Honeymoon Roadtrip to Mull

[Turboseven412]

Mull is a wonderful place. I spent a couple of seasons there working in Macgochans and had great fun exploring the island on my motorbike on my very rare days off.

[Old Dave]

I meant to say Congratulations Rupert to you and your better-half. I wish you a long and happy marriage.

Dave

[RupertW]

Day 4: Glengorm Castle and Tobermory

This day didn't involve a huge amount of driving and instead we did a bit more around Tobermory. We headed up to Glengorm Castle first where we had a coffee and met some friendly cows:
   
   

We then headed into Tobermory for some lunch and parked outside the Mishnish which is a fantastic pub. We ate seaford almost every meal in various places and it was consistently excellent, and I'm certainly missing it now. In the afternoon we walked up to the Tobermory lighthouse.
   
   

By now the gearbox was starting to be a bit tricky and was struggling to select gears when stationary as if the clutch wasn't disengaging, even though I'm fairly sure it was. I still haven't had a chance to investigate what's going on here.

[Ruairidh Dunford]

Wonderful photos, Rupert.

Nice to read that you also enjoy seafood.

[RupertW]

Day 5: Tobermory - Oban - Ardanaiseig - 43 miles

We had a relatively early start to this day to get the ferry back to the mainland, and of course the car chose a relatively time critical point of the trip to have a breakdown. I'd noticed the idle was gradually getting higher, before the car seemed to lose almost all power and I coasted to a stop at the side of the road. 
   

The problem was quickly revealed to be that the nut holding the throttle linkage to the carb had made a bid for freedom and the entire linkage had come adrift. I was able to quickly bodge it back together using some stiff wire, not entirely satisfactorily, but enough to get us to the ferry on time.
   
   

After an uneventful ferry back to the mainland, accompanied by the noise of dozens of car alarms we made it back to Oban. We took a scenic route out of Oban where we took for the opportunity to pull over for a bite to eat and to try and make a slightly better repair of the throttle linkage. This road out of Oban follows the railway line and is a lovely alternative to the main road.
   
   
   
   

A short while later we made it back to Ardanaiseig where we'd stayed earlier in the week, with the car increasingly graunching over the undulating roads, and once again covered the car up for the night.
   

[Peter Naulls]

What a delightful little road and a lovely looking hotel. I'm glad you made the ferry ok; I now carry a little pot of assorted nuts and bolts for just such mishaps.

[Andy Bennett]

I am loving the story and the pictures.

[RupertW]

Day 5: Ardanaiseig to Aberfoyle - 80 miles

The final installment of the trip and one of the longer, if fairly uneventful sections of the trip. We had a relaxed start for the final stint and the car started happily and ran nicely all the way back, albeit with some concerning transmission noise that requires further investigation. One final picture from that day: 
   

I didn't brave driving the car all the way back to the South-West so it was another long day of trailering back the next day. In all we covered about 300 miles in the Austin without any major dramas, although there's some bits that now need my attention. 

Hopefully it's a bit of encouragement for people to get out there and take their cars a bit further afield. It's rare that something can't be bodged by the side of the road, and these cars will often still get you home with an awful lot wrong with them.

[Chris KC]

"Hopefully it's a bit of encouragement for people to get out there and take their cars a bit further afield. It's rare that something can't be bodged by the side of the road, and these cars will often still get you home with an awful lot wrong with them."

I quite agree Rupert, although if I were you I would investigate that transmission noise before going too much further. I did once ignore an increasingly loud back axle (there was snow on the ground); and managed to coast down to Dad's back gate - I'd driven 249.5 out of 250 miles - when it finally packed up... nobody is that lucky twice!

[Old Dave]

Thank you once again Rupert for a great road trip report. The photos bring back many memories. Love the photo of the Heilan coo. Glad you made the ferry and back to Aberfoyle. My son still has a stuffed frog we bought him as a baby in the visitor centre at Aberfoyle in 1978, which hadn't then been opened long then I think. He is now 47.

All the very best for the future to you both.