The road to the isles, 27th June, moving on from Bute

On our last morning in Kilchattan we got up early and did those things you are supposed to do when leaving a holiday home: clearing the fridge, hoovering up the dog fur and packing the van. We left the place pretty unscathed apart from a light patch on a dark red carpet in our room. It must have been dyed from a lighter colour, as, when the damp dog slept on it, she got up the next day with pink fur and the colour of the carpet where she had lain was in turn rather paler. After that we ensured she slept on her blanket and hemmed it in with chairs so there was no escape.
After breakfast I took a picture of the little rabbit in the garden who had entertained us most mornings.

We took Rene for the 11.00am Rothesay ferry back to the mainland where she was meeting Alan's cousin who was driving her into Glasgow for the train. There was momentary panic and a short series of phone calls as she had got stuck in the lift on the ferry and was nearly returned to Rothesay.
We drove to the north of the island and caught a ferry across the Kyles of Bute between two nearly non existent places, Rhubadoch and Colintraive on the mainland. The sky was pretty moody although it was starting to brighten up a little.

On reaching the mainland we drove north around Loch Roddon where we stopped at a viewpoint down the loch. I have marked Colintraive in red on the map.

From here we drove round to Portavadia and caught another ferry to Tarbert, both marked in blue on the map. Using the ferries was not cheap but saved an awful lot of driving.

At this point we could have turned north and driven straight up to Oban and the Mull ferry, but being slightly contrary we thought we would cross the isthmus of the peninsula before driving up the west coast and then joining the main road further north.

But first we we had a look around Tarbert where some Vikings had landed and were just packing up their tents into their Norse van. 

Legend has it that the Vikings tricked the Scots out of ownership of the whole of the Kintyre peninsula. A Viking lord was told by the Scottish king that he could have all the land on the peninsula he could sail round. The Viking sailed around the coast and then dragged the boat across the peninsula thus acquiring ownership of it all.

Here was a handy place for lunch before continuing the journey ...