The Svalbard Triangle – Travel Vortex / Oban – Day 2

I wake as late as possible, but obscenely early – a mere three hours after I closed my eyes. It is 6 am, Edinburgh time. I resist the urge to mentally correct it to 1 am Eastern. On that path lies madness.

Air Canada has begun to gradually light the cabin with a soft orange light, but there’s no way they could make this a pleasant wake-up – even if they moved through the cabin with a basket of puppies to pet. I settle for a cappuccino, one of the few – and quite possibly the first – I’ve had while flying:

The machine always seems to be broken. (Or we are ‘merely’ in Premium Economy, which does not rate in-flight cappuccinos.) Candy is for our daughter, honest!

They have both omelettes and a balanced breakfast on offer. I opt for the balanced breakfast, along with a few extra croissant for our daughter – who wisely choses to sleep as long as possible:

The rest of the flight passes uneventfully. We all managed some sleep, which I think would have been next-to-impossible had we remained in Economy. The breakfast proves solid, and service remains strong throughout.

Hello, Edinburgh!

One wrinkle upon landing – the door between the bridge and the terminal is closed. The line begins to thread all the way back to the plane, but eventually passenger is bold enough to hit the ’emergency unlock’ button. No alarms sound, so we make our way into Edinburgh airport.

Canadians are required to obtain an electronic travel authorization (ETA) before arriving in the United Kingdom. We had secured those for my wife and kids, while I was travelling under my new UK passport. I’d let my previous one lapse many years back, but was forced to renew due to recent changes to UK policies for dual citizens.

The process was not as difficult as I had imagined, and the passport only took a few weeks to arrive. The real challenge was finding a UK guarantor, but thankfully my friend Nicole is a UK journalist and was willing to vouch for me. Thanks, Nicole!

However, we did wonder whether our separate nationalities – and our wide mix of ages – would mean that we might have separate lines while at customs. Our son has his own phone and would be able to stay in touch, though we wonder what we’ll do in the unlikely event that our daughter has to go through solo. We have already instances where one of us made it through a customs gate and the others had to continue on without them, as there is no waiting permitted. It’s never fun.

We needn’t have worried – UK, Australia, Canada, Iceland, Japan, Liechtenstein, New Zealand, Norway, Singapore, South Korea, Switzerland and USA passport holders who are 8 years or older are eligible to use the eGates system, so we will all be able to stay together. The line moves fast – so fast that we almost have to jog along the winding, Disney-esque queue. There’s also a customs officer to help people navigate the system, and to shunt people between the officers line and the eGates as needed. It’s surprisingly efficient.

We have no issues getting through the eGates ourselves, and are soon waiting for our bags to arrive. Though we have Priority tags, there is another flight’s luggage still awaiting pickup. I’m sure the vast amount of golf bags is not helping the process either.

This does give us time to confirm that our Airalo eSIMs are working. For those who haven’t used an eSIM before, they are essential a temporary phone plan – an electronic Subscriber Identity Module – that you can purchase while travelling so that you do not have to use your phone company’s plan. As most telecomms in Canada charge an usurous CAD$18 per device per day, you’d better believe we use an eSIM whenever we travel.

We are particularly fond of their 20 GB global eSIM plan that includes calls and texting, as it gives us an extra layer of communication when the Internet is finicky. The calling feature is particularly useful for checking voicemail messages on our regular phones. Though somewhat pricey, both plans are good for upwards of a year – so they can be used across multiple trips. (Our discount code is RYAN4826 for anyone looking to save CAD$4.50 off their first eSIM.)

Eventually our bags wind our way along the baggage carousel – and as they do, I spot a wool hat next to one of them.

“Hmm.” I think to myself. “That looks like our daughter’s wool hat.”

It is our daughter’s wool hat. One of our duffle bags’ zippers has popped open, leaving at least one of our belongings on the conveyor belt. How many of our belongings are lost? We don’t know! It’s like the world’s worst game show – “What Did the Baggage Carousel Eat?” There are no winners, only losers – and those losers are us.

But we have our belongings – or as many of them as we’re going to get – so we head off to collect our rental car from Budget. We were originally booked with Sixt, but in the process of reviewing our trip plan we realized that we could save more than USD$250 by switching companies. Or so we thought.

Blissfully unaware of what awaits, I queue in the QuickPass line. (We had thankfully pre-paid and pre-registered our rental, so I bypass the group debating whether they should get insurance, and if their credit card will indeed provide the coverage they require.)

Unfortunately, that is the line for both QuickPass and Budget Preferred so I am shunted backward as a President’s Club member takes my spot. Every international flight from North America is in the process of disgorging its clientele, and two of the largest car chains (Avis and Budget) have combined their desks and have a grand total of two people on duty. Cheaper for a reason, I suppose…

But – after agreeing to pay an extra islands fee for our visit to Skye, and to pre-paying for a full tank of gas so that we can bring the car back empty – I am finally handed the keys to my MG HS. We don’t have these in Canada, so I’m curious to try it out. And based on my research, it’s even larger than the Kia Sportage we had originally booked. So that should be handy.

Except my research was incorrect. The MG HS is larger than the Kia Sportage, but its cargo space is considerably smaller.

And so it is only by the narrowest of margins that we are able to fit our luggage inside this vehicle. Our two hard-sided bags and four smaller bags barely squeeze into the rear hatch, while the two duffles and backpacks require one third of the rear bench to be folded down.

And the parcel cover? That’s loose in the backseat, because that’s the only place it will fit. Well, at least our daughter is still small enough to fit in the middle seat.

“Not many years left til we won’t be able to do this anymore,” I say, trying to look on the bright side.

“Dad, there are zero years left,” she counters, wise and weary beyond her years.

