GP Nomad: Mulling things over

Tobermory Bay. Credit: GP Nomad

By The GP Nomad

Nursing a pint of ‘The Iron Lady’ in the Falkland’s Victory Bar, I contemplated my future. Contract ending, I was unsure where to head next.

An attractive blonde lady climbed onto the free bar stool beside me. Ordering, she was clearly Scottish. A marine biologist by trade, she was on the islands as part of the research crew filming for David Attenborough’s next wildlife series. Conversation quickly stalled: a mixture of my severe lack of marine knowledge and an NDA she’d signed. Attenborough doesn’t muck around.

I returned to more fertile chatting territory. “Oh, you’re from the Isle of Mull,” I replied. “Amazing, I’m going to be working there this summer.”

Well, it was as good a reason as any to get a job.

Mull is Scotland’s fourth largest island, lying just next to the mainland, as if broken off in a storm. Its capital, Tobermory, sitting on its northern coast, guards the entrance to its eponymous sound. The village’s famously brightly multicoloured buildings arc around the bay, welcoming all with a warm embracing hug. This safe haven has been utilised for centuries. A Spanish galleon fleeing the armada’s downfall took refuge here. Mysteriously exploding in the middle of the night, lore tells of the local doctor who, for some reason sitting on deck at the time, was fortuitously blown to safety in the shallows. Fingers crossed all doctors have such luck here.