Letter from Iona - #12

Hello All:

We gave our notice this week. Very exciting times!! Our last work day is September 24th and then we travel to Fife on September 25th.

This week has been pretty mundane with lots of work time. However, we did have fun last week at the Abbey when we went to visit Tim. Dan got to play a beaut of a violin and Katie sang with Tim playing. It was a great time and the acoustics were incredible. Then, Dan got talked into coming to the choir rehearsal on Thursday evening. He then stayed for the service and ended up in the choir for that. It was really cool because almost everyone of the 30 people in the choir speak English (even though they are from all over the world!) and they sang a Sanctus and Benedictus by John L. Bell that was dedicated to the master of music, Tim. He is an incredible musician with an obvious passion for what he does. He is currently studying his PhD at Cambridge at the tender age of 25! His specialty seems to be improv and he is amazing at it!

Today, we went for a walk to find the elusive Loch. It was going well until Mother Nature decided to unleash her wrath on the island of Iona and it rained down in torrents. So, once again, we found ourselves climbing in the wet. But, it was quite fun and we did find the loch. (See attached pics). We were going to continue on to find the Marble Quarry as well, but the rain reminded Dan of how much he had to pee, so we had to turn around. Just leaves us another adventure for another (hopefully more sunny) day.

We're quite excited to leave the island as the weather is getting more unstable each day with more rain than sun:( It also gets dark quite early now compared to when we first came, and most nights Katie ends up walking home in the dark. There's only one streetlight on the whole island, so it is muchly appreciated when Dan comes to meet her with a torch (flashlight), which happens very often.

Anyway, we wanted to send out a huge welcome back to Dan's parents who have just returned from visiting Dan's sister on the West Coast. And also, hello to Katie's Mom and Dad who are currently on a Caribbean cruise with Princess Cruises....don't worry, they missed the hurricane!:)

So, that's it....be sure to look at the pics this week....there two awesome ones of the tide when it's in and the tide when it's out....and yes, that is the exact same location!

Letter from Iona - #11 - One Month to go!!

Hello All:)

Today is a very exciting day for us as we now have one month left of work and then we are outta here!

This week has been fairly quiet in terms of the misadventures of Dan and Katie. Nothing too tragic. We had a major storm here last night with wind gusts of up to 70 miles/hour (112 kms)!! Needless to say, it was a rather noisy night last night. But the only casualties that we have seen is our rubbish bin got knocked over and we lost a clothesline. They also pulled all of the wee boats out of the water yesterday in preparation for the storm as they were afraid they might wash up on shore, or worse, find their way to the bottom of the Sound. There was also talk of the ferry being cancelled today, but happily it is still running......although we are not making use of her services today:)

We've had 4 new people arrive on the island to work in the restaurant/bar/shop. Two are a couple from New Zealand, (just met them this morning), one is from Scotland, and the other is her cousin from Australia! They have all moved into the flat above the Spar shop, so not only is it fairly crowded up there again, it seems to be a South Pacific haven!! The blue house will soon be emptier (which is a happy day as there's only one bathroom/shower at our place), with Agni and Gitana leaving for Lithuania on Saturday and Lisbeth leaving for Fife on Sunday. But we're sure that new faces will soon be seen around our place as well.

Dan has had an interesting invitation for today. Yesterday, while working in the bar, he got talking with Tim, a music major from the Abbey, who had heard about his amazing violin skills. This prompted an invitation for Dan and Katie to visit the Abbey this evening to try a violin and maybe the piano??:) Needless to say, we are both very excited about this!

