This morning we did some packing up and then headed over to the house for breakfast, taking bedding for the wash and returning a clothes rack we’d been borrowing to dry washing. Neil came in and said he’d feed the animals but we were ahead of schedule so while Ady took the hoover across to the byre (oh the look of bliss on his face ;)) I fed the chickens and ducks for the last time and then went up and over the hill armed with pig feed to say goodbye to the pigs too. Having brought so very little with us (we had one rucksack each and one large bag of clothes and we did like Joey on Friends and wore many, many layers on the boat over in the first place!) we were speedily packed up so Davies and Scarlett went out to play in the garden while Ady and I listened to Popmaster and spent lots of time looking at each other saying things like ‘shit, we’ve finished WWOOFing!’.
Neil took us over to the pier – we stopped at the Swap Shop for one last dash in – Davies had spotted a power ranger figure with one arm in there and then rather freakily found the arm up near the pigs field, so felt he should reunite the two and keep the restored toy, while Scarlett had been hankering after a pair of little owls she’d seen in there. They grabbed them and then Neil stopped at the school to collect Rosie the dog. All the school kids were outside playing at breaktime so Davies and Scarlett got out to say goodbye to them too. We drove off to a chorus of ‘Bye, Bye, Bye, Bye!’ from them all waving 🙂
At the pier Neil bought us a drink and we stood chatting with the locals, Ady gave Neil a crate of beers – the first time we’ve ever given a host a leaving gift I think? and then it was hugs all round and yet more promises to stay in touch before we got on the ferry.
A rather different experience this time as the proper big boat is back in service complete with several lounges, indoor and outdoor seating, cafe, TV screens and range of toilets. We got on the first boarding from Eigg which meant we went over to Muck, then back to Eigg, before on to Mallaig. Three hours in total. We spread out, had chips for lunch from the cafe, a lovely member of staff brought out a stack of kids dvds for D&S to choose from and stuck Matilda on one of the TVs for them. We all shared a tube of smarties and had tea and coffee and then I went back upstairs to read the kindle for the last hour while the others watched the film.
Back at Mallaig we dumped our bags and checked Willow over (all fine :)) and then popped to the CoOp for food supplies for dinner. We looked at the Heritage Centre which was open today but it was £4 admission and was closing in half an hour so we gave it a miss and returned to the van instead.
We listened to the radio, unpacked the various bags, the kids DS’d and then over dinner we had a really long talk about Rum and the future. Tomorrow is pretty important in giving us a first impression of whether it will be for us and in giving the people we’re meeting a first impression of us too. It will hopefully answer lots of our questions and make our next step clearer for us all.
I think we’re all feeling nicely grounded by returning to Willow and our own environment. We’re planning a campsite tomorrow night for showers, hook up, etc. and then a night at Lynda’s to update them on our plans before arriving with my parents on Saturday. We’ve debated long and hard diverting to see various friends on the way home but everyone is now focussed on getting back to Sussex to see family and friends there and get next steps in motion too.