Day 3: East Mull.
Distance: 17.5 miles (45.7 total).
Duration: 6 hrs 3 mins.
Lowest Temp: 3ºc
Weather: Wet-grey followed by blue-grey.
Highest Alt: 732 ft.
Traditions begin when we do something at least twice, and on the third day of this pilgrimage some traditions are developing: when I reach the halfway point of a leg I give a rousing rendition of ‘Praise God from Whom all blessings flow’, and I set off on each leg praying the rosary. This morning as I left Loch na Keal and headed east into Glen More with mountains towering through the rain all around me, the words ‘I believe in God’ burst from me as the joyful acclamation they always should be rather than the limp recitation they so often can be.
Given that this blog is about a walk I feel deeply sorry that I just can’t describe the landscapes I’m walking through. It’s not that I don’t have the words to describe the heights and shapes and textures and colours, all ever-shifting with the ever-shifting skies, it’s that I have too many words; and even after I’d spent every word I could summon, the sentence I would have to offer you would be such a pale shallow thing compared to the truth that is the land.
Quite a few people have been asking me whether or not this is a sponsored walk. It isn’t. Perhaps it should be, but I just wanted the pilgrimage to be an end in itself; it’s hard to explain, and I hope you’ll forgive me if you think I’m being self-indulgent. However, if you want to, there’s nothing to stop you making this a sponsored walk. So, if when I get to Lindisfarne you want to make a donation to a charity of your choice, why not do that?
Those of you who’ve been following this for a while may recall that I’d planned to do all sorts of research before I headed off, so that I could entertain and educate you with wonderfully interesting facts about the places I was passing through. That didn’t happen, so perhaps you could do a bit of research leg by leg and post some useful comments. Tomorrow we’re heading south from Oban to Arduaine – what can you tell me about that.
Good afternoon old boy please find information below about Arduaine Garden might be worth popping in but i am not sure if it’s the right season:
ReplyDeleteArduaine Garden is a place of peace on a wild shore, a plantsman's paradise perched on the windswept Argyll coast of the Sound of Jura, in the Western Highlands of Scotland. The name Arduaine is a Gaelic one - An Aird Uaine - meaning the green point or promontory, and has come to be generally pronounced as Ar-doo-a-nie, although Gaelic scholars (like myself) regularly disagree! Arduaine's originator pronounced it simply Ar-duan.
James Arthur Campbell 'turned the first sod of the garden in August 1895', according to his journal (James is nearly as old as you!!).
I never received your itinerary?? the sad news i am in the fracture boot for 5 weeks so walking is out of the realms of even possibility. You trip so far looks great, I am sure the views are spectacular. Good luck and keep us informed.
Oliver R
Great to hear from you. Hope your leg heals up soon. But no, James is not nearly as old as me, and that's a silly thing to say.
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