Leaving Skye today and going back to Kyle to collect Gloria.
It is still raining on and off and the mountains all round
me are full of waterfalls. Some are showstoppers.
Others just silver threads glinting in the patchy sunlight.
As the month progresses towards July, the seemingly brown
lifeless heather coating these mountains has greened up and the hills are just
beginning to take on a haze of purple.
Arrived in Kyle. Gloria is ready and sorted, thanks to John the mechanic, but everyone is upset.
The monster camper van driver man has struck again over the
weekend and I am not just irritated, now I am outraged. A local young man,
driving his own car has been hit by a van and his body is crushed below the
waist. His friends don’t know the prognosis. In a similar incident a pregnant
young woman lost her life and her baby. The Highlands and Islands need tourism
but they are also paying a price. Both these incidents were novice camper van
drivers with little or no experience. The garage said that continental drivers
usually own their own vans so are used to them. Surely it is not beyond the wit
of man to insist that all hirers must prove competency, or have compulsory
driving instruction and at least two hours on single tracks before being
allowed on the road. That’s three lives ruined here alone. Two more camper vans
collided just outside the petrol station on Saturday and it took the garage two
hours to separate them because bicycles on the back got mashed and entangled.
Then they just drove off leaving glass and tangled metal all over the cross
road for the lass in the garage to clear up. Some of these people are rude ignorant and
arrogant and I am beginning to feel vulnerable in Gloria around them. As I have
already suggested, these are the real monsters of Loch Ness.
Moving on, slowly and carefully.
It was a shame I wasn’t the only tourist in Scotland this
morning at Scotland’s most photographed castle – Eilean Donan. The car park was
heaving. There was a young piper playing Flower of Scotland in front of the
castle which added to the view and the atmosphere considerably.
Like on Skye the rain has brought waterfalls large and small
tumbling down the mountains. From Skye to Glen Shiel they surround you. I lost
count of how many there were in just a mile long stretch of road. Some
nationalities used to seeing this may be a bit blasé but I am still very
impressed.
The route to Fort William was scenic.
It’s a nice town, specially as the rain has totally dried up
and the sun is now beaming on us all.
The pedestrian shopping street is quiet, and at least here
they have managed to avoid a town centre the same as everywhere else in
Britain. It has quite a lot of individual shops and that makes it more
interesting.
I had some family business to conduct in Fort William then
went off to find tonight’s resting place.
This is only the second time on my trip when I couldn’t find anywhere in
my price range on AirBnB, so I am
staying in a small guest house just off the town centre. Paul and Elizabeth
Simpson took the plunge and moved to Fort William from Tunbridge Wells to open
Taransay in Seafield Gardens. Paul said
he had no idea what hard work it would be when they started but like all the AirBnB
hosts I have met on this trip, they enjoy having guests to stay from all over
the World. There is a wonderful view of water and mountains from the house.
Tomorrow is the EU referendum. An important day. I expect
they will be paying great attention to the result as an exit might well have a
knock on effect on tourism in Scotland. Or maybe not. We will have to see.
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