Well it's a couple of days later, but I am still nackered! Done a hell of a lot of driving over the weekend (around 500 miles). I drove from Edinburgh to Kennacraig, caught the ferry at Kennacraig and then toured the whole island over the weekend.

It was worth it though. Islay is very beautiful. There are lots of people on the island, but to travel down the roads, you wouldn't think so. It's great for motorbikes. You could travel 30 minutes down a road without seeing another car, and some of the views are spectacular. The main reason for going to Islay would be for the whisky distilleries, although you need to book most of them and quite irritatingly, a lot of the tour times clash. We managed to get to Laphroaig, Bruichladdich, and Caol Ila. My favourite had to be Caol Ila as it overlooks the island of Jura. There are some cracking views from Portenhaven

I guess that's the other reason you would go to Islay; the scenery. Some of it is nothing short of breath-taking, and the rest of it is, at least, beautiful. The Machir beach on the south-west of the island is completely unspoiled, except for the odd dog turd, lovingly left by the dog of a local. This white sandy beach is probably two or three miles long, and overlooks the Atlantic Ocean. Best of all, it is generally completely deserted.

Downsides: Port Ellen seems a bit rough, although it probably is OK. We didn't stay there for long, but some of the streets seemed a bit imposing. There was also some fighting outside the local pubs in Bowmore. I suppose that's no different anywhere else in the world, but if you're living on a small island which has quite a high dependancy on tourism for survival, violence can be a bit offputting for the casual tourist. Some of the roads are complete dead-ends, but you don't find out until you've driven for a number of miles! Obviously the locals will know that these roads are dead-ends but I think it should be made more clear for tourists. If you're English, it's probably best to avoid some places when the Scottish national football is on telly!

Apart from those few points, Islay is great. It's a place you can really go to relax. You can park up pretty much anywhere outside the main towns and you'll hear nothing but silence. Traffic is a thing of the past. You're more likely to be held up by cows on the road than cars, although I did see one traffic jam constituting of around 15 cars! Wow!

The locals are amazingly friendly, and they really go out of the way to help you out. I was trying to find out whether or not a distillery tour was on, and the hotel manager called the distillery up and organised a time for us to go!

When you're out driving, most of the locals driving in the opposite direction will wave at you to say hello! Brilliant. I bet you don't get that in big-ass London.

I can thoroughly recommend the Bridgend Hotel as a great place to stay. The staff are extremely helpful, and the hotel is across the road from a petrol pump (there are no petrol 'stations' to speak of, on the island) and a convenience store. The rooms are really nice and to say I was staying in a single room, that's the biggest single bed I've seen! I'm 6' 4" tall and a shade under 20-stone (125 kilos or so) and I was absolutely comfortable.

One final thing, if you can manage it, ensure you go to Jura. It's amazingly beautiful, and the ferry is only five minutes from Port Askaig to Feolin. The ferry travels across every half hour during the week, and whilst you're waiting, you can have a meal in the friendly hotel/pub at the edge of the jetty.

Anyway, as you can tell, I'm more than impressed with Islay and I will consider going back there next year, when the distillery open days are available.

 GC