As you know, when we travelled to Gigha it was a bit windy and wet and we wondered whether we would get anything much out of our last day.

Most importantly we still had the rest of a birthday to celebrate so, in the full spirit of where we were I elected to create a specially themed birthday cake.

If, by any chance, Mary Berry or Nadia Hussain are reading this don’t worry I think your crowns are safe. But I did hear the browny points falling nicely into the bank!

The daughter, however was not impressed at me face timing her to sing happy birthday to her mum and just looked bewildered by the whole process (maybe she was just focussed on getting the house straight for our forthcoming return!) and the boy child was just stuck (not literally thankfully) in a cave in southern France.

Alas we woke up to no wind and no rain so eventually managed to get ourselves mobile. One of the things that we are not looking forward to next week is the early starts. Not only have we found a natural rhythm of waking around 8.00 AM for the last four weeks we’ve mostly managed a sleep range between 8 and 10 hours every night!

We actually came to Ghia last August and if you’ve never been to this community owned and community run island we would heartily recommend it. Like many other places we have been it’s populated by lots of off comers but hey none of these places would exist if it wasn’t for people actually brave enough to make a life choice and actually believe that they can do this. Like self control, confidence was never one of my strong characteristics.

First of all today we did a cycle to a walk

It was a bit overcast but nice to see Islay in the distance (Islay is an island that I can think of at least 9 good reasons to visit, and also an island with many happy and a few patchy memories but it might be best to leave that one there – needless to say I / we have had a couple of very good nights in the Port Charlotte Hotel where there is an entire menu for the Whisky collection, obviously it would have been rude not to make in roads into some sampling – purely for research purposes you understand!

From thee it was a tip to the island botanical gardens which were very pretty.

Worryingly I’ve noticed that there does appear to be a direct relationship between increasing age and an interest in gardens, usually other people’s. But to be fair my attention has started to drift towards thinking about how long my grass might be (it turned out to be a meadow) and how much weeding I will have to do (a lot) when I get home. Not to mention the thought of when the garden waste is due to be collected. I’ve lost complete track of what day it is let alone what week of refuse collection we are on!

At this point the sun had started to shine and, in the absence of strong winds, a decision needed to be made, another walk or finally get the paddle boards out. Up until this point it had not been either sensible or practical to use them.

The picture says it all.. and a decision was quickly made. Boards inflated we set sail.

And very nice it was too. Just slightly disturbed by the faint hissing of my board as the valve wasn’t completely closed. All survived to tell the tale.

There is a great restaurant on this island called the Boat House and we got chatting to the couple on the table next to us. Anyway needless to say we ended up spending a couple of hours talking and shared a few drinks (mostly whisky.. again!) and had a number of drams for the road! In fact, in the end, it made the road a bit wobbly and, although it was them staying on board their yacht, it also felt like the van was at sea!

At the point of going our separate ways there was no wind at all.

And round these parts (that’s pretty much anywhere north of Gretna) that means only one thing – MIDGES! Let’s face it, the last four weeks haven’t been conducive to the wee buggers. They can’t fly in winds over 4 miles an hour and it’s been about 10 times more than that so it’s not been a problem but tonight it was! Those boys and girls (although I think it’s just the girls that bite, but we’ll leave that there!) were seriously hungry.. second only to the Duct tape advice I will ever give is that Avon Skin So Soft really is the best midge repellent known to man. It is also a very good moisturiser but I never said that!

And that’s us back on the ferry in the morning to the mainland and the long drive home or as we now say hame but not without some boring stats first. Over the past four weeks we’ve cycled about 135 miles and walked around 80 miles. To be fair, and I obviously can’t let this go, I’ve probably walked about an extra 5 miles to empty the said cassette which feels like it’s been a fairly vital part of this journey. Also to be fair, in the grand scheme of things that’s also been part of the process and I personally wouldn’t change any of that for the world.

So here we are 1,000 miles, 14 ferries and one flight later. It’s been a blast and we’ve loved every minute of our adventure, even the challenges along the way. We live on the edge of the Lake District National Park so what’s not to like and how lucky are we to be going back to that as well. Life and adventures are only ever what you make of them where ever you might be!

And that, as they say, is that! Thank you for sharing our adventure and joining us along the way, it’s been the best. Until next time I’m very sorry to say..

Haste Ye Back!