Portuairk Beach

We drove down to Kilchoan this morning to get the ferry to Tobermory. It was possibly the windiest road I've ever been on. We put Orla in the front this time, which I think was a wise decision as I felt quite ill myself by the time we got there! We just missed the ferry we were going for, which was probably quite a good thing, so we had a cup of tea in the visitor centre cafe. Once we got to Tobermory the weather brightened up considerably and we had lunch sitting outside Macgochans. We all had fish of some sort (beer battered scallops for me!) and it was lovely. Orla was very excited to be in "Balamory" and pointed out Miss Hoolie's house to us. But she did get a bit stroppy when I explained to her that the characters from Balamory don't really live there and that she couldn't go and visit them.

We wanted to visit Sanna Bay, as it had been described to us by a friend as "one of the best beaches in the world", so we left Tobermory mid-afternoon in order to get back in time. We let Orla play for a bit in the community playground at Kilchoan and she made a friend, a little boy called Samuel. Unfortunately when we drove to Sanna we missed the turn-off and ended up at Portuairk instead. We thought about walking the 1km or so to the end of Sanna Bay, but after starting we realised it wasn't doable with the children. So instead we headed back to the beach we had seen at Portuairk. It was ideal for Orla. Perfect sand for digging in and building sandcastles and shallow sea to paddle in. She didn't even seem to mind that it was freezing! She made friends with a dog who followed her around everywhere for a while. It even copied her digging, much to her amusement. The journey back didn't even seem so bad!