Sept 18/11

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Today we left the ghetto hotel (Ben Nevis Hotel) in Fort William. We thought we would backtrack a few miles to a small town so we could clean our clothes in a laundrette. Unfortunately, the English lady in the gps led us to a ferry crossing after about 16 kms. I wasn’t interested in crossing a lock on a ferry just for clean clothes so we turned around and continued our journey north to Dornoch castle via Inverness. Driving here is not like Canada. In Canada you can set the cruise, put your feet up, drink your Tim Hortons coffee and relax. Here driving is like a sport. On highways there are no shoulders and the speed limit is 70mph. On secondary roads there are no shoulders, they are very curvy, the lanes are barely wide enough to permit 2 trucks to pass each other and the speed limit is 60mph. On back-roads there is only one track and if someone is coming you have to make your way to a “passing point” before he gets to you or he has to pull over in a “passing point” and let you pass. It’s both hands on the wheel, full attention on the road 100% of the time like you’re always in a baha race. Everybody drives small cars or sports cars, anything else would be ridiculous. The speed limit actually seems like the very fastest you could possibly go without losing control and I hardly ever even get up to it. Vicki thinks it is a suggestion rather than a limit. We took a back road from Fort William to Inverness that was very nerve wracking but also very beautiful. I know the pics we took are not going to do it justice. Since we took the back road to Inverness we didn’t know where the Laundromat was coming from that direction. We got in the wrong lane and had to make a left hand turn and unbelievably, about 100 yards down, we found our Laundromat. That was very lucky. Now that we are in the Dorncoch Castle, Vicki says she’s not leaving. We have a 4 poster bed and a very nice room overlooking a courtyard. We had our complimentary meal and now are sitting back with a wine in our complimentary house coats and slippers.

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Photos

Hilltop View
On backroad from Fort William to Inverness