Our Travel Blog

Last night was another party, this time it was for family plus friends from the village. Us being the responsible adults left around 1130PM, other members of the family hung on until 2AM or so. They looked a little fragile this morning!

The more adventurous of our family decided to go on a two hour hike along part of the Great Glen Way, hangovers and rain were not going to deter them!! The more sensible of the family, Lyn and I plus junior grandson decided on a hike of our own…… in the car!

There were a couple of back road loops that we could drive, so we did.

There are plenty of sheep around here, and it is lambing season.

These were not the youngest lambs we had seen, but it was the best I could do today.

Below is a general view across the same field the sheep were in, the mountains in the background are obscured by low cloud.

A view in the opposite direction.

All along the roadside were bright yellow gorse bushes which added some welcome color on a dreary day.

Bringing back a previous category “View From the Front Seat”, albeit blurred from the rain, this the single-track road we were on for most of the morning

As we came off the back road we passed Neptune’s Staircase again, and then hit a traffic jam. The majority of the bridges across the Caledonian Canal are swing bridges and this one was just opening.

The sailing boat that went through had come up from Brixham in Devon, on the South West coast of England.

Tonight “should” be quite night with a pub meal for those of us who haven’t left yet. Tomorrow we will take our daughter up to the airport so that she can fly down to London to spend time with her friend. This requires a pre-8AM start!

Now we had the whole Canadian family gathered, it was time to do some local touring. We first headed off to Old Inverlochy Castle which was build in the 13th century. Unfortunately it is now fenced off, but in previous trips we were able to walk right through the ruins.

Next stop on the whistle stop tour was Neptunes Staircase. This is a series of 8 locks on the Caledonian Canal system wwhichere originally built in 1803. The Caledonian Canal sytem joins a series of lochs (Scottish for lakes) and effectively cuts Scotland in half from Southwest to Northeast. It allows water transport to travel from the Atlantic Ocean to the North Sea.

We stopped at the locks for coffee, and then moved on to Glenfinnan for the next stop. Up until recently Glenfinnan was famous for its memorial to the Jacobite uprising, and was erected in 1814. More info at Glenfinnan Monument – Wikipedia.

More recently Glenfinnan has become popular through the Harry Potter movies as this is where the viaduct is that the Hogwarts Express passes over.

It seems they don’t like drones flying around!

Final stop on the tour after lunch was the White Sands of Morar. These are small sandy beaches on the coast nestled between rocky outcrops.

We headed back to Spean Bridge to grab a nap before the evenings party. This was the the Aniversary day for David and Liz, and family arrived from Scotland, England, South Africa and Canada. A great night was had by all!!

Our daughter, Catriona, missed her connection at Heathrow so we drove up to Inverness to pick her up. The journey is about 60 miles on what they laughingly call a main road around here. In reality it is a twisty turny up hill downhill unlit 2 lane road, that is far better suited to MGB driving!!! Add to that, it was dark and raining, it was quite a trek there and back! We managed to get there and back in one piece, and made it back here by 2330.

Today we’re off sight seeing with the kids and grand kids. Hopefully we’ll have a few more photos tonight.

I am not sure whether it is because I am using a tablet rather than the laptop to write these entries, but when I read the published article the photos look “stretched”. If that is the case for you, then it appears that clicking on the picture brings it back to normal!

The posts on here for the first week or so probably won’t occur daily. This is because there will be limited traveling as we meet up with long lost family members. I’ll throw the odd post in we do anything interesting. Today we were meant to pick up our daughter from the airport at 0920, but Air Canada conspired to ensure she missed her tight connection in London. Unfortunately with only 2 daily flights this means she won’t be in until 2100 tonight.

We spent part of the day wandering around the village where Lyn was born, and then went down to the local town, Fort William. The place has changed! there is holiday traffic everywhere, meaning slow and stopped traffic everywhere! Damned tourists!!!!!

Just a couple of pictures, one of the bridge, one a view from the bridge and a view from the small railway station.

 

 

We arrived in Inverness about 10 minutes early. I know I’ll get in trouble
for this, but it felt like a third world arrival!! No jetway from the aircraft
to the terminal, no coach, we had to walk!! Not only did we have to walk it was cold, well 5C (41F). We were led past the arrivals terminal and about 150 yards further on into the International terminal. This was a little worrying as I had no idea the Scotland had separated from England during our flight! We went past the unmanned immigration booths into the baggage reclaim area. This didn’t seem right. We were the only arrival at the airport, but it still took over 30 minutes for the bags to come off the plane. At least ours were in the first 5 off. We then walked through the unmanned customs area and back the 150 yds to the main terminal building! It appears they close down all the services in the main building in the evening and use the pokey little hole call International arrivals instead.

We grabbed our rental car and headed off to our B&B. This we had a small,
but comfortable room and managed a good 10 hours of sleep last night, which was very welcome. Breakfast was a good “full English” (google it if you’re over the pond!). We then headed out to meet with one of Lyn’s brothers who lives in Inverness. I guess I should mention the main reason for the trip. Lyn’s eldest brother and wife are celebrating their 50th wedding anniversary, which has also become a family reunion.

From Inverness we headed South(ish) 60 miles to Spean Bridge where Lyn was born and where David, her eldest brother still lives. This involved a trip along Loch Ness, but it was obviously too cold for Nessie to put in an
appearance. Lyn was overjoyed to be back in the Scottish Mountains!

We arrived in Spean and grabbed some lunch, then headed to the guest house, our home for the next week. This guest house was built and operated by Lyn’s Aunt and Uncle about 60 years ago. The new owners were interested to hear some of the stories from the dark ages.

Later we went to visit David and Liz, and then met them for dinner in the
evening at one of the local hotels.

Only a couple of pictures so far, the view from out room looking towards the mountains and Ben Nevis.

 

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