We got to a late start because we were waiting for the express delivery of our mattress topper. Bill got email saying it would be delivered between 16:12 and 17:12. It was delivered at 16:12, precisely. We ripped it out of its packaging and were off. We spent three nights in Bunree. As we arrived late on Friday we drove to Fort William on Saturday for food shopping. We took a lovely walk along the Atlantic end of the Caledonian Canal, the other end of which we enjoy walking in Inverness. In Fort William it has eight locks in 400 metres and the rise is 19 metres. There are quite a few locks on the total length of the canal, must check online. Checked online, there are 29 locks. The shipwreck below is known as the Corpach Shipwreck, possibly the most photographed in Scotland with Ben Nevis behind, here in a cloud. It was originally a fishing vessel and ended up here after a giant storm tore it from its mooring. Sunday was dreich, that's Scots for dull, miserable, rainy. Lucky to have caught the sunset on Saturday. There must have been a dozen of us taking photographs on that shore. In the afternoon we took a local walk to get some exercise. It got better in the evening. This is one of our campsite neighbours leaving the site. Some just like it big. Big enough for two, do you think? On Monday we drove to Acharacle. We had planned to take the Corran ferry across to Ardnamurchan but it was not operating. This added some 30 miles to our trip via Fort William and Loch Eil. Just as well, perhaps, there are no shops in Acharacle apart from a very small village store. Filled up with diesel as well. Before going to the campsite we drove to Castle Tioram. It is always impressive, but would be more impressive at high tide. Low tide tends to look muddy. (See travels with Bertie April 2022) On the other hand, at high tide we might not be able to get to the castle. Its oldest parts date back to the 12th century. The campsite, Lochshiel, is small, nice, right next to River Shiel the Vikings used many, many years ago. Shortly after we arrived another campervan drove in. Are we following you? asked the lady. I don’t know, are you following us? I asked her. She remembered us from Bunree (Bruno’s bayleaf green is quite eye-catching), their campervan was at the other end of the campsite. They must have been walking past us walking their dog. We were planning to find the Singing Sands. Apparently they are quite a trek from the car park. But the day was warm and sunny and we felt lazy and decided to spend the day at the campsite. Took a short walk along river Shiel. 19 April, Wednesday, we drove to Kilchoan and on our way saw something quite interesting: Ben Hiant, the collapsed flank of a volcano that formed 60 million years ago as the North Atlantic began to open and Europe and North America to drift apart. We arrived on the Ardnamurchan campsite in Kilchoan soon after. We’ve been here before and like the place. Gorgeous views across to Mull. A couple in a red campervan from Lochshiel turned up later, Paul and Ishbel. They are doing this peninsula on their bicycles. On Thursday we drove to the Ardnamurchan Lighthouse on the westernmost point of mainland Scotland. Had coffee and sandwiches and shared a rocky road. The coffee last year was better, although this wasn’t bad either. We bought bookmarks, green leather this year. Last year we got blue ones. From here we drove to Sanna. We missed it last year because of lashing, horizontal rain. The Sanna sands are amazing! The water is amazing! Digital photos just don’t repeat the colours. You look at paintings by Scottish Colourists and think they are exaggerating. They are not. Different shades of blue, dark purple, turquoise and green. Amazing. The painting below is by FCB Cadell, painted on the Isle of Mull ca 1925, detail. scottish-gallery.co.uk Earlier this past winter I read a book by Alasdair Maclean, Night Falls on Ardnamurchan, found it in a charity shop. It was a hard life people living here had. Not much left of those buildings unless some of them have been transformed and extended over the years. We saw a few ruins. Must read the book again. On Friday we drove to Portuairk, a tiny village across the Sanna Bay. Bill had found a 100 year old photograph and wanted to see if he could find that place. We think he did. He took a picture of how it looks now. The houses are new, there is more vegetation but the mountain is the same. There is a mailbox in Portuairk. It gets emptied Mon – Fri at 10:30 am at the latest. On Saturdays at 7:00 am at the latest. Only on Sundays the postie doesn’t do his rounds. We saw the postie on our visit so we know it’s true. This place is remote. R-e-m-o-t-e. Google it, just for fun. On our way to the campsite earlier we saw houses by the sea in Kilmory. We thought we’d have coffee and maybe lunch there. However, there was nowhere to park so we turned back. At a fork in the road we took a wrong turn and ended up in Ockle, totally remote at the end of a hopelessly narrow single track road. I’m sure the postie does a daily run there as well. Yesterday we saw a white tailed eagle fly over us at the campsite. That’s a merikotka. Today we saw what must have been a golden eagle fly over us in Portuairk. That’s a maakotka. Majestic! 