Glasgow bound

We were off again by 9am to make our way back to Glasgow. Today is the first day that we have woken to a cloudy sky, so we are now experiencing the ‘real’ Scotland according to everyone. We headed to Glenelg to catch the ferry across to the mainland which is about 600 metres away! We decided to take this option instead of the bridge as the ferry is the last “turntable” ferry left in Scotland. As we waited for the ferryman, we saw some seals swimming about. We also got nipped by the midges which is bloody annoying. Finally we boarded the ferry which only has capacity for our smallish bus and two cars and before you could whistle Dixie we arrived in Kylerhea.

After a quick toilet stop we headed back down through the highlands to Fort Augustus and Loch Ness. Today the landscape is quite different with the low hanging clouds, mist and grey skies but still very beautiful.

Fort Augustus was very busy with tourists, luckily we arrived before noon and so before the big influx of tourists busses at 12.30. We found a lovely little pub to have a light lunch before heading out to explore the town and down to the banks of Loch Ness. We also walked along the staircase of the five locks which are part of a larger lock system that goes across to Fort William and Neptune’s Staircase.

As we head south towards Glasgow we made two more stops, the first at the small town of Spean Bridge and the last at the most beautiful town called Pitlochry, will definitely have to revisit at some stage as we only had an hour here. As we left the highlands and crossed over to the lowlands we passed Stirling Castle, which looked quite impressive from afar.

For the entire trip our bus driver and tour guide Gary played some wonderful music that had some connection to Scotland, so we heard the Proclaimers, Rod Stewart, Lewis Capaldi, Bay City Rollers, The Red Hot Chilli Pipers, Annie Lennox, Mark Knopfler and a whole lot more which really added to the experience. As we said our good byes and bid everyone farewell the rain began to fall, only lightly but still by the time we walked to pick up the keys for our Airbnb, our suitcases from the station and made our way back to our apartment we were knackered. The apartment is lovely and comfortable and centrally located. We went out to a local Italian restaurant for dinner and had an early night.Read more