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@pfooti · 2026-06-27 · travel

June 25th: On a Boat

Post is late and I'm a little behind on the backlog, nothing bad - in real time we've turned in the van and are converting over to more trad tourism. We had a Fancy Dinner last night and between all the driving and a dinner that didn't end until 9:30 I was just a little pooped. Anyway, back in blog time, we are getting on a boat in Oban.

Me on a boat. I also really love this coat. Coat on a boat.
Me on a boat. I also really love this coat. Coat on a boat.

The boat trip was around the Isle of Kerrera, a little boat on a pretty sunny morning. We saw some charismatic megafauna, including harbor seals, Atlantic bottlenose dolphins, and puffins. Oban bay has a lot of islands and such in it; I don’t know the difference between a bay and a sound, but this felt more like a sound. Oban is also considered the gateway to the western isles (more or less the Hebrides) as there is a lot of ferry service from Oban.

Castle Duart on the Island of Mull. Built in the 1300s, it’s still inhabited. The flag is supposed to indicate that the Laird is in residence, so actually inhabited.
Castle Duart on the Island of Mull. Built in the 1300s, it’s still inhabited. The flag is supposed to indicate that the Laird is in residence, so actually inhabited.

After Oban, we drove to Luss, on Loch Lomond. This had kind of a beach town vibe - there was a very small beach on the side of the loch, with folks jumping into the water. We bought ice cream and walked along the loch and river. It was very hot (more beach vibes), so we didn’t take the longer loop through the fields. Today was the day we had to figure out the separate air conditioner for when we’re parked on shore power (rather than the van’s aircon). The whole day was quite warm, and there weren’t enough breezes once it started cooling down.

It is remarkably difficult to capture a dolphin partway though its leap or splash, but here’s a fin.
It is remarkably difficult to capture a dolphin partway though its leap or splash, but here’s a fin.

We drove to our campsite, just outside of Stirling. There’s a big castle there with lousy parking (busy lot, and it’s a park-and-ride with a bus to the castle) that I didn’t feel like contending with. One thing I haven’t highlighted really is just how stressful it is to drive the camper. The axle width is wider than most cars (so you have to be careful about bumping the curb (or kerb as we’re in Scotland) all the time, the mirrors stick out even further (we’ve bashed ours a few times), there’s no rearview mirror so you have to just always be looking at the sideviews to keep a mental model of what’s behind you. It requires nigh-constant attention. So anyway, we skipped it.

This church (in a kind of Ship of Theseus fashion) was built in the 6th century. There’s a Viking stone in the graveyard (not that interesting, so I’m using this photo for this anecdote). As we walked away, I said, “They really aren’t Viking anymore.” Chrissy: “what” Me: “Well, it’s better to say they Viked.” Chrissy: “…” Me: “That was a joke.” Her: “Noted.” I love her so much.
This church (in a kind of Ship of Theseus fashion) was built in the 6th century. There’s a Viking stone in the graveyard (not that interesting, so I’m using this photo for this anecdote). As we walked away, I said, “They really aren’t Viking anymore.” Chrissy: “what” Me: “Well, it’s better to say they Viked.” Chrissy: “…” Me: “That was a joke.” Her: “Noted.” I love her so much.

There’s also a Wallace monument, which is a tribute to William Wallace, aka Mel Gibson in Braveheart. It contains his claymore apparently - which in this case is a big two handed sword. When people say “Higlanders used claymores in battle”, they are correct but you have to be more specific. In the 13th century they had these big two handers. In the 18th century, the Highlander claymore was a basket-hilted saber, a one-hander. Still a pretty long, sharp piece of metal, but I am fascinated by the way words can mean lots of things, and evoke meanings in people’s heads when they talk about a Highland Charge with musket and claymore. Anyway, the Wallace Monument was built in the 19th century, during the era of Victorian fascination with Scottish culture; really the Victorians were kind of like making Disneylands before there was such a thing. It also has more than 200 steps in it, so we gave it a miss.

Dinner was elbow curry. So named because it’s a Little Bit of Everything → LBoE → Elbow. It’s a joke. It’s also whatever we had left in the fridge at the end of the trip, some local carrots (I had to wash a lot of dirt from them), cauliflower, lamb, chicken, random spices, and two potatoes in a kind of curry stew from the 10% of the butter chicken sauce that I didn’t use on the butter chicken a week ago. It was quite good, not great. I feel like it was missing one thing - I’m not sure what that one thing was, but I can always tell when it is missing.
Dinner was elbow curry. So named because it’s a Little Bit of Everything → LBoE → Elbow. It’s a joke. It’s also whatever we had left in the fridge at the end of the trip, some local carrots (I had to wash a lot of dirt from them), cauliflower, lamb, chicken, random spices, and two potatoes in a kind of curry stew from the 10% of the butter chicken sauce that I didn’t use on the butter chicken a week ago. It was quite good, not great. I feel like it was missing one thing - I’m not sure what that one thing was, but I can always tell when it is missing.

This is our last night in the van, tomorrow (blog time, which is actually yesterday real time) we head to Edinburgh by way of Falkirk and drop off the van.

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