This week in our early retirement adventures we found ourselves on the beautiful Isle of Mull off the Scottish west coast. We get a little taste of what it is like to live day to day in such an isolated and desolate place, we develop a newfound love for wild swimming and start to see some progress in purchasing our dream home in the Yorkshire Dales.
Island adventures
Departing for any Scottish island is a special feeling…a feeling of setting off for a truly wild place and a place of adventure. We immediately knew that we had made the right decision to head to an island when we arrived in Oban and smelt the fresh sea air.
Small Scottish ferry ports have an almost pioneering feel as the relatively tiny ferries come and go to service the isolated island communities. As we boarded the ferry, it was in sharp contrast to a week ago when we were on a cross channel ferry coming home from our alpine adventure. It is fair to say, apart from them both being boats, the experience was like chalk and cheese.
Don’t forget to keep following our travel specific blogs here which have much more details and images of what we have been getting up to on our adventures. We have also started to document our latest travels here on YouTube if you are interested in our child like efforts at film making!
No such thing as bad weather
This week we have had all the weathers, and all the weathers in one day…or indeed one hour. It is too easy to be put off by a poor forecast or a spell of rain and we very nearly got sucked into that negativity, worrying about the long range forecast for the week. In reality, if it rains we put on a coat. If it hoses it down, we stay inside and do something else like read…or drink! When it is chucking it down, rest assured that the blue skies will come again. Likewise, when the sun is shining and the skies are clear, rest assured the rain will come again. This is very much like life and I think that the weather has a lesson for us here to do with our mindset on life. We cannot have the joy of rainbows without the rain!
The humbling effects of a storm
As I type this, we have just emerged from a 24 hour storm on the island, and what a storm it was! Ferries were cancelled, the power and water was off across the island and we were pretty much van bound for 24 hour as the storm buffeted the island. It was actually a great experience that made us really grateful for the simple things that we have got in our everyday lives such as water and power. However, I will definitely not miss having to decide when to venture out and get soaked to the skin just because I needed a pee!
How dependant are we on digital communication?
We knew that island life was going to be a challenge digitally, but it is really clear that our increasing reliance on digital communication can cause some real issues if the network is sketchy. We have found ourselves picking up emails for our house purchase anytime we have sporadic signal. We paid a last minute bill whilst we had a whiff of 4G signal on a deserted beach on Iona. We drove for miles scanning for signal so that we could speak to our son on his birthday.
It has made it really clear to us that we must not take our digital provision for granted- because when it lets us down, we realise just how dependant we are on it for the simplest communication. At the point of writing, the entire island of Mull has had no internet for 48 hours due to a network fault- we must count ourselves lucky for what we have on the mainland.
Cold water swimming
Jackie and I have never really been ones for cold water adventures, always preferring the comfort of a wetsuit or simply choosing not getting in! However this week have put ourselves outside our comfort zones by doing a bit of wild swimming in some amazing locations. Getting in is always a challenge, but the long lasting feeling of euphoria is definitely something that we could get used to. After the initial shock, it is so exhilarating, although we are still struggling with the odd looks we get from passers bye when taking a dip. Perhaps they are just jealous of my budgies!?!
House purchase update
In our absence from home (wherever that currently is?), the two solicitors seem to have been getting on with things this week, with lots of correspondence flitting between the two parties. We finally feel that we are getting somewhere and our purchase may finally have an end in sight. We may come to regret this confidence, but it definitely feels like we are getting closer to owning our dream Dales cottage.
It's been a fantastic week, making us truly grateful for the simple things in our lives. We look forward to getting a bit closer to our dream house purchase next week.
Have a brilliant week,
Richard and Jackie
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