I’m still not sure how this happened. I thought I compared the two vehicles before making the switch, but apparently my ‘research’ began and ended with ‘Is the MG HS bigger than the Kia Sportage?’ without clarifying what that meant in terms of cargo space.

I did ask our paid version of ChatGPT whether the HS has more trunk space than our old HRV – but forgot to actually check the results, or else I would have realized the the HS was indeed too small for us. (The paid, thinking model of ChatGPT is often far more accurate, but can take five minutes or more to answer complicated questions.)

Ultimately this only nearly prevented us from driving to Oban, though it seemed an eternity while wrestling with bags in the Budget parking lot. It also means that it will be impossible for us to shuttle more than a crustless sandwich between our various vacation rentals during the latter half of our Scotland sojourn. And I learn a valuable lesson for next time – don’t switch car rentals without doing proper research.

(No loadmastering photos, sadly. I was too busy cursing myself. But I will take some shots when we make the drive between Oban and Skye.)

And how is the MG HS otherwise? Well, all of its controls are in Spanish – Gracias, El Budgeto! – and it seems to throw a random error every twenty minutes or so, which doesn’t last long enough for me to read – let alone translate. But it does have four wheels and it moves when you push the accelerator, so we’ll call that a win.

Eventually we manage to get the air conditioning and Apple CarPlay working – who makes you use a screen to control the aircon? And first you have to turn off Google Maps which isn’t ideal when navigating the seven or eight roundabouts that take you away from Edinburgh airport. But we eventually settle into our long and winding drive through the Scottish highlands.

And what a drive it is:

We rarely manage the full speed limit, which is fine with us as UK speed limits seem to function as more of a dare than as an automotive safety mechanism.

The kids read, and play Sudoku, and look out the window. We’re all zonked, but the scenery counts for a lot:

That said, I’m glad we’re not driving for more than three hours today. I’ve gone from Stirling to Islay in a single shot before, and it’s a lot – particularly after a redeye flight.

Eventually we reach the Perle Oban. There’s no parking out front, but we are in the ‘I just don’t care’ phase of the travel vortex so we pull into a bus-only zone and throw on our hazards while we unload our many, many bags.

Unsurprisingly, our rooms are not yet ready but the front desk staff graciously offers to hold our luggage until they are. They also direct me to their nearby parking lot, which we booked in advance. (Highly recommended, as space is severely limited.)

Traffic in Oban is tight, but thankfully I only need to go a few hundred metres – and I will be able to abandon the vehicle here for the next two days.

We head to nearby Cuon Mor for lunch.

I get the fish and chips:

And my wife gets the bacon avocado sandwich:

My son has a burger, and my daughter some mac and cheese (not pictured).

All quite good.

We then head for a wander down to the waterfront. The Clipper: Round the World yacht race is in town:

From Clipper’s website:

The Clipper Round the World Yacht Race is an endurance challenge like no other. Race Crew come from all walks of life and nations around the world to tackle one or multiple legs of the record-breaking circumnavigation.

Train from a complete novice to become an ocean racer as part of a team onboard a 70-foot ocean racing yacht. Together you’ll face the world’s most extreme ocean conditions, before returning victorious after the adventure of a lifetime.

The race is on the last of eight legs. The legs are: The Atlantic Trade Winds from the UK to South America; The South Atlantic Challenge to South Africa; The Roaring Forties to West Australia; The Australian Coast to Coast to East Australia; The Asia Pacific Challenge to China; The Might Pacific to West Coast, North America; The Americas Coast to Coast to East Coast, North America, and The Atlantic Homecoming to the UK.

While no previous training is required to join the race, it does come at a steep price tag – some 68,000 British pounds for the mandatory 23 day training and the full 220 day circumnavigation. I’m fascinated by the idea, but I’m not sure it’s something I would ever consider doing. I’d prefer to attempt an extended sailing journey on Bark Europa instead – at a much more reasonable price point. (But let’s get through our trip with Zuza first before we plan for a life at sea.)

We pick up an ice cream:

Then wander through town for a bit, enjoying some of the local scenery:

And architecture:

Then it’s time to head back to the Perle Oban to see if our rooms might be ready early. And they are!

Nothing super fancy, but very comfortable. (They had attempted to call us, but it went straight to voicemail.)

Each room works out to roughly 200 British pounds per day, including breakfast. Pretty good considering the location. Also – it’s warm enough that we will make genuine use of the air conditioning.

We had no plans for the day other than arriving and getting settled in, so we take a bit of time for reading / writing before heading out to dinner at Dawat Oban:

Photo Credit: Google Maps

We originally booked our reservation for 5 pm, but the system confirmed at 4 pm – we figure that this is divine intervention, and we are meant to have as early a bedtime as possible. So we start dinner at 4 pm.

Tonight’s menu:

We order the lamb rogan josh:

Butter chicken:

Adarki chicken, which we haven’t tried before:

From their menu: Barbequed chicken simmered in a rich curry broth, infused with fresh ginger and special spices

And chicken tikka masala (not pictured).

We also get two orders of steamed rice, and a mix of garlic naan, plain naan and peshwari naan:

The peshwari naan has a sweet taste to it – glad we tried it!

It was one of the best curry dinners we’ve had in a long time, and a perfect meal after a long day on the road.

Back to Perle Oban for one last nightcap, an Oban Sunrise:

And then it is most definitely time for bed.

With the blog being one day delayed, we are (hopefully) boarding Zuza tomorrow – there is no internet on board, so we will be reliant on whatever signal we can snag off of towers shoreside. It’s unlikely to be enough to do full posts, but I’ll certainly try. If not, I’ll try to post some highlight photos. More to follow in a few days!