The Inn on Loch Lomond just north of Luss looks OK online but the Trip Advisor comments made me wary. Had there been more options in the area at this time of year I would have heeded the warnings but there was very little choice so I booked their best room with a dinner and breakfast package for a great deal of money. The room with its glorious view over Loch Lomond was fine, until you looked at the wear and tear and the pretentious freestanding plastic bathtub without a shower which presented a real challenge for a couple of fat old farts come morning.
The food was average, morning service and selection rough, and the table sticky at both dinner and breakfast. Spend your money elsewhere.
Crossing the glacial terrain between Loch Lomond and Fort William took me back to 5th Form geography - that's Year 11 for all you young things - and it just made me want to slap a flat earther! We were looking at aeons of geological and climatic activity, not something that was pulled out of a cosmic magician's hat, along with the rest of the universe, in 3500 BC. The God I learned about in Sunday School was far smarter than that.
The Jacobite steam train trip out of Fort William to Malliag on the coast by the Isle of Skye was all we hoped it would be. It's a two hour ride each way through a taste of every kind of Scottish landscape from farmland to lochs, across more glacial terrain and then the seashore. Best of all was the magnificent sweeping curve of the Glenfinnan Viaduct of Harry Potter fame.
We sat with an American couple and their adult children on the way out and another American couple on the way out. All were very quick to apologise for Trump and assure us they hadn't voted for him which I'd taken as a given anyway. They were charming and interesting folk who were absolutely brimming with common sense which made me feel a little better about what America has allowed itself to become over the last six months.
Loch Lochy Accommodation Tip #1
Even at two and a half months out when I tried to book, accommodation was tight in the Highlands so we ended up in the last room at Corriegour Lodge on Loch Lochy between Fort William and a Loch Ness and it was wonderful. Design wise, Fawlty Towers immediately sprung to mind but the similarity ended there. Unlike the Inn on Loch Lomond, it was extremely well maintained and the staff showed a genuine interest in their guests. Breakfast was almost silver service and the whole experience was a glaring contrast to our precious night but enough of that.
I must say I wondered about the name of Loch Lochy. There are many lochs so had they simply run out of ideas and begun to double up or were we in Scotland's very own version of Wagga Wagga? The rather fortunate absence of teenage mothers smoking Winnie Blues completely scotched the latter idea.
The morning started off sunny but in rolled the cloud and then the rain. If there is a monster in Loch Ness it had plenty of cover. Never mind, we got the idea - it's very long, quite wide in parts, and holds a shitload of water. But don't go to the information Centre at Port Augustus hoping to learn anything about the geology and geography of the area. If it's not a postcard or souvenir you're after they can't assist.
We enjoyed the day nevertheless and the sky cleared whilst we were in Inverness so we did Scotland's most awarded garden centre which is mostly under cover anyway and I can see why. We did take a wee turn past Culloden but I'm not sure battles are things best remembered.
So off we went to Aviemore in Scotland's main ski area. We stayed at the Macdonald Resort which is like a university campus of hotels in a park-like setting with shops, restaurants, entertainment and Gough knows what else in the middle. For those of you who know, if this was the University of New England I'd say we were staying in Austin College. The rooms here are bigger but the rest is remarkably similar.
The dinner train on the Strathspey Railway was great fun but sadly not at all well patronised. Perhaps too many others had been faithfully promised an offal-free meal only to find their chicken breast oozing with oats and minced innards. Never mind, they rustled me up some pasta and a free bottle of wine by way of an apology and a good evening was had.
Next morning we set off on a six hour drive south to Durham and our good friend Lin and her very special wee Westie, Piper. There was plenty to see en route but we were pressed for time so may need to return to Scotland some other time - in fact, we will most certainly be back. Lin and I first met backpacking in America 39 years ago. She is an extremely important part of my life and a good many of you reading this are doing so because of the fortuitous bus-board meeting that ultimately brought so many of us into one another's lives. And isn't that exactly what it's all about?
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