Wonderful Waterfalls at Eas Fors

The road trip rolls on

Having had a good time visiting the Isle of Iona for the day, our next decision was where to go next? Eas Fors and Calgary Bay were a couple of spots that I had in mind. Both of which involved water. I think growing up by the sea, and now living by it, this has always been a natural draw for me.

After a long day of walking around on Iona, first up, a bit of a rest before we set off on the road to our next destination! We headed from the lower south west corner of Mull up to the North West to find a camping spot near Calgary Bay. Another great chance to see and explore some more of the island en-route.

Living the dream

We seemed to have brought some great weather with us so far, perfect for a meandering drive around parts of the island to get to our end destination. It was less remote than Lochbuie, but still right by the sea. It also had facilities of water and a toilet. Funny how the simple things in life can see luxurious when your camping! 

We arrived late afternoon and had time to relax a little and make some food before watching the sun go down and settling in for the night. Being out and about for the day exploring is very conducive for a good nights sleep!

Sand Surfing

Like a kid waking up early at Christmas, I was up with the sun to see Calgary Bay in all its glory. It was a beautiful sunny day, so I got to appreciate our surroundings more fully. It was great to take a walk across the unspoilt white sand beach and just drink in the views of the surroundings. Absolutely stunning!

Having done my early morning reconnoitre, it was time for breakfast then some more exploring. This time with Lorna who had enjoyed a bit of a lie in this morning. After all, it is supposed to be a relaxing time 🙂

The fun of the sun

Walking across the almost deserted white sand beach, it was hard to believe you were in Scotland! If it wasn’t for the temperature and wind, it could have easily been the Caribbean. The crystal clear water, the beautiful turquoise blue colour and the white sand. What a stunning location to be in! 🙂

A new source of amusement on our Scottish road trip has been seeing what level of power our solar system could generate. Today was looking like a good day, so we were hopeful of getting a new ‘high score’ on the Victron Energy Connect Bluetooth app. So far the score to try and beat was our previous high of 70w at Lochbuie,

I think we might be topping that today! Not bad for Scotland in the spring 🙂 The solar panels are proving to be really useful, so glad we got them. They are so easy to use and quick to set up. Highly recommended!

Meeting new people wherever you go

We have met some really nice people on our travels so far. Today was no exception. Whilst cooking our lunch, we got chatting to a French couple who were walking past and admiring the bus (as people often do!). Turns out they had a very cool looking, custom VW Bay window Crew cab back in France. 

A VW camper is the ultimate ice breaker and conversation starter wherever you are in the world! Especially when you are cooking up some delicious lunch on your Trangia stove:)

Waterfall, waterfall, waterfall

The other watery wonder I wanted to see was the Eas Fors waterfalls, which was fairly close by to where we were camping. So after lunch, we thought we’d head out to go and find them.

‘Eas Fors Waterfall’ place name is tautological as all three words are synonymous. This often occurs when a name from one language is imported into another and a standard descriptor is added on from the second language. ‘Eas’ is Gaelic for waterfall, ‘Fors’ is Norse for waterfall. So ‘Eas Fors waterfall’ literally means ‘waterfall waterfall waterfall’!

It was another ‘interesting’ drive around the single track coastal peninsula roads to get there. Good that the camper is both surprisingly spacious inside and compact on the road. In reality, it’s about the same sort of size as a medium size family car like say a Toyota Corolla! Much easier for both driving on the island roads and finding parking spaces. At first, I just caught a glimpse of a waterfall as we were driving along going over a small bridge. I pulled over into a fairly innocuous looking car parking area to the side of the road to take a look. I’m glad I did as this was indeed the spot. 

Eas Fors – when one becomes three

Eas Fors actually consists of a series of three waterfalls. I had initially glimpsed the upper part of falls that were above the level of the road. This first waterfall was dramatic enough in itself.

The water from the first waterfall then flowed under the road bridge to the second set of waterfalls just below the road. Here the water from the waterfall cascaded over the rocky edge into a beautiful large pool of water.

The third and final waterfall is supplied from this. The waterfalls final descent plunges 100 feet over the edge of a cliff to the sea below! Apparently, you can view the waterfall from below if you walk a half mile down the road towards Ulva Ferry and then take a half an hour walk back along a track on the stony beach. Unfortunately, I didn’t know this at the time… Doh!

There is something very captivating about waterfalls, or at least there is to me. Went to see one, got to see three, happy days! 🙂 It was still fairly early in the day, but we knew our time on Mull was coming to an end soon. The only thing we had booked for the road trip, needed us to be in Fort William in a couple of days time. So we had to turn our thoughts to catching a ferry back to mainland Scotland soon.

What’s the story Tobermory

Instead of heading back around the coast to Calgary bay, we decided to head across the hills of the island as a bit of a scenic short cut to get to Tobermory. By the end of our time on Mull we will have driven along a fairly high percentage of the islands roads! Glad we did, as once again, more beautiful areas to see en-route!

Heading to Tobermory the night before seemed like a cunning plan. Being nearer to the ferry, it would give us the evening/morning to have a look round before we catch the ferry. Plus we didn’t have to get up early and rush to catch the mid-morning ferry from Craignure back to the mainland of Scotland. Besides, it was another place we wanted to visit whilst on Mull. Win-win! It’s always good to have flexible plans.

We seem to have arrived in Tobermory on the eve of a weekend music event, but although busy, we still found a place to stop near the harbour for the night. We had a little wander around and stocked up on a few essentials at the local Coop. First ‘proper’ shop we’d seen for a while! As a little treat, we had some fresh fish and chips by the harbour, then a pint and some pudding in a local pub. A nice end to a great day 🙂