Our Travel Blog

As usual, I quickly run out of titles. Today was our final full day staying in Spean Bridge. Now the younger generation have departed life has become less hectic and bed times have become earlier. I think that the alcohol consumption has also reduced!!

Today we decided to visit the Cairngorms mountain range and ski area.

On the way up we passed the Laggan Dam, which was built back in 1934 to supply water for Aluminium smelter in Fort William. Water from those dams is fed 3 miles via tunnel to another loch, and then via a 15 mile tunnel through the mountains to Fort William. Quite a feat of engineering in its day.

We continued on towards the Cairngorms with a quick stop for coffee.

We then had a longer unplanned stop at the Highland Folk Museum. This was an outdoor museum depicting life in the Highlands over the last two hundred years or so. I’ll just dump a whole load of pictures with captions where needed.

The first building we saw was a Blackhouse, it was stone building with a moss and turf roof. It appear animals and family shared the place.

We were then disturbed by a train! Two engines for for a single piece of freight seemed a little excessive!!

Next stop was the school, the time table was very similar to what I remember as a kid, there was also a board laying out the rules for real “joined up” writing!

In the picture below, does any one have any idea what the metal circles with the hanging hook/spike might be?

Another house was probably from the late ’40s early 50s.

Below is a table laid with a weeks worth of (rationed) food for one person for a week. Rationing following WWII was not completely finished in the UK until 1953.

Some old street signs, post box and telephone box.

And of course the Highland Cows

Steam engines used on the farm

Sorry, this is a little rushed towards the end, it takes longer than I expected to sort the photos on a tablet rather than a laptop!

We’ve just returned from Lyn’s brothers house where we had our “last supper” in Spean Bridge. Tomorrow we head off to the east coast in preparation for a whale watching trip and the start of the NC500 drive.

After another pre 8AM start we picked up our daughter and headed north to the Inverness Airport to drop her off for her flight to London. Towards the end of Loch Ness we finished up following a slow beer lorry (truck), and I got in one of my rare overtakes. It appears that no one else managed to pass the lorry as there were no cars behind us for many miles. Then heading in the opposite direction we saw a number of police cars and ambulances speeding down with blue lights and sirens going. Hopefully this wasn’t as the result of some someone trying an unsuccessful overtake.

On our return through Inverness we stopped to do our first hoarding of British Chocolate event at the local supermarket. We usually return home with a few pounds of chocolate and British biscuits (cookies) that we can’t get in Canada!

Miraculously, a craft store also appeared on our route. more “stuff” was bought!

Rather than take the main road back which runs on the west side of Loch Ness, we opted to take the smaller road on the east side. Although reasonably well maintained, this road is single track with passing places in many spots. Interesting driving

As well as the daffodils that are all over the place here, they grow wild, we found some primroses,

and some rhododendrons

In addition to plant life we spotted some Highland Coo’s (Highland Cows)

At places along the road we were quite high above Loch Ness, in the view below the Loch is in the background.

We continued down to the southern end of the Loch stopping along the way for lunch.

Our next stop was Fort Augustus, the road we were on was quite high again at this point and we looked down on the town. In the foreground is the Abbey where some of Lyn’s family went to school.

We then joined up with the road from the other side at Fort Augustus. Here we caught our only sighting of the Loch Ness Monster (Nessie)

We also saw a small cruise boat transiting the locks of the Caledonian Canal. This boat was originally built in Ireland as a fishing vessel and then converted to a small cruise boat that travels around the inland waterways and the Scottish Islands.

In Fort Augustus the Caledonian Canal the River Ness run alongside each other.

From Fort Augustus we headed back to Spean Bridge. We spent a quite evening with Lyn’s brother Robert in his Chalet on the River.

UPDATE:

There was indeed an accident right behind us that closed the road in both directions for 2.5 hours. Two people injured and 1 man charged. We were lucky a) not to be involved and b) not to have been delayed, as this would have meant another missed flight for our daughter!!

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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