We had such a surreal adventure on the Isle of Eigg yesterday! It was wonderful to see a great community spirit among the people we met. All so friendly and a real inspiration.

After a windey drive through the stunning mountains from Fortwilliam to Mallaig to catch the ferry to the Isle (reversing on board!), we went straight to Eigg primary school where the five children treated us to a tour of the school and a mini whistle recital. We had great fun performing for them and getting to know them, learning some stories about the Isle.

Lunch was had at the pier tea room where we met Luna the dog and experienced the best ‘Dirty Chips’, complete with haggis.

With our luggage transported up the hill by quad bike, we stayed in the cutest little hut, St Frannys Bothy, with a wood burning stove, snuggly pod beds and an incredible sea view. After our rehearsal in the community hall (fairylights in abundance!) we had a lovely home cooked meal back in our bothy, before getting concert ready and then venturing through the dark with our torches on a muddy track back to our performance space in the hall. Lots of laughs were had along the way!

 

Yesterday marked the half-way point of our tour. We had our last long drive, from Inverness to Penicuik, travelling through the Cairngorms. Writing this now with the sun shining in Penicuik, it’s hard to believe the blizzard that we encountered during that drive!

Last night’s concert was for Penicuik Community Arts Association. It was in an upper room, above a cafe, the perfect size for a chamber music concert with an intimate audience and decorated with pictures which had been painted by members of the Association – many of whom were in the audience for our concert! Another highlight of the room was the open fire which members of the Association ensured was fully blazing by the time the concert started.

The sense of community was palpable and it was a pleasure to see everyone chatting and having a drink around the fire in the interval and to join in ourselves, chatting about music, paintings and where to find the best pubs with live folk music!

Today we are going to New Lanark so have a much shorter drive of just under an hour. With a bit more time on our hands, we are planning on being tourists a little and enjoying the weather before the forecast storm blows in tonight. Tonight will be the last time we play our Debussy/Schumann/Bernstein/Yoshimatsu/Piazzolla/Gershwin programme and then our last concert will be in Melrose tomorrow. Can’t believe it’s coming to an end already!

We weren’t off to the best of starts yesterday, as just one hour into our journey the car broke down… An hour and a half after pulling into a conveniently placed lay-by, Rob from the RAC arrived – he loaded the car onto the truck, we hopped in the front with him and he brought us back to Aberdeen where there was a branch of our hire car company. Thank you for rescuing us, Rob!

Finally on the road for good, in a different car, we arrived in Inverness just in time for half an hour to get used to the hall and the piano and for a bowl of soup (thanks to our lovely host, James). We caught our first glimpse of Inverness Town House looking in through the window from the outside – seeing the chandeliers shimmering we could tell it was going to be grand!

We performed a different programme last night, having offered all of the music clubs two contrasting options. Music Inverness chose the concert including works by Debussy, Schumann, Bernstein, Yoshimatsu, Piazzolla and Gershwin. We particularly enjoyed the humour of the programme notes written by Ian Sharpe, ‘[in the arrangement of West Side Story we will hear the] Mambo – with or without the words?’ – of course we can’t tell you whether we did shout Mambo or not, as we have two more performances of that programme coming up!

After black pudding and haggis for breakfast this morning, we are ready to travel south to our next stop: Penicuik!

Our first day took us 395 miles, as the crow flies, as we travelled from London to Banchory – taking the train to Edinburgh and then driving north through the stunning landscape of Scotland, over spectacular bridges and through mountain snow. This seemed very apt ahead of performing our programme last night which we had titled ‘Across the Pyrenees!’

Members of Woodend Music Committee welcomed us at The Barn – a multi-arts centre which, over the last 25 years, has grown to become the largest arts venue in Aberdeenshire. We were immediately taken by the warm, generous acoustic and settled into the afternoon’s rehearsal. Then it was time for a short break and for making the most of tucking into local Scottish food before starting the concert. Thank you so much to Woodend Music Society for our Scottish duo debut!

Today we travel to Inverness. We’ve been warned that a road closure will prevent us from taking the most picturesque route, but even so we are sure we aren’t going to be disappointed by the scenery – everywhere we look on our journeys could be a painting!

Bags packed, Sat Nav set, here we go!