From Islay To The Lakes

Day 4. 19^th August Wednesday.
Rain on the bedroom window wakes me this morning. While drinking a wakeup coffee, Breakfast Telly informs me the day is going to be damp and wet. So no change there! The Lagavulin distillery is our first destination of the day.The rain has lightens a little. We’re welcomed in the distillery tasting room at the visitor’s center to taste their amber nectar. Samples downed we carry on to Ardbeg once more. Nancy wants to buy a blanket woven from highland wool. They are actually cheaper here. We have lunch in their excellent Café before back tracking across the island to the Islands ale brewing plant. There are several craft studios on the site as well that we wandered around. The whole site was a little run down with no on site tea shop. We’re all quite surprised about the lack of facilities for tourism and missed opportunities for the Islanders considering all the Whiskey and Birding tourist that arrive on the Island every year.

We carry on our tour buy driving to the north of the Island to Port Askaig and on to the Caol Ila distillery. The rain is still coming down so we decide on an early evening meal at Duffies in Bowmore where we had eaten an excellent meal before.

Day 5 Thursday August 20^th
It’s a wet rainy start to the day. We pack and leave the Bungalow and Hotel, and head for the ferry through some flooded roads.

The ferry crossing was uneventful and we began the journey back to Glasgow through the wet narrow windy roads. Road works with traffic lights slowed us at times so we stopped at a lovely old pub called The George in Invernary for a delicious meal. More slow moving road works through Glasgow slowed us once more. Once through these the road was clear and fast until we reached the north area of the Lake District. The narrow windy roads through the Lakes have to be taken at a sensible pace. ‘Mr Tom’ guided us to the Guest House where we thankfully unloaded rather travel weary. Just around the corner from our Guest House is a lovely welcoming restaurant called 'Lazy Daisy'. The food here is just wonderful. It's only been open a year and has done well from day one so it must be good.