We drive to the wildlife sanctuary and saw the thousands of Barnacle Geese who have come down from Iceland. Never have seen that many birds at once. Was quite the experience to hear them and see them take off when startled...there is a Golden Eagle that likes to dive into them and Jeff and James saw him startle he geese a few times but I didn't catch it. We walked out to a hide closer to the Loch they were all on, and the hide overlooked a cow pasture and the cows came straight up to the windows of the hide. It was super fun and relaxing. Beautiful skies and weather again! Drove through the countryside, seeing the other side of the Island, toward the Atlantic. Gorgeous blue ocean, ended up near a sandy beach! Grabbed some lunch from a distillery's cafe and picnicked beside the water. Gorgeous. Then I got a chance to drive so the guys could enjoy their Scotch freely. Easier on the small one lane roads, eased into it before we made into some bigger towns, but it is really quite easy on this island. Never-ending stunning views ... Learning a lot about the scotch whiskies, finding several new favorites. At Bruichladdich Distillery, Jeff decided on a type of Scotch to get, and he got to fill his own bottle straight from the cask! So exciting. Then we stopped by the Islay Woolen Mill, the smallest textile mill in all of Britain. We met the owner, and he showed us around, from his old spinning machines, to the weavers. He makes all the wool tartans for the distilleries on the island (they each have their own) and has made wool items for 17 movies, including Braveheart. I found my wool blanket! He grabbed it from upstairs and stuck a label on just for us. Now enjoying our last evening on Islay, before our 4 hour ferry journey to Oban and drive up to Isle of Skye tomorrow. I left out details of some of the other distilleries we have gone to, because we officially hit all 8 on the island in these 2 days! Big check off Jeff's bucket list.
ok, I was drooling a bit when you talked about visiting the woolen mill and your blanket! Fabulous!! Amazing you got to see the geese that had come down from Iceland. What great timing! And you even drove over there, what an experience. Glad Jeff is fulfilling the bucket check list. You have really had great weather this whole trip!
ReplyDelete