29th Final day for some.

The wind and rain arrived some time in the night. I awoke to a truly disgusting, Argyll, kind of day with continuous heavy rain and wind with strong gusts.  There was nothing much to be done but Graham and Sue were soon up too and we had a cup of tea. I wondered about going out for breakfast but it was so disgusting that I thought it would be nicer to have it aboard. I went to the local bakery, armed with the umbrella, and picked up a loaf of bread and some cinammon buns. By 0930 I was wanting to get on with breakfast so made the coffee and we alerted Colin and Christine that breakfast was available if wished for and soon there were 5 of us sitting around the table, rain pelting down outside with the boat heeling over in the gusts. After breakfast Graham pronounced the rain finishing at 1200. We sat about, variously reading or footling on our ipads / telephones for some time. Graham clarified that there were no guarantees with the. 1200 deadline but by about 1230 we were all a bit fed up and a walk seemed a good idea. The rain wasn’t as heavy as it had been and the wind, though still strong wasn’t as gusty. We went across the lock and up the 318 steps to the top of the ‘mountain’ (as described on the local signboards) and admired the view from the lookout. We took a different muddier path back down again and by the time we were back at the canalside it was about lunch time which we’d decided to have out. We wandered around the town and eventually settled on a place one street back from the canal which did a choice of buffet or a la carte, the buffet seemed a good choice and we all helped ourselves to large portions of pork in creamy cheese  sauce, meatballs in yellow sauce, potatoes, salad, chicken in garlicy sauce and other bits and pieces.  It was an all you can manage sort of affair so the boys all had two plates full and by the time we’d finished it wasn’t far off time to go back to the boat for final faffing and taking luggage to the bus stop.

We arrived, as recommended, at the bus stop 20 minutes early and the bus was 5 minutes late but eventually pulled up, a double decker coach type thing with a driver armed with a tablet who, having checked Sue’s booking allocated seats and Sue, Graham, Colin and Christine all, after a final fare well, boarded and were soon on their way.

I had taken a shopping bag with me to replenish tonic water which had mysteriously been disappearing. I also hoped to find a couple of new connections for my shore power cable as mine has suffered a bit from the sea air and may not survive many more  joules. I found a hardware store, slightly out of town but they only had complete cables and, being Scots, I was too mean to buy the cable which I already have.  I went to the biggest of the available supermarkets and bought some tonic, including some called - ‘Just Tonic, No Bullshit’ as well as some other bits and pieces.

Back on the boat I booked a slot for the washing machines in the morning and had a quiet evening testing the tonic water and skipping dinner having had too much lunch.

At the view point