Keith and I had rather a disturbed night as our bed was on the small side. It was probably a normal double but as we're used to a Super-King, we felt like we'd slept on top of one another all night!
Breakfast was included in our room rate which I thought was a bargain (£129 for the lodge, for the three of us) so we all went off to the hotel after showering and dressing. The breakfast room looked out over a riding area and would have been lovely if the sun had been shining, which it wasn't...
We helped ourselves to cereal, fruit and toast before going back for cooked food and very good it was as well. It set us up for the day! We sat at a table right next to a huge TV screen and watched the BBC news from London which was a bit bizarre!
After we'd breakfasted we packed everything up and bid a fond farewell to our little lodge. Hopefully, one day I will return!
I drove this morning and we made our way through the stunning scenery to Loch Lomond. After crossing the Erskine Bridge we stopped for diesel in Dumbarton and then entered the Loch Lomond and the Trossachs National Park. The road by the lake was very twisty indeed and covered frequently in huge puddles of water.
The views were stunning and luckily I didn't come across any slow caravans on the way! I was part of a convoy of vehicles (inevitable) but we all drove at a reasonable speed and very soon we were coming into Glencoe, an area that always looks very forbidding. Every other time we'd been through Glencoe I'd wanted to stop at the Visitor Centre and today we did. I was badly in need of a coffee and I wanted to find out a bit more about the massacre in 1692 when the Campbells slaughtered the MacDonalds who had been their hosts.
We went and had a cup of coffee and then ventured out to the viewing point. By now, the sun had come out, briefly, and it was great to see Glencoe clearly for a change! When we found out that it cost £8.00 each to visit the Glencoe exhibition we rapidly changed our minds about going in and went back to the car. Mum called me and said that everything was fine with work and they were inching closer to a completion date.
Fort William and the saga of the missing jeans...
From Glencoe we headed towards Fort William as we had decided to go and search for a new pair of jeans for Sophie. She discovered, last night, that she'd left a pair of black jeans at home, around which most of her wardrobe was based. We found out that there was a branch of M&Co in Fort William and I suggested she try and get a pair there.
The last time Keith and I were in Fort William was years ago and we were disappointed with the town then. I'd imagined it would be like a small Alpine town, full of trekking shops, tea rooms and cosy restaurants and pubs but we were sadly mistaken. Things hadn't changed...
We parked near the town and discovered that there was some kind of French market going on with stalls selling Bratwurst and other European delicacies. We made straight for M&Co but Sophie looked at the shop as if it smelt bad and although she tried on a pair of slimfit jeans, they certainly weren't suitable.
We left and walked on a little distance with Sophie comparing the town to "Dartford, only in the north". I did try and warn her! Rather than re-trace our route back to Corran and the ferry over Loch Linnhe, we decided to drive around the lake and see if there were any suitable pubs along the way. This single track road was beautiful and half way along we pulled in by the side of the loch and ate some of our picnic that we'd left the previous day.
We could see Fort William on the other side. I'm sure you can also see Ben Nevis on a clear day.
It was very peaceful and I did envy the people who lived with these views all the time. We kept a lookout for creatures in the loch but didn't see a thing. We did see lots of sheep, though, some of which were grazing on the road and were completely oblivious to me driving past!
We arrived at Ardgour (where the ferry runs) and called into The Inn at Ardgour for a drink. It looked promising for an evening meal as it was only 12 miles from Strontian where we were staying. Keith was delighted to find they stocked the Belhaven Speyside Ale so I joined him in a bottle. It was considerably cheaper than in The Wheelhouse last night!
The long and winding road...
From Ardgour we drove onto the Ardnamurchan Peninsula, the most westerly point of mainland Britain. Once we arrived in Strontian and found directions to our B&B we drove on to find out where our boat trip would start from. We wanted to find out how long it would take us as the road is just a single trackway with passing places and the last thing we wanted was to be late the next day!
Unfortunately, Sophie wasn't keen on the very twisty road. It was fine from Strontian to Salen, but then it became even narrower and skirted a loch which meant it went up and down and in and out and it felt like being on a roller coaster! It took us forty minutes to do the trip and then I had to drive back. I had to concentrate hard for every single minute as an oncoming car could appear at any minute and if we were unlucky it would be just as we drove past a passing place and one of us would have to reverse. Not a good idea when the sides of the road fell away to the loch! I'd had ideas of carrying on along this road to Sanna Bay where the sand was supposed to be white and the sea turquoise, but:
a) The weather was horrendous
b) It would probably have taken us another hour and a half and then we would have had to drive all the way back
c) Sophie would probably have killed me with her bare hands.
Luckily, on the return route I tagged onto a tanker going the same way and as he filled the road I was able to hang onto his shirt tails and follow him closely all the way to Salen. He blundered his way through with oncoming drivers having no choice but to stop for him, with little old me following closely behind! Just after the pretty village of Salen he pulled over to let me overtake and then it was up to me to look out for oncoming cars!
At 4pm we were more than ready to check into our B&B but it was still a two mile trek up a hillside. By now I was very tired from all the driving and just as I was about to make a tight turn onto an even smaller road to the B&B the road was blocked by a van coming out of the turn. It was the last straw for me as I had to continue up the road and then try and do a three point turn on a narrow stretch of road. I lost my temper a bit and then became even grumpier when I realised I still had some way to go and the entrance to Heatherbank B&B was blocked by a closed gate!
It was a huge relief when we finally arrived and parked the car. We were met by Pippa who showed us to our rooms and explained about breakfast and offered to book us a table at a local hotel for dinner. We unpacked and changed for the evening and drove back down the track to The Strontian Hotel.
By now the weather had become even worse with a constant drizzling rain and a heavy mist covering Loch Sunart. We settled ourselves into a seat in the Bothy Bar and watched as numerous people traipsed in, all dripping wet from the rain. I have to say, we all wondered what we were doing and whether we'd made the right decision! At one point I felt as if we'd entered the twilight zone! Sophie looked at us as if we'd dragged her to the most godforsaken spot on earth and I did feel sorry for her! In a weird kind of way it was enjoyable to be sitting in a cosy bar and doing a spot of people watching but my daughter certainly didn't appreciate her surroundings!
Keith fell out with the barman (he called him Uncle Fester from the Adams family) as the first pint he tried was terrible and he left most of it. He then went on to drink a bottled beer which cost a whopping £5 a bottle!
I discovered that it's not a good idea to look up a restaurant's menu online as I'd been salivating over the thought of their chicken, stuffed with haggis and served with a whisky cream. Of course, it wasn't on the menu and I had to choose from dull dishes such as lasagne, pasta, chicken curry or fish and chips. There was venison casserole on the specials board, thankfully, so I opted for that as it was the only authentic Scottish food I could see, while Keith went for the fish and Sophie chose the pasta Napoli.
The hotel was very busy with lots of different nationalities eating there. Heaven only knows what they thought of the atrocious weather! The food was good, but not outstanding and we decided we'd try somewhere else the next night. Sophie left most of her pasta (the serving was huge) so we were a subdued little group by the end of the evening and longing for our beds! It had been a busy day!
Back at the B&B Keith and I had a small dram of whisky that we'd bought in the village shop earlier and we all snuggled into our bed to watch TV. Thankfully, Sophie had her own room with a double bed so she was happy!
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