The first day of our work here, we both worked for the 40th wedding anniversary of a minister from Bunnessen (Mull) named Syd and his wife Edna. Syd is often in the bar, drinking ginger beer, or on the bus, so he is a familiar face around here and knows both Dan and Katie by face. One of the coolest things about Syd is that the first time Katie saw him, she saw somebody else completely. Syd could be a mirror image of Katie's grandfather on her Mom's side. He has a similar personality as well with his joking and jovial outlook on life. Syd was sitting at the bar the other evening and Katie was working in the restaurant humming along with the music on the stereo. It was the hymn tune 'Melita', which is Dan's favourite hymn. While she was doing this, Syd was listening and made a comment about it, to which Katie replied, 'well, I like Melita, besides, it's Dan's favourite hymn'. Syd remarked, 'you seem to know a lot about hymn tunes and such', and Katie replied, 'Well, I should, as I was a church organist for some years back in Canada'.:) At that point, customers walked in and she had to go back to work. But not before Syd said, 'Oh really, are you working here tomorrow?' She had to rush off. So, Syd stopped by the next day (Saturday) and asked again if Katie was working at 12:30 on Sunday. Sadly she was, but when she mentioned it to Sheila, she was told, she might be able to get an hour or two off to go and play the Organ that Syd has available to him. Needless to say, she's quite excited about that and we'll see where that goes.

More stories to share and pictures too next week. Dan's tide study is going well and the moon photos, well are unique. More practice and study are required!

Letter from Iona #10 - Retail therapy

Hello all,

Sorry for the late delivery of this update... however we're willing to bet that none of you are up right now, so technically it could still be Wednesday!

We decided to take things down a notch from the previous week's mountain climb. This week we were off to Oban, the nearest big city to Iona! Oban is on the 'mainland' of the British Isles. Here's a summary of how we got there...

5:45: Up and at em...hey look.....it's POURING rain outside....oh well! We have to look good for the big city!
7:00: On the ferry to Fionnphort
7:10: On the bus to Craignure (watch out sheep!)
9:00: On the big ferry (woohoo!) to Oban
9:45: Wow, that was fast... feet dry in Oban!

We had several tasks to accomplish in Oban...Dan's first priority was to visit the barber, while Katie couldn't wait to see Charlie and the Chocolate Factory! There is a small movie theatre in Oban which has just started playing Charlie and The Fantastic Four.

Sadly the clippers we had access to in Iona have apparently disappeared so Katie will have to temporarily cease her haircutting duties... for now. Gavin, the sports fanatic barber (who had a Calgary Flames jersey and Steve Nash's signed jersey on his wall!) was more then happy to treat Dan's noggin to a brush cut. Good thing too as his hair was pretty scary. Then off to Tesco, the Zellers of Scotland! Several items were to be bought and we found that the prices were far more reasonable then in our little SPAR shop on Iona. For example, we bought 2 large containers of peanut butter which were cheaper then one tiny jar in Iona! Katie bought a new bath towel and shirt for an excellent price and Dan has decided not to grow a beard/mustache as there were some Gillette Mach 3 Turbo refills available. Movie time! Off we went in search of the cinemas... but on the way we passed a music store. In we went and Dan headed straight over to the violins while Katie browsed at sheet music. When we had arrived in Oban, Dan had said that if we could find a music store, he'd love to pick up a fiddle again. So, when we walked through the doors and saw the violins, we asked permission to play one and the store owner rosined up a bow for Dan to use, went into the back room and returned with a 'loaner'. Dan tuned her up and played a little tune while Katie listened and enjoyed. It made Dan's day!

We resumed our search for the cinema, and upon now finding it discovered that it was closed until 1:15. What to do for 30 minutes? There was an 'amusement' centre next door so after partaking in a racing game (which Dan won) we searched for more things to kill time. There had been an ice cream store on our way so we backtracked and treated ourselves to a few scoops. After wiping the chocolate mint (Katie) and chocolate and PEACH (Dan) from our chins the time had come to head to the movies! Our tickets were bought and we were allowed to explore the historical display (out of the continuing rain) at the theatre. On display was some signed drawings from the head Disney illustrator from many years ago (Don Williams?), the stocks which were used in Oban until mid-1800s and some amazing photos of all places, Iona, Staffa and Oban. One plaque really interested us as it expressed some of the thoughts we routinely have...


