilliant! 


The people at Timpson's always come up trumps.

We told Alasdair that we'd taken his recommendation yesterday evening and gone for a pint at the Clarendon. On telling him that we were walking the Hebridean Way,  it turns out that Alasdair's family have a croft on Harris and he gave us a number of recommendations that we shouldn't miss. He reminded us of how changeable the weather can be on the islands and showed us a photograph he'd taken a few years ago of his son on a golden beach on Harris set in a turquoise sea. Let's hope the weather comes up trumps for us.

Back at our hotel, we dropped off the newly repaired boots and met Nick and Bill 


who were just embarking with their wives and friends on a 6 day holiday on the
MV Glen Massan on a mystery tour of the islands and looking forward to some fine food and whisky tasting.

A short while later we watched the Glen Massan jauntily sail into the afternoon sun.


Time for lunch so we stopped by at the amazingly busy 'Green Shack' famous for its seafood. 


The only tables are open-air so we enjoyed our prawns and scallops in hot garlic butter sheltered in the company of French, Japanese and Norwegians.


A Norwegian sailor gave us a very brief description of his sail over the North Sea but described at length how good the Green Shack was and over the years, how many times he'd been back.

At the ferry terminal...


we visted the RNLI shop and met volunteer crew, Iain and Phil,


who proudly pointed out on the map, the massive sea area covered by the Oban, Shannon class lifeboat. Apparently, a colleague had worked out that the length of the coastline covered by their lifeboat was greater than the coastline of France !!! 
I mentioned that Teddy bears were always a popular sale item in Littlehampton. Apparently, in Oban, anything with a Puffin sells like hotcakes.

Time for a coffee and chocolates in the warm at the Oban Chocolate factory overlooking the harbour with views of Kerrera, Lismore and Mull......


and then - of course - a wee dram at The Oban Inn. 



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