Day 55: Fort William to Glasgow

I got a text this morning at 4.45am from a German telling me Britain had voted to exit. I didn’t see it until I woke up but I was shocked. Oh dear...

Breakfast was a sombre affair. My host knew Scotland had wanted to stay in so he thought he better not say anything. Then there was me, and two German couples.

Two hours of debate and discussion later, all that remained of breakfast were crumbs and empty coffee cups and it was all sorted.

1) The EU is undemocratic as it operates now.

2) Germany did not think through how its immigration policy would impact on the other member states. My breakfast sharers actually said they thought in part it was about over compensating for past behaviours. As a numerologist I totally agree. That is the 2 balance and co-operation and understanding and the 16, a karmic debt of past lack of love. This is not about people. Even the immigration issue is just a smoke screen. It is about power, control and business and the few that control them.

3) We need a new politics. We all need to stop WAR being ALL our countries most lucrative industries, then situations where people need to flee as refugees would be less urgent and emotive. Selling weaponry should be considered a crime against mankind.

4) (My contribution) We need to immediately sack the leaders of both sides of the referendum debate for running a disgusting and immoral campaign where some voters including  Paul our host, had no idea what was true or how he was going to vote even when standing in the ballot box with his paper in his hand. None of them have my confidence to negotiate a reasonable or generous leaving on my behalf.

Any true visionaries interested in running a humanitarian country out there? If not leave it to the five of us.

Argyll and Bute are beautiful today folks.

There are excellent cycle paths running parallel with the main roads and the locks are full of small yachts bobbing about at anchor. My friend Crispin would love it here. He could pop his boat Magic onto a low loader and just get up here. They all say that it snows more in Kent in the winter than it does here, and Paul my most recent host,  lived in Tunbridge Wells for 30 years so he should know!

Yet more castles everywhere

And then Oban.

Oban was looking good in the weak sunshine. She had all her flags flying and to me they looked European! 

Oban styles herself the fish capital of Scotland and it was interesting that here were did not have the bog standard fish and chips. On no...far more Marks and Spencer advert type of fish and chips.

And it was everywhere.
On the pier where the ferries leave for the Islands there were several fish stalls doing a roaring trade in seafood: scallops, oysters, mussels, crab, langoustine and crab often all on the same sharing plate. Too much claw and shell for me I’m afraid.

Above the town is an incongruous monument that looks like a bit of a film set in Rome.

It’s McCraig's Tower started in 1897. John McCraig was a banker and wanted it built as a memorial to his family and to give work to local stone masons who had no work in the winter. Constructed of granite it wasn’t built on level ground so its walls vary in height from 30 to 47 feet. It looks like the Coliseum in Rome intentionally. Mr. McCraig admired it. He died  in 1902 before he could put in place the third tier where he planned to have a series of statues in stone or bronze created  by young Scottish sculptors to be priced at £1000 each to encourage and support the arts in Scotland. .What a shame he died before he could see that happen

I had lunch in a vegetarian cafe called the Potting Shed where unfortunately the radio was on and I heard more than I wanted to about reactions to the referendum. The owner of the cafe said the result  would negatively affect her business. She had advertised for help in the cafe for months with no takers until a Slovakian girl applied. The girl is excellent, speaks English, is clean and works hard. Now what?

Chocolate – that’s what. Oban has its own Chocolatier. It has a shop on the seafront Oban Chocolate Co.  ‘where indulgence is compulsory.’ 

They have a lounge area inside with soft leather sofas where you can relax and enjoy hot chocolate, tasting plates of chocolate, waffles with fruit and cream or ice-cream or all of the above to compensate for the referendum results. Today lots of people were probably doing just that.

The chocolate making factory is small but perfectly formed at the back of the store and has a viewing window so you can watch the staff at work.

It also has a chocoholics dream shop where you can buy what they make. They produce over 50 flavours of hand made truffles. I did think of buying some but have no self control and they would have been eaten even before I got back to my car.

Outside the chocolate factory were about 600 6x6inch wooden plagues tied to the promenade railings. Many had coloured hand-prints on them, others simple drawings. All were signed. The artists? Children under ten saying thank you for their new Play park.

The other thing I noticed about Oban were the builders. They were everywhere. Oban is redesigning their seafront and making it more pedestrian friendly.

It was causing traffic problems to ferry traffic but I imagine the sheer number of workmen about would mean the job would be speedily completed. The parts they had already completed looked very smart and well planned with space for flower beds and benches and perhaps even street performers. My town Eastbourne has something similar in mind for the town centre.

I look the coast road to Glasgow from Oban, and stopped briefly in Inverarary, another place with very white washed buildings.

I still haven’t discovered why so many Scottish buildings are all painted white. There was a team of heritage restoration builders in Inverary  working on a large tarpaulin covered building. The ideal experts to answer this pressing question I thought.

“Excuse me, I can’t help noticing that all the buildings in North and West Scotland and on Skye are just one colour. White. Why?”

“No idea. White paint’s cheap. Mebbe that’s why.”

“I doubt it. Is this building going to be white too?”

“Aye.”

I asked in Visit Scotland too and weirdly got the same answer.
 No that really can’t be why.
Anyone else know?