The movie started at 2 and we were in time critical mode. After 15 minutes of ads and trailers, that seemed to go on forever, the movie finally began. However, we had enough to munch on during the ads. As usual, Dan was a bit hungry (and so was Katie), so she sent him on a search for some munchies just before the ads started. As he left her parting words were 'Just don't buy one of those really big popcorn' (that another family had purchased). His reply was 'No one needs that much popcorn!'. So you can imagine her surprise when he shamefully returned with ... a really big popcorn container. It was aptly shaped in a cone, sort of like a dunce cap from the old days. A hard £5 lesson to learn for Dan's instinctive request for a 'large popcorn'. The what turned out to be very bland popcorn was gone by the start of the movie though!

We had been very excited to see Charlie and the Chocolate Factory as we had heard it was excellent and Dan is a big fan of Tim Burton's movies.....Batman, Batman Returns, Edward Scissorhands.....etc. Must be his twisted humour! So, we settled in and watched most of it. Unfortunately, because we had to catch the 4pm ferry back to Craignure and sure as heck didn't want to miss it, we had to leave the movie by 3:30 to get to the ferry on time. We were sad because we had to miss so much of it, but we'll see the end someday. Perhaps in Glasgow on the IMAX????(It's currently being shown there:)

So, we hopped onto the ferry (again in the pouring rain) and enjoyed some food on the ride back to Craignure. From there, we got back to Iona safe and sound on the last ferry, had a nice nap, dinner, and then off to bed so that we could get up early this morning and write this update for you all:)

That's the misadventures this week....nothing too exciting (like missing the boat/bus/boat, or falling off a mountain), but we can't always lead such exciting lives or we'd be exhausted just from telling the stories!

Probably next week, we'll go back into money saving mode and stay on Iona. Perhaps we'll go on a hunt for the elusive loch on the island, which provides the island with all of its freshwater.

For now, though, that's it.

A Few More Pics of the Climb

A few more photos for Letter from Iona #9

Here's some more for your viewing...

Letter from Iona #9 - Dream... Struggle... VICTORY!

(... or Blood, Sweat and Tears as Dan called it at the end)

Hi All:

As you might have guessed from the title of this week's update, we've had an interesting week. The first really cool thing that happened took place last Saturday when after Katie was finished work, we headed up to the tiny public library here and sat for a concert with two guitarists who are travelling around and working at the Columba Hotel (where the internet access is). They were awesome!! It was a guy and a gal (Ross and Iona) and Iona played first. She was good, but after the break Ross played and he was amazing. They both have incredible talents as everything that was performed was self-written and they probably played about 25 different songs. Awesome night! Katie also met up with the Greene's, who are friends of her Aunt Claudia and Uncle John's, at the bar the same night. They had just come from Aunt C & Uncle J's cottage and had met Mom & Dad J there and had seen a bunch of pics of Iona on Dad J's laptop. Neato, huh?

But our big adventure this week happened yesterday (hence the lack of an update on the blog!). If you remember, we had mentioned that we were planning a climb on the Isle of Mull to find a DC-3 that had crashed into Beinn Talaidh (a mountain) on February 1, 1945. Eventually the plane was pushed into a ravine and blown into smaller pieces. So, Dan had collected some maps from Jean, one of our coworkers (if you remember from our earlier story, she and her husband Tony have been helpers in our mad schemes before), and put together our route of attack.

So, we went to sleep with visions of big mountains and an 8 mile, 3 hour trek dancing in our heads.

When we woke up on Wednesday morning, the first thing that Katie noticed was the mist and rain. This did not bode well for her cooperation with this scheme as climbing a 725 metre mountain in the sun was one thing, but doing it in the rain and knowing that she was going to be wet and cold all day was not a thrilling prospect. So, we packed up our bags with food and water, mittens, first aid kit, flashlight, extra socks, and anything else that we could think of to take. Then, we headed off to the internet cafe to check out the weather to see if anything was going to improve. The weather information over here is kinda sketchy, so the best that we could get was a report for Oban which is on the mainland, quite a distance away......but it said that it would clear later in the day, so after much weasling and prodding, Dan finally got Katie to agree to go.

