On Monday, Dad and I sailed on the paddle steamer Waverley on her annual cruise from Oban to the island of Iona, where St. Columba set up his monastery in the 7th Century - the first such Christian place in Great Britain, said to have been chosen because on a clear day he could see Ireland.

Waverley approaches oban
The cruise took us out the "back entrance" from Oban harbour, down Kerrera sound and across Lower Loch Linhe to cruise off from the sheer cliffs and barren
beauty of the Isle of Mull

Southern coast of Mull
The atmosphere is really difficult to capture in photographs; it looks great when there, but reviewing pictures they look less like landscapes and more line linescapes - thus my letter box format. And then you have the boat bobbing about like a cork on a pond, and if you're in the cabin the windows are splishsplashed with salty water.

Mull from Waverley's bar
Iona was ... beautiful as ever; looked so serene across the bay. A huge shame that having travelled all that way, it was decided that there was too much swell to transfer us safely to tenders to get us ashore, so here's the best view I got:

Iona from Waverley
And we turned and headed back. The crew, bless them, tried to make up for the disappointment - took us closer in to the coast of Mull so that we could get some better pictures ...

Photographing Mull
... and then they carried on past Lady's Rock on the southern tip of Lismore and its lighthouse ...

Lady's Rock
... and past Duart Castle on the Easterly corner of Mull ...

Duart Castle
... then up the rarely-navigated (by passenger ship) channel to the West of Lismore seeing the Glensanda quarries that causes a huge stink when they were first proposed for this lovely spot ..

Glensanda Quarry
... until in the distance we could just make out through the rain and squall the shape of Ben Nevis, snowcapped still even on 1st May.

Ben Nevis, capped in snow, through the rain
Our thanks to the crew of "Waverley" - now the last seagoing paddle steamer operational in the world - for a magnificent day out. She'll be operating around the UK coast right through to October this year - why not visit the Waverley Web Site and see if she's going to be near you!
(written 2006-05-03, updated 2006-05-07)

