0 Last Scotland

The first part of this route (as taken off the TomTom and viewed in Tyre) is the A86. Superbly surfaced with grippy overlay on the bend. In the dry it must be superb. In the on-off wet it was still pretty good.

It is clear from this view that the loop top the east to get to Balmaha was a lot longer than the west back of Loch Lomond route.

Detail: Last Scotland

0 Scotland 4

Once again we were up early and down for breakfast for 8am when the restaurant opened. This time it was a serve yourself buffet and I guess had we wanted to, we could have gone mad. In the end a couple of pieces of toast and some bacon and eggs sufficed. Did I mention the third and final haggis of the trip?

The odometer showed 1800 miles before the start and so I took Dora's pic!

As we had a relatively short run down to Manchester again and so we thought about a side trip to see a little of the country.  After the planned fuel stop near Lockerbie, we set Gretna Green as the next port of call.

I thought it would be about the right time for a coffee break and something of a tourist trap.   And we were right.  I had imagined it to be a town, but it seemed more like a complex built around the Blacksmith's Forge where people eloped to get married.

There was a wedding party there, but we didn't stop to look. As was par for the course the weather was intermittent rain and a little dry.

No Scottish tourist site would be complete without a piper.

After coffee and then we were off, this time via Windermere.  We should have stopped in Ambleside as Windermere itself seemed to have nothing going for it.  Loads of traffic and holidaymakers.  Terrible.

We then headed across to the M6 and the remainder of the journey to Auntie's house.  On arrival we met favourite cousin equal number one, Caroline, and then she was off home.

Another day had ended. Just one more left.

Detail: Scotland 4

0 Scotland 3

Part Three.

The hotel for the night was at Balmaha on the south-eastern shore of Loch Lomond.

The journey from Spean Bridge took us a lot longer than expected as we caught on the back of a tin box queue stacked up behind a red van that was unable to exceed 30mph. The 8 miles seemed interminable!

We broke cover and went into the petrol station as we entered Fort William. 

The rain that started at at Spean continued to lash down ad we set off southwards through the city heading for Glencoe. The first part of the trip is alongside Loch Linnhe. A pretty nice 8 miles!

Then across the bridge across the neck of Loch Leven and into Glencoe.

This is one of the most scenic places in the UK. In the dry and sunny it would be perfect, but even in the wet it is still fantastic. At least the rain managed to fuel the waterfalls.

We had intended to stop for a coffee at the tea bar at the southern end but it was closed.

In the end we continued to Crianlarich  on the A82. I've stopped here before and the railway station buffet is something of a  "must visit", except it was closed.

So we headed back to the A82/A85 junction and The Crianlarich Hotel. They didn't bat an eyelid when we walked in wearing our over trousers. Wet over trousers.

From there we took a roundabout route to Loch Lomond. Crianlarich is merely 6 miles from the top of the loch but we chose a (longer) scenic route to the east to go south.

The western route would have been a little shorter but less scenic.

The A85/A84 route took us to Loch Venachar and into the Trossachs through the crazily named of Brig O'Turk and southwards towards Glasgow and then to Balmaha.

The Oak Tree Hotel is right alongside the loch and a marina.

We had a room at the back. The bikes parked out back in the mostly gravel car-park on a small bit of hard standing.

Once cleaned up we went for a walk and then to the bar to try a few local pints. We tried three different ones in the evening.

Dinner turned out a little strange. Slimming World was already out of the window despite the previous evenings chicken salad.

We'd not had any haggis so far and this was about to end. The starter was the strangest thing, haggis pakora. A ball of spicy batter encasing a centre of haggis!!

For main, I was going to have another salad but in the end had the Clansman Burger. A half pound burger, topped with haggis in a large bun and topped with a cherry tomato and an onion ring. Lovely.

Adjoining us was a huge table with a large family group. Noisy. The women playing cards and the blokes talking loudly. Irritating.

When the Dad sent one of the lads to look for a table in the bar my ears pricked up. In the noise  I heard the yoof say there were tables. "We're off" I say and set off for the bar. There is a table. A nice big one with five chairs. We sat.

Minutes later Dad arrives with entourage. Oh dear. How sad.

By about 10pm the bar started to empty as the walkers started to head off to their hostels and hotels. We joined them. A marginally later start as Day 4 would be shorter on the road.

Detail: Scotland 3

0 Wow!

Not bad at all for a 1200 triple!

Mostly motorway trip down from Manchester on the M6 to another fill up at Cherwell Valley on the M40.

Cruise control where possible and keeping to what TomTom said was 70 mph.

Detail: Wow!

0 Scotland 2

And so day 3 began.

When we got up for breakfast the weather looked bright and the sky was blue. By the time breakfast was finished it looked dodgy but dry and we knew rain was going to feature somehow.

It did. The Perth petrol stop showed Döra was keeping above 50mpg despite the higher speeds although these were tempered with some country lanes across the country. The figure was 53.78 mpg.

As we slogged up the A9 towards Aviemore it looked darker and then sunny but in the roadworks before Dalwhinnie we were in waterproofs and that was pretty much it for the day.

We arrived at Loch an Eilean slightly differently by TomTom to the mapped idea!

We told the steward what we had come to do and he was most helpful.

But first a chance to spot one of the rare red squirrels. Until relatively recently our only squirrel until some fool brought grey squirrels from Canada and let them loose. Now the red is found in a few pockets in England and of course in Scotland.

And after a short ceremony, Mum is in her final resting place where her spirit can see the castle and join the Shaw clan ancestors.

Loch an Eilean Castle

Once we were done we set of on another TomTom route on another slightly different route westwards to Kingussie and the marvellous A86 all the way to Spean Bridge where it meets the A82 to Fort William.

After a coffee stop at the Wild Flower in Newtonmore we set off. The A86 is about 35 miles of the most perfectly surfaced road imaginable. Smooth and on the corners they have thoughtfully laid a non slip surface. The road passes several lochs; Laggan and Moy.

In fact it was an anticlimax to arrive at Spean Bridge with traffic jams! We turned right to go up the A82 to see the Commando Monument.

Commando Monument - Spean

I went there as a bit of a tribute to Claire's Dad, Victor Stevenson, who will be 90 this year and one of those trained here and who went on to serve in the Commandos on Burma.

From there it was all southwards in some pretty miserable weather to the hotel at Balmaha on Loch Lomond.

Detail: Scotland 2