Ferry to Inverie

---

20th Jan 2022

Mallaig day 2

It’s strange getting used to not having any internet when you are used to constantly checking whether people have contacted you, how Bozo is messing up again, what evil things Priti racist Patel has done again etc. But little things like not having the temperature on your watch are weird to live without too. But that’s what you get when you have accommodation away from it all and it does allow to get plenty of reading done.

As with other English-speaking countries we’ve visited we spend a lot of time before and during our trip learning the local accent and lingo. Scotland has been no exception and there have been lots of och-ayes, seeing someone called Jimmy and excessive and elongated use of the word wee (as in small as well as sometimes urinating-which is a wee wee). Strangely the locals don’t seem to talk like that….which is odd….
Note: We don’t do this when people can hear us. Even I’m not that stupid……

Anyway, back to today.

No, hang on, one more thing. What I also like about up here is that people are sensible about wearing masks rather not giving two hoots about anyone else. It’s like they’re considerate of others rather than thinking they’re being oppressed like lots of the dumb and dumbers down south. I think I’ve only seen one person in a shop without a mask so let’s take it that she was medically exempt……or she was English….. No wonder the cases and deaths have been so much lower in Scotland than England.

Right, seriously now, back to today.

We had been looking at taking a ferry to one of the Small Islands as I’m sure you recall but booked ourselves on a ferry today to, well, Scotland. Inverie is on the mainland but there is no road that runs to it so, unless you take a very long walk, everything gets there by boat. Including us.

We booked ourselves on a ferry for tomorrow (more on that tomorrow of course) before jumping on the wrong boat. We jumped off the wrong boat and waited for the right boat which arrived shortly after and soon we were heading out on the right boat across the sea from Scotland on our way to Scotland. The journey was a bit chilly but, as it was only 30 minutes or so, was easily manageable. I mean, we could have sat inside but, meh.

On arrival at Inverie we were met by marching bands, a red carpet and the King of Inverie came to meet us to invite us to a royal ball at his grand lodge. Or there was a smattering of people and a dog. I’ll let you decide which.

People do live in Inverie and have cars to get around what is a pretty small but spread out place. Some houses are quite a way away from any others that you have to be pretty confident in your solitude to live there. First you live somewhere only a boat can reach and then you build a house a mile away from anyone else. Sounds tempting doesn’t it?

But then, what do you do when you want a night out? There’s one pub, billed as the remotest pub in Britain (closed today), one shop, no cinema, definitely no gigs beyond some crappy covers band occasionally in the pub and probably crap internet. Later at the port we saw parcels and post being loaded and uploaded from the ferry including some Amazon parcels but I bet they don’t do free next-day delivery here!

We chose to do the Knoydart in a nutshell walk although we still have no idea why it’s Knoydart and not Inverie but hey. We set off up a steep hill, so some things are very normal here, and got some great views from up above. We found a car that looked like it was being eaten away or had been bitten by a T-Rex but it was probably just rust. Later we found an old Singer sewing machine just sitting on a tree stump in the middle of the woods. Strange.

The walk took us to a campsite (closed) where we used the compost toilet and then sat and had some lunch overlooking the sea and beach with snow-capped mountains behind us. Most convivial. And hey, look at us, bringing food AND drink on a day out….although if the ferry office lady hadn’t mentioned it…..maybe we wouldn’t…..

We continued our walk up a river side and then into a private estate where there was an old cemetery. Claire did some slow shutter speed shots on the river while I did a bit of reading and taking some award-winning photos. The water was crystal-clear and a wee bit different from the canal behind our house where a couple of weeks ago I spotted a large bra floating by.

It was getting towards time to head back for the return ferry but Claire managed to drag me along another hiking trail as she said I was very fat and lazy (No I did not say that, it was just a better route - Claire). It’s a harsh regime but probably for my own good. Earlier on she’d been trying to make me wear a hat!

Considering there aren’t many roads people seem to do a lot of driving very short distances which does seem a tad lazy. And I’m still not sure where they get their fuel from…. It was a great place to visit though and we both agreed we’d had a good day. The ferry back was a tad warmer (and yes we sat outside again) and we were soon back in Mallaig.

We nipped into the Co-op to buy some toilet paper, bought a few things and then headed back to our accommodation. When we were nearly home I felt some bowel rumblings (how polite is that Mum!) which is when we realised we’d forgotten…..the toilet paper. So back we went and then we could finally get back and settle in for the evening in The Wee Lodge.

---