Ah, January...

Not much to get excited about on the travel front in January. Time to make plans for the rest of the year, mind you.

I have one trip booked already. At the end of March I’m off to Eigg for a couple of nights. Eigg is one of the Small Isles in the Inner Hebrides, just south of Skye. Population 87.

Eigg

Yes, it’s almost 6 hours away from my home in Fife. Stage 1 is a 3.5 hour drive to Mallaig, Stage 2 is 1 hour 20 minutes on the Calmac ferry.

Gigha Ferry

Unfortunately that ferry leaves at 10:20 and it’s the only one. In fact it only operates 3 times per week in the winter. So my solution - faced with the alternative of leaving home about 6am and hoping for a problem free drive - is to stay the night before at Roy Bridge, close to Fort William. Then I can take the 8.30 train from Fort William to Mallaig (which connects with the ferry) and enjoy the scenery along the way.

I hope it’s all worth it!

I’ll have 2 nights in self catering on Eigg.

It’s all part of my recent urge to explore the west coast islands.

Mull at Dusk

I had first time visits to Mull, Iona, Staffa, Ulva, Gigha, Seil, Luing and Easdale in 2016.

Staffa

Tiree was the start of the quest in 2015. I loved it.

Tiree

My other possible project for 2017 is the Outer Hebrides. I can get the ferry from Oban to Barra, and then island hop north to Lewis. The way home could be Tarbert to Uig (on Skye) by ferry. Calmac does special deals for adventures like that, to cover all four of the ferries involved.
We’ll see - it will take a bit of planning and organisation, and it won’t be cheap. I reckon I’d need a minimum of 4 nights accommodation on top of about £150 for the ferries and £100 for a couple of tanks of diesel.

Queuing