Fort William and Beyond.

113.7 Miles. Now at Movich Club site at Shiel Bridge.

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Seemingly wild  lilac coloured Rhododendrons have lined the roads through the Lake District and Scotland

Today’s plan was to travel from North Ledaig to Fort William and then onto our camp near Kyle of Lochalsh. Well the first stage of our plan went off without a hitch, even managing to find a Morrison’s Supermarket and petrol station with cheap diesel. We were most impressed with the local authorities as they not only provided one park for motorhomes but two. Each car park had it’s designated area’s for coaches, lorries, motorhomes and caravans with stern warnings that car drivers stay well away as there is plenty of other parking for them. Pity a few more local authorities don’t do the same.

Bridge over Loch Leven where it joins Loch Linnhe at Ballachulish.

Fort William where the local authorities welcome motorhomes.

Peace bell in Fort William after the WWII bombing of Hiroshima.

Dot picking up strange men again.

Our old hotel in Fort William where we stayed in 1995.

We had a good look around the town and found the hotel we stayed in back in 1995. It hadn’t changed much and looked as busy as ever. We decided that we may as well have lunch before we moved on as we had paid £1.50 for all day parking. Leaving Fort William we should have been at our next camp site in just over an hour however I had made a miscalculation with a road closure on the A87. I had wrongly worked out that the closure was well past our destination so was of no consequence. When we reached Invergarry where the road closure began I realised my mistake and we had to follow a 14 mile deviation via Invermoriston and the A887 which is a bit of a slalom course being quite windy and dropping several hundred feet in altitude in the process.

Fort William. Church for Sale.  No reasonable offer refused.

Spean Bridge and the Commando Memorial to those who died in WWII, located in the shadow of Ben Nevis still with a little snow on.

Aonoch Mor with Ben Nevis hidden in cloud to the right.

A tug passing through the swing bridge on the Caledonian Canal  at Loch Oich.

Bridge closed traffic can resume their journey.

However this deviation did give us a pleasant surprise in that at Fort Augustus we came across the Caledonian Canal running into Loch Ness. The road goes over a swing bridge at the base of a 5 staircase lock in which two cruisers and a foreign registered yacht were part way up. Here again we found the local authorities had provided ample parking for all concerned so for a mere 60p we were able to stay a while and inspect this canal. The locks are as big if not bigger than those on the Thames, the only difference being there were 4 lock keepers on hand to work the boats through even though everything is electric/hydraulic. Eat your hearts out London! Alongside the locks is a information centre/shop run by BW selling souvenirs and all sorts of literature on the canal and the Invergarry to Fort Augustus Railway.

Staircase locks at Fort Augustus on the Caledonian Canal.

These three working their way up the staircase locks at Fort Augustus on the Caledonian Canal.

Hold tight fella's.

Lock keepers cottage at Fort Augustus on the Caledonian Canal.

Piper at Fort Augustus on the Caledonian Canal.

This railway which of course no longer exists except in very ornate bridge remnants was dubbed the railway that should never have been. With expensive battles with parliament, North British Railways and the Highland Railway it finally opened but was never successful costing shareholders dearly. The line opened in 1896 but the directors ran out of money in 1903 so the Highland Railway were authorised to run it under lease for 10 years. Highland Railways pulled out in 1907 leaving it to the North British Railway to operate. This only lasted until 1911 when the line closed. Two years later it was reopened and in 1914 North British bought the line. Of course the NBR was amalgamated into the LNER in 1923 who ran the line for passengers until 1933 and freight until 1947 when the line closed for ever.

Bridge to nowhere. All that remains of the Glengarry to Fort Augustus Railway.

All that remains of the Glengarry to Fort Augustus Railway over Loch Ness.

With this extra sight seeing we were of course now running quite late to reach our camp site before the Wardens knocked off for the day. Luckily we had a good run through and reached the camp just before 5pm. Checking in was as usual with the usual drive around and find a site. Well we drove around and there were only 2 sites available both at least a metre too short for us. Returning to the office we were sent to another part of the camp that they had been reluctant to use as it was a narrow dead end. Dot and I walked to this area first and, yes we found empty sites but again all to short. Back in the office I told the warden/receptionist that we were no further forward and I was just about ready to ask for a refund and go elsewhere. The lady was obviously getting stressed with new arrivals, my problem and another customers complaint of no electricity when she suggested I take a look at the car park area for the tents where there were power supply points. This we checked out and found that we could fit on the site sideways rather than length ways but the power supply was locked off. Back to the office once more where I was told that the warden would come and unlock it for us. Sure enough the warden, a dour Scotsman came and unlocked the supply but he obviously wasn’t a happy chappy. I think this all deserves an email to H.Q as we had booked in plenty of time and they knew the size of our motorhome so they should have been prepared for it. There were several sites large enough for our motorhome but they were occupied by smaller motorvans. All it needed was a little forward planning as other sites have done.

A total of 3078 miles, since 5 March 2011