Great Glen Way July 2022

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Thursday, 21 July 2022. Day 4 on the Great Glen Way - Fort Augustus to Invermoriston. 8.2 miles 4hours 8 minutes 935 feet elevation gain. The five of us had a send off photo taken by Cath at the Loch Ness Guest House. We then set off across the busy A82 and the locks of the Caledonian Canal to the left turn on the trail past the large pay for parking lot. We climbed to a forest road which we followed for most of our trek today. The day was overcast but less than a 10% chance of rain forecast. And to be expected we had just about gotten to the forest road when the soft rains started. All stopped and donned ponchos or rain coats. I used my torn yellow plastic and Karen the nicer gray one from the side of my backpack. We were comfortable walking and glad we had taken the low route.

There were very few glimpses through the trees that gave a view of the Loch. The trees, ferns, moss and flowers made the walk very enjoyable. We meet workers at a work site and more in a van coming from Glasgow to join them; two individuals on bikes, a lady with two dogs who had already walked from Fort Augustus and was on her way back and no one else for the 4 hours on the trail.

Will let the photos tell the tale. The falls and bridge as we entered Invermoriston were about the most significant features along this segment of the GGW. W

We arrived at the Glenmoriston Arms Hotel just before 1 pm and had soup and salad. Our rooms would be ready after 2 pm. Our bags arrived while we were enjoying lunch and conversation with two sisters and their daughters, all walking the GGW.

Later we walked to a leather and clog shop. We see the road sign to Isle of Skye which will have a greater significance as we travel after our GGW walk to Skye and Mull and Iona of the inner Hebrides Islands.

Silvertoes notes: driving in Scotland —‘communications’ —WW I and WW II

As Harlan said, “a pleasant walking day.” The Glenmoriston is a great lodging, right in front of the busy A82 and the main highway to Isle of Skye bridge. It is hard to believe it is the only main north-south artery for the highlands. Now, about the drivers. Scottish drivers tend to be good drivers and, except in the few cities, or larger towns, they are courteous and do not pound on their horn to let you know how they feel about a traffic situation. However—-they will not make eye contact with pedestrians. It is as if you did not exist. Believe me, it takes skill to want to make a turn, be four feet from the walker at your side, and never acknowledge the walker’s existence! And the second thing you will note is how fast they drive—as an old family friend would say, “like a bat out of hell!” It makes no difference if it is the family car or a semi—they travel fast.

I see that several days ago I put in a note that I would mention ‘communications,’ this segment. It has been frustrating to get a blog entry out. Wi-fis are so often weak in the highlands and very sporadic. At times we have done work and everything goes down. We save often but still have experienced delays. One entry took us four days to get sent!

Every trip we have blogged we say we are going to go with another blog site but the time comes to start journaling and we fall back to the old one!

A sad observation: the ubiquitous war memorials in cities, large towns and small villages. Harlan and I have noticed, and absolutely no credible data mining to support this observation, that usually you will see at least twice as many fatalities from WW I than WW II etched into the stone. The Royal Highland Fusiliers Regimental Museum has material that supports many of the initial enlistees thinking they would sign up, serve King George V and his country, and be home by Christmas. The Great War did not turn out to be so great and some villages were decimated as many of the lads did not return home.

‘Pals battalions’ were when young men of a certain geograpic area or friends from a common employer would join up together. This practice might have undesired consequences if they were exposed to battle together.

Usually there are wreaths of artificial flowers at the memorial. I will ask Harlan to include a picture of a lovingly cared for memorial in the sea town of Oban. This picture was taken after our walks but it really did move me. The sculpture is of two soldiers, helping a fallen comrade. It appeared that the names, indicating lost ones, had just been repainted. The memorial faces the sea.

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Photos

small chance of rain results in instant rainfall
But it was more than slight

The high route vs the low route
With all walking we stuck to the lower route with less elevation gain but not as good views as upper but in the rain probably not much difference.

The island in Loch Ness
An ancient man made island. This describes how Cherry Island, as it is called, was constructed in Loch Ness

under ground cables crossing a burn at a bridge on GGW
Much construction work was occurring on this segment of the GGW.

Where electric distribution lines
crossed the road these pipe barriers would be found

beautiful specimen of this flower
believed to be Selineae a member of the carrot family

Gaelic language in Scotland
Some history of the language and usage of words

sign for Telford Bridge
Thomas Telford built more than 1000 bridges as well as the Caledonian Canal. This in the 1820s.

Telford bridge over River Moriston
As viewed from the A82 highway bridge

Sign to Skye and things to come next
We will actually take this road twice in the same day on the 25th of July.

war memorial in Oban
As seen on 29 July.

Comments

[John Paul]

GGW
I am feeling almost like I'm with you instead of reading your observations and adventure from my comfortable upholstered armchair here on the Blue Skies campus!