Day 4 - Fort William to Balmacara

[vampyresheep]

The Road to the Isles...............

(lots of extreme prettiness coming up, will try my best not to go too overboard on the photo selection!)

Another gloriously sunny day! We were in two minds about going up the Gondola to Aonach Mor, as the views would have been spectacular today however figured that might mean a bit of a rushed day, so decided against it.  A wise move, given the stunning journey ahead but still a shame to have missed doing it.

First stop of the day was Neptune's staircase on the Caledonian canal, the longest staircase lock in the UK, which takes boats up to 2 hours to ascend! Rather impressive (difficult to portray in photos just how long the flight of locks was!)

 

we debated whether or not this was Ben Nevis in the background - it was, just didn't look as tall as I'd imagined.

We carried on from here up to the Commando Memorial, which in addition to being a rather touching war memorial, boasted some fantastic views of the Nevis mountain range, where we definately confirmed the above Ben Nevis query!
 

 

We didn't really know what to expect the rest of our route, thinking nothing could beat yesterday – surely there are only so many lochs and mountains one could get excited over?

The journey turned out to be a fascinating range of terrain, even wilder and more awe-inspiring than the trip through Glen Coe/Etive.

Firstly we continued along the Caledonian Canal and Loch Lochy, with another picturesque set of locks
 
Next we briefly stopped at Invergarry, seemingly a village rather proud of its public loo!  (honestly, I've never seen so many signs to a toilet before AND it was the only thing of note in the village!) 
The road then gradually ascended up to a mind-blowing aerial view of Loch Garry, complete with fully dressed up Bagpiper!
 

Next loch along was Loch Loyne, another stunning view albeit not as lushious and tree-lined but what made this site rather unique (and very nearly caused us an accident as we slammed the breaks on to view it!), was a mysterious collection of cairns on the mountain viewpoint overlooking the loch.
 

 


Online searches have revealed no explanation for this but it seems people just keep adding to it with their own little cairn (including Rob!)
 

Around another corner and it all became darker and more foreboding, lacking in vegetation and looking like something from another planet. Loch Cluanie was in the middle of this and the road ran directly alongside the loch, with sinister mountains looming over. We stopped briefly but i actually felt rather claustrophobic in such an opressive location. Fiercely wild, remote and beautiful in an austere way but opressive and scary at the same time.

  


Weirdly irrational maybe, but something made me feel very uncomfortable in this space and we still had to find somewhere to picnic for the day, so we didn't stay long and carried on.

This road continued down a gorge of sorts of sinister mountains drawing ever closer until we reached the edge of Loch Duich. Another change of terrain – the vegetation had returned and surrounded a beautiful but seaweed clad sealoch. My map showed a picnic site/view point above the village of Ratagan, so we ventured up the narrow winding road uphill, convinced we'd taken a wrong turn until we suddenly came across the viewpoint, high above Loch Duich, providing the most incredible sight. A perfect place for a picnic!
photos just can't convey how dizzily beautiful this view was, such a height and contrasting scenery that it brought on a touch of vertigo at first.
 

 

After lunch we headed back down the hill and round the loch to Eilean Donan Castle. A fairytale perfect scottish castle on a little island in the loch, It was quite a surprise to discover a fully furnished baronial property inside; the castle was restored from ruin between 1902 and 1937 to continue as the home of the McCrae clan into the 20^th Century.  In my original holiday plan, this for me was the official start of the holiday (rather than the journey to get here!); a castle i've always wanted to visit and the start of our North-west coastal route.
 

even from this viewpoint Rob couldn't work out yet where he knew the castle from - despite us only watching the film a couple of days before leaving!

"There can be only ONE!" ;-)

I could take photos within the grounds but not allowed indoors - which was a rather bizarre contrast of very formal Edwardian Baronial Scottish.
   

 

   



 

After a failed attempt to find a recommended aerial view of the castle and loch (this was the best we got!)
 

we headed to our B&B in Balmacara Square. We got slightly lost trying to find it – given that all the houses in the hamlet look identical! The village does have a slight "local people" feel to it, I'm sure the women in the village square were gossiping about the strange looking couple who'd checked into the B&B ;-)

For evening meal, we headed to the picturesque village of Plockton. We weren't expecting a narrow winding mountain road to get there, even less a village full of Highland Cattle roaming wild! The village of Duirinish, it turns out, is known for its wild roaming cattle and the sight of a family of coo's in the road made me squee out loud! Sadly i couldn't get my camera out in time to get a photo of the baby cows.

Plockton is twee, sheltered, colourful and oh-so-pretty.
 

 

 
After strolling along the harbour, we stopped for a drink in the Plockton Hotel, sitting in the waterside garden watching the tide come in.

For dinner we went to the village chip-shop. A traditional no-frills Scottish chippy – offering the delights of deep-fried haggis, black pudding, macaroni pie AND deep fried mars bars!

Rob, for some reason was underwhelmed by the cheesy wrongness that is macaroni pie, so finished off with the guaranteed coronary of the deep fried mars bar. He is glad to have finally tried one but can't say it was particularly enjoyable. :-)

We set off back to Balmacara before it started to get dark (although that happens so late here!) and at Duirnish, not only did we see more Coo's (and sheep!) but also a beautiful view of Skye in the sunset.
 

 


This led us to take the coastal detour back, more gorgeous roads, covered with sheep and lambs and stunning mountain views.  Finishing off at Kyle of Localsh harbour with a tantalising view of tomorrow's outing - Skye - across the water.

The rest of the night was spent at the B&B. Rob vegged out in front of the telly and me uploading photos and updating my ever-increasing holiday blog. Tadaah! :-)

and guess what, yet more photos here and on Facebook.

Comments

[sneprinsesse.livejournal.com]

Coos are cool!

We call them ku, "coo", in Norwegian as well:
En ku - kuen - kuer - kuene

[vampyresheep.livejournal.com]

I loved the Highland cows - or Coo's :-) Ridiculously cute with their long fringes and lovely horns. The calves were unbelievable too, looking more like Ewoks than cows! And it was amazing to see them just wandering round the village here.
Not sure exactly why they're jokingly referred to as Coo's in Scotland, I think its derived from how the Scots pronounce "cow" :-)

[sneprinsesse.livejournal.com]

I saw the play "39 steps" in London last year, and they had a lot of fun with the coo's and the hoos (house): "Whose coohoos is this" etc. We didn't really react to the jokes, because we say "coo" and "hoos" already! So, we fit right in in Scotland :)

The small coos look like sheep, cows, and dogs all in one. They are so cute!