22 April we stayed in Glen Nevis for a night on our way to Portavadie. We walked over to the bar for a pint, cooked a meal of sausages and lentils. The internet was chronic. On our way to Glen Nevis we stopped at Camas Torsa on Loch Sunart and saw a familiar motorhome. It was the Lithuanian couple who stayed at Lochshiel. They were there even earlier when we drove to Kilchoan. Our stay in Glen Nevis was unplanned. The original pland was to take the Corran ferry avoiding a long drive. The Corran ferry was still not running. So we thought we’d take the ferry to Tobermory on Mull and the ferry from Craignure on Mull to Oban. The Oban ferry was fully booked for days so we had no choice but to take the long drive. There was a music festival on Mull and the Corran ferry not running didn't help. From the campsite we could see people come down Ben Nevis in the evening. It had been a sunny day and there were lots of people up there. It was quite dramatic seeing people come down as late as 22:00, in darkness, I'm sure even later but we fell asleep. We could only see their torches on the mountain side. 23 April On our way to Portavadie we stopped at Inveraray Castle. We meant to look at the gardens but started with the castle itself. There's been a castle on the shores of Loch Fyne since the 15th century but the castle we see today was built in the 18th century, inspired by the same architect who drew Blenheim Palace and Castle Howard. The castle as it stands now was the result of a fire in 1877 after which a third floor was added. It is the family home of the Clan Campbell. The castle looks nice and feels rather homey. There was nothing of interest in the gift shop. We had soup and sandwich for lunch in the coffee shop and decided to skip the gardens. We saw bits of it from the castle windows anyway. We were anxious to get to Portavadie and secure a good spot for Bruno (we got the old one) and the monthly membership for the spa. The first time in the spa we paid 10 pounds each per day. The young woman in the reception said if we come for a week we should pay for a monthly membership instead. That was 55 pounds for the two us. Only made sense. This is the off-season price, in-season it would have been 80 pounds. We booked eight swims. The sauna had been fixed but I could see them doing the bench soon again. It was sagging. From what we could tell, we were the only people taking a shower before and after sauna. It’s an electric sauna, no kiuas so no löyly but it’s quite good. I hadn’t realized how much I had missed the sauna. I swam 480 metres yesterday, 550 metres today. 26 April. We swam more yesterday and had a pint in the restaurant. It was a cold day. And today another swim. We were there a bit early so it was very quiet. Even later there were only three other people while we were there. Yesterday 640 metres, today 320 metres. We cut it a bit early as were taking the ferry to Tarbert. Bought a few essentials from the Co-op and decided to have lunch. The first place we went to we were first allowed to choose a table. Then the waitress was asked or told to move us to a table of two as they might get a party of four. The place was empty. The menu had different smorgas and Scandinavian inspired platters with vegan salmon and something else. We walked out. The waitress didn’t say a word. Further up the road was a cafe we had passed it earlier. There were lots of people in there which is a good sign. I had Cullen skink and Bill had smoked haddock goujons. Just plain, normal food. Nice. On the ferry back we both fell asleep. We had to be woken up when we got back to Portavadie. “That’s us, folks. We’re here!” Freydis, in Tarbert's harbour, is a 40 ft replica longship built Jan-May 2014 by volunteers in Tarbert It has since taken part in many Viking events. 30 April. According to original plans we were to arrive home today but we returned yesterday. We had our swim and sauna ja jacuzzi and infinity pool as normal but didn’t enjoy it much. There were lots of kiddies running around, splashing, making noise – well, kids do. Bill had been keeping an eye on the weather forecast and Sunday was going to be rainy all day. So after doing the lunch dishes Bill suggested we leave then. That was at 13:10. Twenty one minutes later we were packed and on our way. We drove via Loch Lomond and on our way drove the Rest and Be Thankful. It’s so called because the climb from Glen Croe is long and steep at the end, so once you get up there you take a rest and you are thankful for having reached the highest point. It is also one of places in Scotland with the highest risk of landslides and debris flow hazards. This has increased in the recent years due to the frequency of heavy and prolonged rainfall. Climate change? Nah… the Tories have nailed it. Whether it’s a landslide or snow blocking the road, the Scottish government is to blame… The picture is from traffic.gov.scot, I don't know how recent it is. There was certainly no damage to the road when we drove by. We drove through familiar places such as Killin and Aberfeldy and stopped at Bruar for fish and chips. We were home by eight.
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AuthorI'm Piisa and I will be sharing with you my thoughts on this and that, maybe even on whatever. Archives
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