The Purple Penguin

Well, for the last day I had booked a boat trip out to see the wildlife and Mull. I booked with Mara Mhor for a one day trip (Wildlife Safari) out to Mull and around the coast. So we we were up and out early to catch the boat for 9.30. We ended up being a bit early. The weather has been pretty nasty, so our first task was to decide with the other couple who were going whether or not we were even going out. Well, that was a non-starter, of course we were going out! And we decided to head along the coast and not bother with Mull.

We had some rough water, but it wasn’t too bad. We headed out to a salmon farm and saw the nets and salmon. We could hear the feed going through the pipes into the nets which was weird, and watch the salmon jump. It was interesting to see it up close. We then went around a seal island and saw several seals just lazing around. Though a couple decided to hit the water when the boat came up. Joe got some photos and then we headed off along the islands. Some wonderful scenery and good hot chocolate! During a particularly tricky bit with rough water we came across about three dolphins who started bow surfing. So we were all gathered at the front of the boat watching dolphins while our poor skipper had to navigate us through the rough water! Then off to an area of Jura where his mate had seen a sea eagle nest. We cruised slowly along when the other passenger suddenly started pointing – he’d spotted the eagle sitting up in a tree. So we drifted and watched the eagle, who had no intention of moving at all, sit in the tree. Beautiful.

Then we headed back to Oban. We had a wonderful time, saw loads of sea birds, and got lots of interesting stories. A very good trip.