So, off we set on the ferry at 9 am. Then we hopped onto the bus to Craignure (where you catch the ferry to Oban), and met up with Tony (Jean's husband). The cool thing here was that we had talked to Tony about this adventure a couple of times before, so he knew that we were coming and gave us a free bus ride to Glen Forsa, the starting point for our trek. This saved us £8, so that was really cool. Tony is a very detailed and cautious person and was telling us that he thought it might be difficult for us to find the DC-3 as one of his coworkers 'knew a bit about it' and said that if you don't know exactly where to look, it could be difficult to find. With this knowledge, we set off. Dan was very excited because he'd seen a small airstrip on our way to Glen Forsa and it set the mood for the trek.

We walked along a flat walk for a couple of miles, spotting highland cows and enjoying the scenery. The clouds were still very low at this point, so we couldn't see the peaks of the mountains, but we could certainly see their slopes and they looked amazing!

Then, Dan spotted a bird flying in the sky. We watched it for a second and it turned out to be a golden eagle!! This was very exciting as they are becoming rare, even in their natural habitat and we were very excited to get to see one.

After consulting the map a few times, we continued along the path that we were on and came around a corner to see parts of a propeller sticking out of a rock, with a sign on it. There's a pic of the sign here, but basically, it is a memorial to the RAF men who died when the DC-3 crashed in 1945. It seems that in February 2005, they held a small ceremony here and laid a wreath in memory of the crash. This was where we stopped for lunch. This is where it gets interesting.

At this point, it should be said that if we didn't get to the road to flag down the bus by 5:20 pm, we would have to walk all the way back to Fionnphort (at least 15 miles) and stay there overnight or hitchhike back (this was not something that we wanted to do).

To our left was a nice looking smooth, FLAT path that would lead back to the road. However, if we took that way, there was no possibility of seeing any more of the aircraft. As we had a pretty good idea of where the pieces lay in the ravine, Dan suggested continuing to climb up the mountain to the ravine to find the aircraft. As everything had been pretty easy thus far, Katie was willing to indulge him. Besides, the clouds/sky was clearing and the weather seemed to be easing up. And, it would be beautiful to see the Sound of Mull from so high up. So......the ascent began.

Now, if Dan had known what a trechorous, horrid climb both up and down the mountain would be, he never would have suggested it. But of course, hindsight is 20/20, so we made it to the mountain bothy, which is a little shack that can be used if you get stuck on the mountain in bad weather. We signed the bothy book to show that we were there and continued to climb.
As we continued up the ravine, we had to leave the path as it basically stopped. The ground became increasingly more unstable and wet and in no time at all, Katie (who was wearing pants), was soaked up to her knees and Dan (who was wearing shorts) was getting the same way. Every once in a while, we had to stop for Katie to catch her breath and one time, we stopped by the stream coming down the ravine. The water was clear and tasted beautiful, so we filled up our water bottles and soaked our heads. As we were doing so, Dan's eye caught some metal under some rocks. He pulled it out and there was our first piece of airplane!!! We took pics of it with Scooter and Katie (they're attached here).

Then, we continued on up the side of the mountain. Our original goal had been to actually climb the mountain, but we had severly underestimated the height and difficulty of this climb. So, we settled for climbing the side of it to stay out of the water in the ravine. We continued to climb upwards and stopped to turn around and take a picture of how far we had come. This pic shows the distance from the water (where we started) to where we were sitting to take this pic. Long way, huh???

At this point, Katie was getting very tired and Dan was starting to fatigue as well. Then, we spotted a lot more pieces of metal in the ravine. And we had found it!!!!!!!! Almost the entire aircraft in the ravine!!! (See pics). Unfortunately, we didn't realize that the ravine ended here and after we had climbed up it to see the plane, we had to turn around and climb up the side of the ravine to get around it. This meant that we would now have to climb up and over the mountain......not an exciting prospect. We climbed and climbed and climbed some more and then, just as Katie's legs were about to give out...we were there at the top (well, almost the top....a little subsiderary of the top....500 metres above sea level and we couldn't see anything because of the clouds. At this point, we were starting to worry about the time as it was just about 4 and we still had to get down the mountain and across to the road and we couldn't even see where the road was! So, Dan said a prayer and the clouds lifted....just like that. Talk about a gift from God. If they hadn't lifted, we might still be stuck on that mountain.

