op pad na mull

It was late afternoon when at last we had done the last crossing, and it was wonderful to be standing on Mull soil at last. The small roll on roll off pier of Fishnish was not far from Craignure, and after a lovely drive on a small forrestry road, we saw the Caledonian-macBrayne ferry from Oban, busy spitting out its passengers and their cars and bicycles in a long continious line.
We stopped for a coffee before we took the road to Salen where we had to turn away on the Gruline  road, then we had to pass the Mausoleum of Major General Lachlan Macquarie, who was born in 1761 on Ulva, of plain farming stock, but who rose to be also Governer-General of New South Wales between 1809 and 1820. He is still remembered as the father of Australia, and until recently the Mausoleum was maintained by the Government of New South Wales, but it is now done by the Scottish Ministry of works. After some anxious moments when we got a bitty lost, we were at last on the little dark road that ran all along the shores of loch Na Keal , with  huge cliffs hanging dangerously over us, and a huge drop that scared the poor Liz, and of course self, with the grey waters of Loch Na Keal glimmering eerily in the last light before darkness would fall!. It was beautiful, and wild, and poor Liz, who likes her glass of red at five was trembling like a jelly, both from stress driving on the small road, and from her need for her five o'clock snozzle.
After a while the cliffs suddenly made way for a much calmer kind of landscape, where the road was much closer to the loch, almost on the same level, and we both relaxed when a few scattered houses suddenly appeared. After that it was easy going, and soon after we caught a glimpse of Staffa Cottage, which would be our home for ten days!
The wee house was a very old stone cottage that was revamped, but it had only one bedroom, with steep stairs leading up to the loft, which was made into a second bedroom. The roof of this loft room was quite low, and standing up straight impossible, but there were two very comfy mattresses on the floor, with enough storing space for clothes and stuff.
As Liz had the two dogs who slept with her in her bed, it fell on me to take the loft room, as it would have been a botheration to try and get the two dogs up the steep steps. But the view from the top was absolutely beautiful, as I found on waking the next morning, as I could see for miles across the loch.