 Z202 - Just Pictures
  [3562] Christmas Day - for unique pictures - (2011-12-26)
  [3473] Picture - Havant Station at Dusk - (2011-10-11)
  [3356] Holiday patterns - just the art, not the content - (2011-07-13)
  [3350] A set of pictures without point - (2011-07-08)
  [3289] New Camera - very first picture, and next from first films - (2011-05-14)
  [3241] Spring in the countryside near Melksham - (2011-04-10)
  [3220] Panasonic Lumix TZ20 - (2011-03-28)
  [3195] Sunny day - Clanger and Picket Woods, Shearwater, and Westbury - (2011-03-06)
  [3101] The week before Christmas - (2010-12-23)
  [3096] Contrast in pictures - (2010-12-20)
  [2989] Oddballs in Plymouth - (2010-10-08)
  [2914] Older picture. - (2010-08-10)
  [2888] Recent Pictures - (2010-07-27)
  [2819] Some more pictures ... - (2010-06-19)
  [2767] Back from a Python course in Glasgow - (2010-05-16)
  [2760] Views of Scotland - (2010-05-11)
  [2756] Same subject - different pictures - (2010-05-09)
  [2677] Blowing out the winter cobwebs - (2010-03-14)
  [2611] Sunday Evening, City of London - (2010-01-31)
  [2582] Starting to arrange the picture library - (2010-01-16)
  [2553] On a short walk from home - (2009-12-27)
  [2549] Christmas Day ... - (2009-12-25)
  [2518] Through the arches - (2009-11-29)
  [2464] Beauty in pictures - (2009-10-20)
  [2412] Autumn Fruits and Bristol Old Station - (2009-09-20)
  [2404] Low Sun - Autumn is here - (2009-09-13)
  [2298] Melksham Carnival Parade - the people - (2009-07-19)
  [2266] Travelling - (2009-07-02)
  [2202] Bright Colours - (2009-05-26)
  [2168] In honour of the photograph, I present ... a walk from Reybridge to Lacock - (2009-05-10)
  [2146] An evening excursion to Devizes and Avebury - (2009-04-30)
  [2140] Beware - giving copyright away when you upload a picture - Dogs Trust - (2009-04-25)
  [2121] Out in the Vale of Pewsey - (2009-04-07)
  [2101] A B C D of GA and TN - (2009-03-23)
  [2098] A room without a view - (2009-03-22)
  [2093] Leading Lines - (2009-03-20)
  [2034] Through Snow and Flood to Linux and Tomcat - (2009-02-10)
  [2006] Contrast - (2009-01-23)
  [1986] Walk to Bowerhill - (2009-01-10)
  [1981] Bitter cold - (2009-01-07)
  [1931] Frosty Morning, foggy evening - (2008-12-08)
  [1919] Transition - (2008-12-03)
  [1854] Three Seasonal Pictures - (2008-10-25)
  [1838] Oxford in Pictures - (2008-10-13)
  [1818] Icelandic Badge - (2008-10-01)
  [1770] 3 hours from Milton Keynes - (2008-08-24)
  [1740] Vertical London - (2008-08-06)
  [1620] Norwich and London - (2008-04-23)
  [1546] The geometry of East London - (2008-02-19)
  [1489] Pictures of December - (2007-12-30)
  [1400] Dark Dawn - (2007-10-22)
  [1398] Someone else's wedding - (2007-10-21)
  [1392] Autumnal lighting on a London trip - (2007-10-15)
  [1234] A review of a week and a trip to Brugge - (2007-06-16)
  [1233] Horses of Brugge - (2007-06-15)
  [1216] Five of the best - pictures from London - (2007-06-03)
  [1172] May day 2007 in pictures - (2007-05-02)
  [1162] Cheddleton, Staffordshire - (2007-04-26)
  [1152] Course, right place, right time - (2007-04-17)
  [1099] Passenger flows - (2007-03-04)
  [1064] Light and shadows at Beach - (2007-02-04)
  [1005] Stirling at night - (2006-12-23)
  [958] Plain Ole nice pictures - (2006-11-30)
  [870] Autumn comes to Wiltshire. - (2006-09-17)
  [786] First Light, Bootle Docks, Liverpool - (2006-06-29)
  [772] Training in Liverpool - (2006-06-21)
  [713] Pictures from my travels - (2006-05-07)
  [625] February pictures - (2006-02-26)
  [557] A new sign - (2006-01-07)
  [548] San Francisco - (2005-12-30)
  [416] Mixing up swallows and martins - (2005-08-16)
  [412] Bristol Balloon Festival - (2005-08-13)
  [365] Letterbox Pictures - (2005-07-01)
  [360] Spring turns to Summer - (2005-06-26)
  [298] Sharing pictures of Wiltshire - (2005-05-02)

Z521 - Navigable waterways - Canals, Rivers and Sea
  [3483] Canals, watererways in the Melksham area - (2011-10-16)
  [3482] Taking a boat down Caen Hill Locks - (2011-10-15)
  [3345] Cruising - (2011-07-04)
  [3282] The future of canal management and charities - Kennet and Avon Canal bias - (2011-05-08)
  [3266] Easter on the Canal - near Melksham, Wiltshire - (2011-04-26)
  [3183] Redevelopment on the banks of the Avon in Melksham - (2011-02-25)
  [3157] A new monopoly on the ferry to Northern Ireland - (2011-02-04)
  [3023] Autumn walk from Bowerhill - (2010-10-31)
  [2950] Camilla, Duchess of Cornwall, turns first sod in Melksham Link Canal - (2010-09-09)
  [2807] Canal through Melksham - the options and issues - (2010-06-13)
  [2796] Sunday - waiting for the ferry. - (2010-06-06)
  [2730] Bird Watching on the Melksham Avon - (2010-04-18)
  [2588] Freddies Wood and the K and A Canal - (2010-01-17)
  [1657] Farewell, Newcastle to Stavanger, Haugsund and Bergen - (2008-05-29)
  [820] Robert and William Whitworth - (2006-08-01)
  [793] The Wilts and Berks Canal - (2006-07-05)
  [776] Naming Rooms - (2006-06-24)
  [598] Should we cruise around the world? - (2006-02-09)

Back to A story of goldfish

Previous and next or Horse's mouth home

Forward to Handling huge data files in PHP

Why reinvent the wheel
THE home directory or MY home directory
Linux training Glasgow, Python programming course Dundee
Handling huge data files in PHP
Linescapes of Mull
A story of goldfish
May day away
Disc Partitioning
Erin Brent - rest in peace
Copying files and preserving ownership