So, we started our descent. For anybody who thinks that climbing down a mountain is much easier than climbing up it, we challenge them to do it. The ground was still very boggy even that high up and no step was assured. Extremely tough on the knees, the descent went smoothly, but too slowly. We were following the ravine between the two mountains, but it was rocky and unstable. At one point, Katie bashed her knee into a rock, causing immediate pain and bruising and then a few minutes later, stepped onto a large rock (which should NOT have moved!) and fell on her butt. Although it sounds quite funny now, it wasn't at the time. The only benefit to falling so quickly again, was the fact that it made her knee hurt a little bit less. Dan was a little more sure footed, but tripped a few times too as his legs began to tire. In this manner, we continued on down the mountain. As we could now see the road, we had a good idea where to go, but time was running out. We decided to get down to the treeline and follow a fence that we could see there. This caused some problems as well due to the unstable nature of the ground and the pain and fatigue we were feeling. At one point, Katie sat down in tears, ready to give up, but Dan wouldn't let her. After some tense words being exchanged (for which all was forgiven later), she got up and we continued onwards. At this point, we didn't know how far we were from the road, but the watch said 5:15 and we still couldn't see it. On the point of desperation, we looked through the trees and saw a path and then just a little further down the path, was the road!!! After this point, we started laughing and walking faster...especially when we reached the path and could walk on solid ground again.

We reached the road at 5:22 and sat down. Although there were cars whizzing by, we didn't see the bus and were afraid that we had missed it. But low and behold, it was running late and it came at 5:25. We laughed, flagged it down, and hopped on board. Tony, Jean's husband, was on board going home and he laughed when he saw us, telling Jean later that we looked like two drowned rats. Upon reaching Iona, we went home, showered, changed, and took ourselves out to dinner as a reward. After all, we had climbed for 6 HOURS, basically non-stop, up to a height of 500 meters (1640 feet) and needed some R&R. During the course of the meal, Dan said, 'if I ever suggest climbing any other mountain, please just hit me in the head and say, do you remember Beinn Talaidhe??' Katie agreed and we both went home to bed!:)






So, that has been our adventure for the week. Long story today, but now you all know why we didn't write yesterday.

We hope that you are all doing very well and we miss you all bunches!!

test picture - take 2

Letter from Iona - #8

Hi all:

Sadly today we have been unable take our exciting hike from Glen Forsa to Glen More on the Isle of Mull. It was going to be very exciting because we were to see a landing strip, a Piper Cub (airplane), a crashed DC-3 Dakota and hopefully some wild deer and beautiufl scenery. But, unfortunately, we have been rained out! That's okay though as it gives us more time to plan and put together some food for this adventure. Basically, it is an 8 mile hike (or 3 hours) from Glen Forsa to Glen More and would need to be started earlier in the day to make sure that we didn't miss the bus going back to Iona!!

Not much has happened here this week. Dan went to see a celtic harp concert on Sunday evening that was just amazing. The harpist is going to be travelling to Nova Scotia this fall on tour. Anyway, it was quite good.

Our plans for our onward journey are progressing and we look forward to it every single day. We are now at the half way point in our working as our last day is to be September 24th, leaving on the 25th.

By the way, our wedding date has been set too. We're just so proactive over here!!:) We're getting married on September 9th, 2006 and the craziness of planning is just beginning. But it's so much fun!:)

As the weather is clearing here now, we're planning a hike to the southern part of the island today and of course, Scooter will be making the trek as well. Pics to follow, I'm sure.

Anyway, we hope that the heat wave has broken in mid-southern Ontario now and that you are all enjoying the summer.