Off cruising again

Well for the second morning this week, we've woken to some much needed, and very welcome rain.  It’s still raining now, which is good news not just for gardeners but also because it will help replenish dwindling water supplies. Without wishing to appear over virtuous, we have tried to limit our use of water a number of small ways. Still, every little helps as "the lady that pissed in the sea" said, but moving swiftly on, we’re banking on the rain stopping for Bank Holiday Monday and beyond. 

This is because Mrs PBT's and I are off on another jolly. It's a Round Britain cruise similar to the one that we did a couple of years ago on Cunard’s Queen Anne. This time, we're sailing on the smaller Ambience cruise ship, operated by Ambassador Cruises, and whilst it’s a similar route, the itinerary, is quite different, as the only ports that will be duplicated are Stornoway in the Hebrides, and Cobh in southern Ireland, pronounced "Cove”, as we’ve recently discovered. 

The cruise will take us to destinations
like Belfast, Kirkwall in the Orkney Isles, Tobermory in Mull, plus St Mary Port in the Isles of Scilly. Landing at the latter two destinations depends rather on weather conditions, as we’ll be leaving the boat by tender. Effectively this means one of the ship's lifeboats will transfer passengers ashore from the ship, because there aren't adequate birthing facilities at these two destinations.

I've been looking at pubs in these destinations and  the Crown Liquor Saloon is the obvious must visit stop, in Belfast. It’s facing competition though, as Mrs PBT's has her sights set on the Titanic Belfast set in the docks area of the port. This is highly appropriate, as the doomed ocean liner was built at the nearby Harland and Wolff shipyards. There’s obviously sufficient time to enjoy both attractions and perhaps experience a bit of the city as well.  An Irish colleague of mine isn’t over enamoured with Belfast, but as she’s a Derry girl, that’s perhaps understandable.

That’s Belfast sorted, but I’d welcome recommendations for classic and unspoilt pubs in Kirkwall, Stornoway, Tobermory, and the Scilly Isles. (Cobh is already sorted, with a visit to Professor Pie Tin’s former local). As for Mull, it’s an island that I’ve visited before, back in my student days, when I took part in a Botany field course. That was at the end of the second-year summer term, which saw us camping out in the grounds of a faded, former stately home. We spent two weeks on the island pretending to be botanists, and as a break from looking at the local flora, we nipped across to Iona, a small island just off the western tip of Mull, with a much greater religious significance, due to its connections with early Celtic Christianity. However, with a two hour journey by road, each way I won't be doing that again, although I noticed that the cruise line is offering excursions across to Iona, from Mull.

It’s worth mentioning that whilst Ambassador is a budget cruise line, the price of this particular cruise wasn't as good value as the voyage we experienced earlier in the year. That, of course, was our cruise to Norway – the one with the strong winds, high seas, and stormy conditions.  Mrs PBT's is keen on it this trip and I too am looking forward to what will be a welcome break, especially after all the brown stuff that’s been flying around recently at work. As with the Norwegian voyage, Ambience is sailing from Tilbury so, Bank Holiday traffic willing, it should be a relatively straight forward drive, from Bailey Towers.

I doubt that I'll be posting much, if anything, whilst we're away in view of the previous IT issues I've had with password recognition, Wi-Fi connectivity etc, but I shall be taking a good old-fashioned notebook with me, to record the salient parts. It will be good too to enjoy a digital detox, although as my good, lady wife is an unashamed telly addict I doubt I'll get much relief from the incessant outpouring of so-called “news” coming from the cabin’s TV.

Finally, I shall be taking a couple of books with me, although rather than the usual works of fiction, both are biographies of two very contrasting people.

Stalin’s Englishman: The Lives of Guy Burgess by Andrew Lownie is widely praised as the first truly comprehensive, deeply researched biography of Guy Burgess, one of the five infamous "Cambridge Spies" who betrayed their country to the Soviet Union, both before and after World War II. Burgess leaked high‑level intelligence, which influenced major events, from the Nazi–Soviet Pact to the Korean War and comes across as one of Britain’s most chaotic yet effective spies. He was also a right shit, by all accounts, although I shall reserve judgement until I have finished the book.

Too Close to the Sun: The Audacious Life and Times of Denys Finch Hatton is widely regarded as an atmospheric, and well researched biography of one of the most enigmatic figures of colonial East Africa. Author, Sara Wheeler reveals a fully knowable man, who nonetheless remains elusive, despite the myth, and the magnetic charm that made him legendary. During his time in East Africa, Hatton enjoyed a passionate relationship with Danish settler, coffee grower and author, Karen Blixen, who wrote about her experiences in the best seller, "Out of Africa".