Hi folks,
Today is the 25th of May and I am delighted to tell you that we have safely arrived to Islay to attend the Feis Ile 2018!
It took us 3 days to arrive here and in total we have made almost 2350 km of driving!
We are camping again this year, so had to spend some time on preparing our caravan for the long travel. We had our electric hook already booked on Islay (we are staying in Port Mor Camping site) and we booked it one year in advance - on the last day of Feis Ile 2017 to be sure that it is reserved.
So yes, caravan - were checked and prepared for this long trip! as it is a vintage model of Eriba, we were lucky to find it almost new with only 5000 km done. They are not produced anymore and ours is almost 31 year old!! can you imagine? =) lol!
Anyway it is in perfect condition (I did not believe even when I saw it for the first time). And it was all ready and packed.
This year we have started our journey from France and here are the checkpoints:
Bordeaux - Paris - Calais - Dover - London - Hyde - Glasgow - Campbeltown - Kennacraig - Islay
We left much in advance not to be in a rush on road, as our little snail goes max 120 km (average is 100).
Our ferry from France to UK left from Calais port on the 17th of May, in the evening. It took 1 hour and half to swim to Dover and, tada, Welcome to UK!
When we arrived to Dover we had to drive till Hyde as we were picking up the small glass bottles from the production plant over there. It is important to have little bottles like that if you are coming to the Festival - to collect your drams. I use the transparent glass bottles and aluminium screws on.
As soon as we picked up this glass treasure we headed to Glasgow to make a stop over there in a shop called Good Spirits Co - I had to pick up a bottle of whisky from there as I bought Vega 40 YO by the North Star Spirits there. I usually do not make advertising, but I love this shop very much for their individual approach to every customer. Honest politics and excellent service.
As I told you previously you can go easily go wild camping in Scotland but we decided to sleep at camping site not far away from Glasgow. It was a quick choice so not much to tell, really, as we slept and left early.
Much more interesting is the road from Glasgow to Kennacraig - it is the A82 that then changes to A83 road and, oh boy, what a views all the time!
The A83 is a very important through road in Scotland and connects the Central Belt, via the A82 from Glasgow, with the south west of Scotland all the way down to Campbeltown Kintyre.
It is a very scenic road, almost 100 miles long, and it brings you through some of the most beautiful countryside Scotland has to offer.
One of the great places to stop is the «Rest and Be Thankful» view point. Rest and be thankful are the words inscribed on a stone near the junction of the A83 and the B828, placed there by soldiers who built the original military road in 1753, now referred to as the Drovers’ road. The original stone fell into ruin and was replaced by a commemorative stone at the same site.
Of course I could not miss the opportunity to make a great picture for my freshly obtained Vega with a such magnificent view as backgroud.
This is very windy there, ha, like everywhere in Scotland I think, but views are stunning.
After a quick stop we continued the road as we wanted to visit Campbeltown before we take our Ferry to Islay.
Campbeltown met us with a cloudy weather and cold wind.
Campbeltown was founded in 1609 by Archibald Campbell and pretty soon the city and its areas was full of illicit whisky productions plants. It is a blessed place for whisky making - fresh water, barley, peat and coal - and all of that in abundance. Up to 1811 the number of that home made whisky plants were more than 60 in the area.
The situation changed when in 1822 the new law passed, thus many of the existing home productions were able to take licences. This was a golden whisky era for Campbeltown - it counted more than 30 official distilleries in and around the city - Cambeltown became the Whisky Capital of the World in its direct meaning.
However, the difficult economic conditions in the 1920s made only 3 distilleries to survive - Springbank, Glen Scotia and Glengyle.
Some Springbank pictures:
Welcome to one of the most famous whisky shops in the world, guys:
A huge choice of whisky inside - I mean it!
and more here
and here:
What is great you can taste some drams and if you like it - just pure yourself a bottle! Amazing!
We cannot stay longer in Campbeltown as we had our ferry to Islay ahead.
Ferry to Islay is a comfy and cosy one. You can go out and enjoy the views too. The trip is quick and really nice. We arrived safely on Islay and headed to Port Mor - the camping site not far away from Port Charlotte where we gonna stop for the whole week.
We have visited already Scotch Malt Whisky Society open day today and I will show you tomorrow how it was!
We have an open day for Lagavulin tomorrow, so I need to prepare!
Thanks for reading, feel free to ask what you wanna see and ask questions - we love questions here!
Cheers guys! and take care!