Kris and I were looking forward to our first trip in 2021 as they lockdown is still on at varying levels across the UK. He found out about this little Isle next to it's more popular cousins like Arran islands and Islay. I was game for any location where I could spend the idyllic long weekend in May.
Isle of Gigha turned out to be a truly socially distanced location. It takes about 5-6 hours of riding to the ferry point from Stanraer and then an hourly ferry.
We thought we had tracked the time well and would reach well before time but one long stop for lunch and our plans were almost in jeopardy.
We managed to reach just 11 mins before the last ferry to the isle and thanking our stars and Vicki (our motorbike) for bringing us safely to the spot. Once aboard, there were hardly two other caravans in there and we reached the island in 10 mins. As it was time for the summer sunset, we recced the entire island to pitch our tent. This would be the first wild camping experience for us. And wild it truly was! With ducks quacking on one side and cows mooing on the other. The sea breeze was ahead of us. A wide open space with islands Jurra and Islay displaying their surreal silhouette in the evening Sun. It was picture perfect and the weather was great. The island had a wonderful restaurant and we had our dinner there. This community-owned island also has a tiny shops for everyday things and that came in handy to buy milk and other edibles. After shopping and dinner, we camped for the night. The next morning, we made coffee and some pasta for breakfast with some delicious Danishes bought at the wee shop. I highly recommend baking goodies from Agryll Bakery.
The island has a clean and functioning public toilet as well and we were able to use the facilities whenever required. Some of services were disrupted like the wee shop was open only got one hour and the restaurant was full quite soon because the entire island was booked for filming a TV series called 'Murder Island' on Channel 4. At one place we even got confused by a fake camping park set-up. Complete with the water tanks and campervans!
So after our light breakfast, we explored the the island and discovered a beautiful garden with a lovely view point of another beach. That garden was quite well maintained and it's highlight was the peacock! Yes, a beautiful colourful peacock which wasn't shy of humans and posed very well for the shutterbugs. It helped that there were hardly three other people in the vast garden apart from us.
We had packed a picnic lunch from the takeaway place 'The Nook'. The garden was perfect place to have your picnic.
After lunch, we continued to explore other parts of the place and went on some hikes, explored a hidden beach that is accessible only by private route and if you are ready to walk through the family of sheep staring at you and then suddenly running away. Clean waters, perfect weather and a vast beach with rocks to climb on for the perfect view. Our exploring didn't end there. Kris also went for a short swim in another part of the island but it had sea weed so he decided to come back within minutes. In the evening, we missed our restaurant dinner as it was full thanks to the exciting film crew and long weekend crowding there. So we had some nuts and fruits which we had carried with us and some tinned food as well. It got a bit cool in the evening so we got our jackets from the tent and explored the wind mills called Faith, Hope and Charity. These are preused windmills set up since 2005 on the isle and helping them in their sustainable living. The farms near the wind mills were dotted with lots of sheep 🐑 that were ready to run away as we approached them. One or two just stood staring. We discovered some old stones named 'The Old Lady and the Little Boy' on our walk up the mountain.
