Fri 24th April
Wow, today we slept in till about 10am!! Not sure I’ve done that in several years. Much appreciated though. We had another pottering morning, or what was left of it, and after lunch on the boat we decided to go on another walk, but this time to check out West Tarbert. Kintyre is a large peninsula, the Mull of Kintyre being its head, that unfortunately is likened to a flaccid penis. Tarbert sits at the very top on the east coast. West Tarbert sits on the west side of the top of the peninsula, separated from Tarbert by a 2-mile stretch of land. It is said that when the Vikings came to Scotland, they would claim land by sailing all the way around it. When they got to Tarbert they were ordered to drag the longship across the land in order to complete the circumnavigation and claim it.
It was very warm when we set off on the road uphill out of the town. When we followed the dip of the valley towards West Loch Tarbert, we noticed a large amount of the vegetation was some yellow flowered cabbage plant. We got out google lens to find out what it was, an American skunk cabbage. Very cabbage like leaves, but with a stamen and one large leavy petal like a calla lily. There were also some small white flowers, which we found out were woodland anemone. We walked along a road that ran adjacent to the loch, which must have been the old main road out of Tarbert. It eventually ended up at a tiny ferry port, which may still be in use, but only for small boats, and it almost looked dilapidated. We had a rest on the platform in the afternoon sun listening to the birds, including the cuckoo, which we have heard every day since arriving.
After retracing our steps back to Tarbert marina, we bought an ice cream at the Co-op and sat admiring the harbour. We had another freshen up and tonight decided to try out one of the local establishments for food. We sat in the sun filled window of Café Ca’Dora, which does evening food until 7pm, as well as lunchtime meals. It is nicely decorated with huge murals of boats on both end walls and boating paraphernalia hanging about the place. I had a fish stew, which was lovely with cod, mussels, prawns, calamari, as well as veg and potatoes, and a side of bread. I was stuffed! But not too much not to have a drink from The Corner House before resting our heads for the night.