June 24 - Arnisdale to Ft. Augustus

Do I even need to mention that we awoke to constant rain pounding on the windows of our B & B? We just accepted it, just like we accepted the fantastic scenery and friendly hosts. Just part of the trip... So anyway, we backtracked a mile or so to Arnisdale, to find the boat dock and our transport up Lock Hourn. We found Len easy enough, but the tide was out and our boat was sitting about five feet below the level of the dock. Thus it was quite a challenge to get our loaded bikes and ourselves down into the boat. But then we were on our way, and from the start it was obvious that Len was very experienced and we were in good hands. He talked about the hikers that he transports via his boat (there are three Munros, or 3000' peaks, right across the loch from our B&B). He pointed out an eagle aerie, and spots where seals could usually be found. Of course, none were "hauling out" on such a gloomy day. There were also isolated crofts along the loch, and an old road that was several hundred years old and was still used by the hikers.

Len Morrison, our boatman

At the far end of the loch, we put up at "Edward's Stairs", a set of stone steps that were built when King Edward visited at the turn of the 20th century. I guess Edward was a bit portly, and folks were worried that he might sink into the soft tidal zone. So they built him a stone stairway.

Back on the road, we started the stiff climb out of Kinloch Hourn. It was quite an interesting road, dipping and weaving like a shadowboxer as it negotiated boulders and cliffs.

Climbing out of Kinloch Hourne

Near the top of the ascent, I saw evidence of three different types of renewable electricity generation. 1) A wind turbine. This was a small one, probably only set up to generate enough electricity to power sensors of some sort. 2) Solar panels. Probably as a backup/compliment to the wind turbine. 3) Hydro. I passed over a sluice with a lot of water running through it, but I could not tell where it went. As I topped the rise at the end of the climb, I found the answer. The water was being directed, via tunnels, in the opposite direction into Loch Quoich. I didn't see any generators, but I guessed that this water redirection was to improve the availability of water for turbines at the dam, which was at the other end of the loch. It was curious to see, even with all the rain that had fallen in the past week, that Quoich was down about 10 feet from its normal water level. This made for a rather unattractive loch, the first one we'd seen all week.

Oh yes, did I mention rain? Well, it didn't let up until I reached the end of Loch Quoich, dropped down to Loch Garry, and passed its power plant. By this time, I had just about reached Invergarry, and I was getting hungry and cold. Found a decent cafe on the edge of town, and settled in for a long warm-up stay. Good soup, and the bread was tasty. Paul and Lynn had the same idea, and joined me after a short while. We discussed where their B&B was, since they were done for the day, and we decided to ask around. I had noticed a nice-looking place on the way into town, and it turned out to be their lodging. So I bid them farewell, since I had another 12 or so miles before I could reach Ft. Augustus.

I had a plan, which I formulated as I warmed up in the cafe. The official route had me going up onto the Great Glen Cycle Route, which was essentially a mountain bike route. This sounded too hard with my semi-loaded bike and with all the recent rains, the trails were probably muddy), so I decided to take the main route toward Ft. Augustus, and bail a couple miles later if the traffic was too heavy. I ended up taking the main route as far as Bridge of Oich, then bailed and instead used the Caledonian Canal towpath, which was nice enough. Rough, but rideable. The Bridge of Oich, by the way, is a couple hundred years old, and is one of the first suspension bridges in the world.

Bridge of Oich

The canal towpath took me right into Ft. Augustus. I decided to find my B&B and get into some dry clothes, then bike back to town for some food and maybe some touristy stuff.

I met a nice waitress at the internet cafe, and chatted with her for a while. She had a way of devoting full attention to me while we talked; it was a bit unnerving because the only time anyone had paid attention to me like that, was when they had some sort of romantic interest in me. Not a chance of that this time, but it was unnerving and pleasant at the same time.

I tried to check my mail from the cafe, but I could not establish a connection with my mail server. It turned out that someone had used my ID to hack into my service provider, and so my ID had been disabled. But of course I had no way to know this at the time.