By cable railway up to Anoch Mhor
Today we go west. The sky is clear and the day starts quite cold with a temperature of minus 2. Where we can, we take small side roads, often dead ends, to fill in all the empty spots on our 3-years old battered map. The map is covered with adhesive tape, but we still use it because we mark all the roads we take, so we can see where we have been and where not. We haven't been in Glen Roy, for example.
Then we continue to the Nevis Range, an area not far from Fort William where we take a gondola onto the Anoch Mhor, with view on the Ben Nevis, the highest mountain in Scotland (and all of the UK).
The temperature is much better now (10 degrees Celsius) but there are still many skiers on the ski runs. This area is also a perfect place for long hikes. Thanks to the clear sky we have a nice view and inside the restaurant we take a warm cup of soup.
Then we take the road towards Malaig and visit the Treasures of the Earth museum along the road. It has a beautiful collection of gemstones, minerals and fossiles. When we go out, a busload of tourists arrives, so we have been just in time.
Now it is time to drive around for a while and enjoy the sceneries. Driving on single track roads we are feeling as if we are travelling through beautiful paintings.
Almost every 15 minutes we stop to take a picture, to just sit and enjoy the view or to take a short walk.
Every loch has its own colour, depending on the colour of the vegetation, the place of the sun and the colour of the clouds gliding over the loch.
Unexpected lovely places can be found everywhere in Scotland, and often one finds them when driving on a dead end road. Sometimes one can drive as far as 30 kilometers before the road ends and one has to drive back the same way. To the right Loch Arkaig, a bit north of Fort William.
Along one of these narrow dead end roads we come across two herds of red deer. The first herd is walking in the garden of an inhabited house. They look at our car when we drive by but they don't flee, so we can take some nice pictures.
Now and then we pass some falls and rockformations and every time we have to take a closer look, even if it means that we have to climb steep hills.
When we return at the end of the day to Fort William, to have something to eat and drink, we are very tired and we can feel all our muscles in our legs. Fort William is a touristic and pleasant village to stay for a few hours.
We take a look at Old Inverlochy Castle (see also on the Scottish castle page) before we return to our castle. It has been a long day and we are glad we have a nice place to relax. It has been a wonderful day and we still have the images in our minds of all the sceneries we have seen. One doesn't need whiskey in Scotland, it is possible to get drunk by inhaling the nature here!
© Teije and Elisabeth 2000 - 2012
Travel through Europe and Africa
with Elisabeth and Teije