The top two pics are looking back to the Ben Nevis range, then the pub barge.
Day 44 - Mon May 18th. Starting the Great Glen today, and we really feel we are on the homeward run now. We are going to up our mileage from 20 to 25 per day, which should get us to John O'Groats next Monday 25th! Yolanda has arranged accommodation till the 26th and will carry our kit, ferry us to and from our start and end points and meet us at lunchtime with picnics. This makes life a great deal easier than it otherwise would be, of course, but the challenge is to walk the distance and this simply mitigates the endurance required. If we wanted to spend more time on it, for instance, stretch it out to 60 days or more as we had originally planned, then our goals would be rather different, but we both want to get back to our lives as soon as we can. In particular, I want to get back to my wife of one year!
Grey skies today and showers were forecast. I set off at 8:30 and walked the couple of miles to the canal where John met me. The Caledonian Canal links Inverness in the east with Fort William and the Atlantic Ocean in the west via the Great Glen lochs. It is a much bigger affair than the narrow boat canals that criss-cross England so was built to take bigger boats and cargoes. It brought a great deal of employment and improvement of access to this region when it was built, which must have been a herculean task considering the amount of hard rock that had to be moved without machinery. There are extensive lock systems which, at Fort William, are made up of 9 huge sets of gates. All of this is well maintained but seems to be used for pleasure boating and other leisure activities now. Later on in the day we were to walk on a redundant railway line that was another great 19th century project at the time, to build a mainline standard railway from the east to the west. This failed, apparently, because of competing railway companies not being able to agree and combine their efforts, so it was never completed.
We walked for several miles along the canal, then followed the length of Loch Lochy on the north bank through a pleasant mixed forest. Most forests we walk through are dense coniferous commercial forests, but mixed woodland is far nicer for interest, beauty and wildlife. We were aiming for a hamlet called Clunes for lunch. This was arranged around a very pretty part of the loch and we were surprised to see some rather large houses being built as it s very remote. In fact there seems to be quite a lot of new development in this part of the highlands. Yo was there in the car waiting for us with lunch and, having set up picnic chairs and enjoying some soup, we felt very smug, until the rain stated to fall. However, we did get a little rest and some proper lunch which we will need now we are doing more miles.
Just a few yards down the road, we were greeted by a lady who said she was warden of the trail, offering us a cup of tea or coffee! Had we known, we could have avoided the rain, but as it was we had a chat the continued on our way. The route continued through the woods on the Loch Lochy lakeside for several miles, then turned east and crossed a road and the canal at Laggan. I was hoping for some refreshment, and we found a barge that advertised itself as a pub. Going down into the interior, we came upon a very jolly scene, with lots of hikers and cyclists enjoying a drink and the atmosphere. We had a pint and a toasted tea cake, which were both very welcome indeed and got talking to some people in the bar who donated £25 to our charity - what a thoroughly worthwhile stop! In fact we were in such a good mood, we didn't really mind that it was still raining outside.
The remainder of the walk was the length of Loch Oich along an old railway track that has been long defunct and who's sides are now completely covered with very deep layers of moss. Loch Oich is quite small and pleasant to walk along with some islands and shallow reedy places. There were a few campers trying to get fires going in the wet conditions. We, however, were met by Yo in the car and whisked off to our B&B in Drumnadrochit.
We had a very nice dinner at a local pub/hotel and then I made an attempt to play in the bar, which rather fell flat, so I stopped and we went back to our lodgings. Disappointing for the second time, but surprising as in Scotland in my experience live music goes down pretty well.
I did about 26 miles today and John a bit less as I had the extra bit at the beginning.
Grey skies today and showers were forecast. I set off at 8:30 and walked the couple of miles to the canal where John met me. The Caledonian Canal links Inverness in the east with Fort William and the Atlantic Ocean in the west via the Great Glen lochs. It is a much bigger affair than the narrow boat canals that criss-cross England so was built to take bigger boats and cargoes. It brought a great deal of employment and improvement of access to this region when it was built, which must have been a herculean task considering the amount of hard rock that had to be moved without machinery. There are extensive lock systems which, at Fort William, are made up of 9 huge sets of gates. All of this is well maintained but seems to be used for pleasure boating and other leisure activities now. Later on in the day we were to walk on a redundant railway line that was another great 19th century project at the time, to build a mainline standard railway from the east to the west. This failed, apparently, because of competing railway companies not being able to agree and combine their efforts, so it was never completed.
We walked for several miles along the canal, then followed the length of Loch Lochy on the north bank through a pleasant mixed forest. Most forests we walk through are dense coniferous commercial forests, but mixed woodland is far nicer for interest, beauty and wildlife. We were aiming for a hamlet called Clunes for lunch. This was arranged around a very pretty part of the loch and we were surprised to see some rather large houses being built as it s very remote. In fact there seems to be quite a lot of new development in this part of the highlands. Yo was there in the car waiting for us with lunch and, having set up picnic chairs and enjoying some soup, we felt very smug, until the rain stated to fall. However, we did get a little rest and some proper lunch which we will need now we are doing more miles.
Just a few yards down the road, we were greeted by a lady who said she was warden of the trail, offering us a cup of tea or coffee! Had we known, we could have avoided the rain, but as it was we had a chat the continued on our way. The route continued through the woods on the Loch Lochy lakeside for several miles, then turned east and crossed a road and the canal at Laggan. I was hoping for some refreshment, and we found a barge that advertised itself as a pub. Going down into the interior, we came upon a very jolly scene, with lots of hikers and cyclists enjoying a drink and the atmosphere. We had a pint and a toasted tea cake, which were both very welcome indeed and got talking to some people in the bar who donated £25 to our charity - what a thoroughly worthwhile stop! In fact we were in such a good mood, we didn't really mind that it was still raining outside.
The remainder of the walk was the length of Loch Oich along an old railway track that has been long defunct and who's sides are now completely covered with very deep layers of moss. Loch Oich is quite small and pleasant to walk along with some islands and shallow reedy places. There were a few campers trying to get fires going in the wet conditions. We, however, were met by Yo in the car and whisked off to our B&B in Drumnadrochit.
We had a very nice dinner at a local pub/hotel and then I made an attempt to play in the bar, which rather fell flat, so I stopped and we went back to our lodgings. Disappointing for the second time, but surprising as in Scotland in my experience live music goes down pretty well.
I did about 26 miles today and John a bit less as I had the extra bit at the beginning.
What a beautiful journey, guy! And beautiful photographs! Hazard brought me to yout blog. Nice to visit you.
ReplyDeletePopinga (Milan, Italy)