Day Tripper

Today I remembered yet another reason I am pleased as punch to be back in Glasgow, CalMac ferries. Or rather, the ease with which you can get the train to the seaside (Rail and Sail, people!) and hop on a spiffy Caledonian Macbrae ferry and be on a lovely wee island in the space of 90 minutes.

I wanted to do something with today. I picked up my keys and signed my contract to my new flat yesterday, so I had all of today to go out and enjoy. I got up fairly early, and after a quick consultation with the CalMac timetable (which includes the times for connecting trains, by the way. It's like they actually talked to the other companies, who'd have thought!) I knew I could either get to Arran or Bute without too much difficulty. I headed down to Central Station and the next train that was going was the Wemyss Bay service, so Bute it was.

The train station and ferry port are linked by a lovely long curved connecting tunnel, and you just rock up, grab a ticket and hop on the boat.

Soon enough lots of things started beeping and we headed off into the absolutely mill-pond calm Clyde estuary.

Apparently Scotland had taken a day trip of its own, down to the Adriatic. It was roasting! It clouded over later on, but it just meant that it was a little bit cooler and a lovely temperature for walking around the gardens of a stately home here.

Rothesay is totally adorable, there was a fantastic mixture of people milling about on the quay. Cyclists, bikers, elderly American tourists, and everyone was in a really good mood and chatting about how sunny it was.

Because it was all a bit spur of the moment, I had absolutely no idea what there is to do on Bute. There was a poster on the ferry for a Mount Stuart House, and fortuitously there was a bus at the terminal which said it was going to Mount Stuart, so I hopped on and found myself in the grounds of a stately home, which had loads of walks going round the grounds.

I did the Shore Walk (and then some bits of the other ones), which took me past this wee chapel.

And provided me with a lovely spot to sit and have my picnic.

Some glorious canopies of trees, for when it got really warm. Oh, the smell of green things growing under here was fantastic. It really smelled like summer should, all bosky and wild.

There were stretches of beach on which to practice the art of skimming stones. Believe me, I needed the practice!

And rivulets to stomp about in. I love my Gore-tex shoes, they're perfect for weather like this!

Later on, there were deer wandering the grounds. I either saw three, or the same deer three times. Regardless, between that and the seal having the time of its life by the ferry as we docked at Wemyss Bay, it was a good day for wildlife spotting.

I wasn't sure if we were going to have much luck with bluebells this year, thanks to the Winter That Wouldn't End, but they seemed to be doing ok. Lots of the woodland was absolutely awash with them, it was fantastic to see them at long bloody last.

Next time, Arran!