I'm Leaving On a Jet Plane: 3rd day on Mull

I'm really behind on my posts now haha but I'll try and make haste.

The next morning we set off to the next part of the island with a mix of bird watching as well. Sandra cooked up breakfast before we headed off. Her home cooking is good even though she jokes about using packaged and processed food for convenience in their tiny RV. As an American, I quite like processed things anyways haha. I can only imagine her cooking with fresh ingredients. Nom nom nom.

On the post, hooded crows.

The late morning scene

The bird in the distance is called a diver which literally dives into the water to catch fish. I had the pleasure of seeing one actually come up with one. These are somewhat uncommon to see.

This little area we stopped on and off whenever they saw a bird haha

A harren, Roy and Sandra talks about its bony and prehistoric look.

It's signature stance.

We kept going along looking for a sea eagle and some other birds on their list. We came across beautiful views as usual.

So as long as the roads were clear, Roy was nice enough to stop for me to snap my pictures everytime I pulled out my camera haha.

We pulled off along the road where some other people were with their cameras and binoculars out. They were also looking for the sea eagle and heard it was sometimes around here.

View behind. There were particular birds who nest along this side of the island on the cliffs. I forget what they are called but Roy and Sandra were interested in showing me. I managed to get a glimpse of one in the distance but not in a photo.

We managed to spot a sea eagle in the far distance across the loch. There were a bunch of seagulls around which made it harder to spot but once you catch it with the telescope or binoculars its hard to miss. It's a very big bird compared to the gulls even at a further distance up in the air. The picture above only has seagulls in it. It was too far for my camera to catch.

A little bird was hopping around and I asked Sandra what it was. She was excited to say it was a Wheatear which are a bit uncommon as well.

We "walked on" as Roy always said to find a place to stop for tea/coffee or 11sies which is a small break for tea and biscuits.

We pulled over again because we spotted these Shags. Notice the bulbs on their heads haha.

We found our place for 11sies and if I remember correctly we had lunch as well since we were a bit behind on time. Although we really were in no rush for anything in particular at all.

This lake was behind the pictures I took above.

We went into a nearby town to empty the toilet in the RV as well as stock up on some running water. The town we went their bathrooms were unavailable so we had to drive to another town which was actually where I arrived from Oban called Craignure

Roy did what he needed to maintain the RV and Sandra went off to the charity shop. After Roy was done and I was done washing my head in the sink, we met up with Sandra and I was introduced to my first charity shop which is a shop where people donate to so the shop can sell the unwanted goods for profit towards a particular charity. Usually for the local community to better the town.

I realized my return ticket back to Oban expired that day because when we got there the ferry was just taking off so I mentioned about it but didn't want to leave yet without seeing the rest of the island. When Roy heard this he said we should talk to the ferry office so we did. Row being the smooth talker he was convinced the young women to extend my ticket by four days without even paying! Those young girls had no chance against Roy's and charisma haha.

As we were going back I was talking to Roy about whether or not he did any acting because he has a lot of charisma and character. He said he never did anything apart from a parent play for his kid's school when they were younger. He talked to me about it and of course he played in a comedic bit. It sounded like he really enjoyed reminiscing about it. I think if he considered it, he would have been a great actor.

We went back to our camping spot and I set up the tent before dinner. This night we had an English breakfast for dinner which is somewhat similar to a typical American breakfast. The only difference was baked beans rather than hashbrowns and instead of strips of bacon, it was a wider cut of bacon. then there was eggs, sausage and toast. Yum!

Ready for the night.

Setting sun

We chatted more and I was happy to say with the Iddons there was never a dull moment. We talked more about my ambitions and my perspective on American culture and compared that with their thoughts on English culture. For the most part, they are similar in various ways. I learned more about them and their family and a little more about their time growing up. (just saying, specifics are all muddled up between nights since I do not know if I talked about these things this night or the next. )

It was getting late and so I went out to my tent. Then... I realized as my eyes adjusted to the darkness a little the sky was filled with stars! I tried taking pictures but realized I needed a tripod. Luckily Roy and Sandra had a couple and I borrowed their bigger one and told them about the clear night.

I stayed up for a couple hours playing and learning more about my camera as well as learning how to take nice shots of a starry sky. Afterwards I just sat at the opening of my tent admiring the clear night. To my pleasure, the longer I starred at the night sky, The more stars I saw. It was an amazing way to end the night.

Right from the opening of my tent. You can see the entire Orion constellation on the left and on the right was a strange cluster of stars. I remember seeing the clusters in San Francisco with my friends Colin and Bryan at Big sur and they referred to it as a cluster fuck which I mentally referred to it as as well.

Took a few attempts but I managed to get myself in a shot. The light in the distance was a house with brighter lights than the others. I liked the effect it had in the picture though almost resembling a sunset. It almost looks like a fire in the distance as well.