Inverary has lots of cafes to feed and water the tourists who come here for two reasons: the castle, a 18^th century one looking more like a French chateau, summer home to The Duke of Argyll

And the jail. Yes this town has turned their jail into a successful tourist venue.  www.inveraryjail.co.uk

Take note Dornoch!!! You missed an opportunity.

On past Loch Fyne famous for oysters, lobster and all the other Scottish seafood.

And the forest park of Trossocks and Loch Lomond, to Dunoon.

Now why did I have an idea that Dunoon would be a quaint little seaside village. It wasn’t quaint or little. It was a bit like Newhaven. Enough said. 

The ferry took about 20 minutes to go to Gourock (pronounced Geruk)

And then it was another 30 miles, through Glasgow Docks to Glasgow town.
 Here I am staying with Helena, a medical secretary in her nice little apartment in a house in a quiet road about 15 minutes from the city centre.

Day 47: On Mountains and Midges

I’m retracing my path of yesterday towards Lochinver, along the single track roads up in the mountains. The Munroe mountains are said to be the highest in Scotland. Today with the lowering clouds you can’t see the peaks.

And although the weather is wet it’s still beautiful here.

At Scourie I met a new friend. 

I call him Boris and his mate Trump. Don’t know why – it just came to me. 

Most of this area is a designated National Geo Park – an area of considerable scientific and geological interest and you only have to look at the rock formations along the way to get an idea why. 

 

The National body responsible for looking after the area are brilliant at creating parking spaces all along the route where you can stop, look at the landscape and read the information boards telling you about the glaciers and the formation of the country. With no towns, no shops and little visible agriculture, this part of Scotland is all about the outdoors: biking, cycling, walking, (sometimes both)

-nature watching and camping.

This camper was under an enormous road bridge over the river Assynt. 

On the subject of camping, the Dutch caravan club was also on annual manoeuvres this morning. I counted a convey of 32 cars pulling caravans and the odd Camper van thrown in for variety, heading towards Lochinver. I understand they come over every year. The mountains must be a major draw to the Dutch. They have barely anything even remotely resembling a hill let alone mountains of such majesty as these. 

I passed by several very small hamlets and the very photogenic ruined Ardvreck castle. 

All of a sudden as I crested a hill, there was Ullapool laid out straight in front of me looking as if it was floating on Loch Broom. 

Ullapool is really nice and very white, virtually everywhere is painted white including the Indian take away. 

The owner of a lovely Gallery told me it was because in the past all the houses were painted with lime wash to preserve them from the salt. Now the old part of the town is a conservation area so the white painting is set in stone so to speak. 

There is a large modern Ferry terminal on the harbour because the ferry sails to the isle of Lewis. as well as smaller boats taking day trippers round the Summer Isles. 

Sounds so lovely but here is the reality of Scottish summer today. 

I was expecting it to be a bigger town but it is small with lots of galleries and gift shops and of course the inevitable fish and chips.

Very nice and freshly caught, but expensive. 

Like everywhere else on the coast of Britain there is a long history of fishing here.  In the 1970’s Ullapool became the base for many eastern European factory ships known as the Klondykers, who processed the mackerel that small bought caught and transported them back to their home bases. 

 

They are no longer part of Ullapool’s economy, but I saw Spanish fishing vessels in the harbour loading crates and crates of their catch directly into Spanish refrigerated lorries ready to return to Spain. Why? The cold water. Seafood is very popular in Europe and these waters produce the best lobster, crab and langoustines anywhere and are in very high demand. I don’t know quite how that works – European fishermen fishing off these waters and sending the catch out of the country -  but I suppose since no-one is rioting, it must work somehow.

The other large European presence in town today were the French 2 CV club. Apparently they often come to Scotland. 

The town was full of tourists today and some of the cafes were struggling to serve people. This is what the woman in Lochinver was implying when she said these towns don’t really have the infrastructure to deal with sudden influxes of visitors. Particularly when they are so irregular that they can’t be foreseen. There is almost no-one in the winter.

This is Polly Hoad. Polly doesn’t do white. She does unlimited colour. 

Her little shop is every hue imaginable. 

Polly has had a very interesting life so far. She was a light house keepers wife bringing up her family in very remote places. She studied art and textiles as a young woman, hence her love of colour. And every winter she shuts her home and her shop and travels the world looking for lovely things to bring back. She has recently commissioned a range of leather handbags which she designed. 

She had an accident a while ago and that left her with an element of brain damage, a useless hand and partial sight loss but that does not deter her from her travelling alone to places like India or Peru for her crafting. 

Polly weaves. 

This year as soon as her feet touched down at Inverness she made the decision to leave Scotland for Portugal where she plans to open a weaving studio teaching just four students at a time – in the warm sun. 

So her house in Ullapool and her business is up for sale and she is willing to act as mentor and buyer for the new owners if they want her to, for a period of two years from the sale. Sounds like a plan. 

If anyone out there is interested get in touch with her on: 01854 612439 or polly@ucolour.co.uk

When Scots on the East Coast heard I was continuing my travels by going along the top and down the west they told me that the West might have the beauty but it also had the midges. I see what they mean. In the damp they are out in force, clouds of tiny biting flies, so small you can hardly see them, nibbling away at any exposed part. The locals use a spray called Smidge. Boots don’t sell it. Tesco does. I will get some tomorrow first thing.