Adventures in Scotland - Day 7 with Scottish Weather

This morning we reluctantly left the Misty Island to head back to the mainland. On our way to the southern peninsula we were able to see some parts of the island we hadn't seen before. We took the car ferry across to Mallaig - that was a new experience! It was fun to drive the car onto the ship!

Be careful that you don't drive into the sea...

After a quick boat ride we arrived back in 'mainland' Scotland and headed down A830, which is known as the 'Road to the Isles' (except we took the route backwards). 

It would've been a beautiful trip except we encountered our first real day of Scottish weather. I want to stop for a minute because I really can't complain. We've had gorgeous weather our whole trip (and I was thoroughly prepared to be walking in rain for 9 days). So having one day of rain - and a day when we are mostly in the car - really ain't bad at all. We drove through Glenfinnan and saw the Glenfinnan Viaduct (for those of you Harry Potter fans, this is the route the train takes to Hogwarts and it passes over a very tall bridge). Then we stopped in Fort William for lunch at a pub and caught part of the France-ROI soccer game. Just so you know, the Scots definitely root for the Irish.
Fort William used to be an English fort, but it's long gone and now there's just a cute town there. It also sits at the base of Ben Nevis, the highest peak in Great Britain, so we saw a lot of hikers. They also had some good ice cream. Yum...

Next we headed through Glencoe, which is supposed to be some amazing views (also where they filmed most of Braveheart). But unfortunately the weather wasn't cooperating so we saw the bottoms of lots of mountains but not the tops. 

Apparently the mountains weep when it rains, and we did catch some glimpses of it! 


After driving through the Rannoch Moor  (a very desolate flat area between the mountains where glaciers came through and dropped piles of rocks everywhere) we turned off on a local road which led to some some amazing scenery through Glen Orchy.

This is also where I slipped on a wet rock and landed on my butt and elbow... But I saved the camera!! That's gonna leave a mark.

Further downstream


We weaved through some more one-lane roads to get to our hotel.
https://youtu.be/xCEVv2DAJVA

Finally we arrived at our country estate for the night. It's a beautiful house from the 1700's and it sits on Loch Awe, which is appropriately named. 


View from our room.

After a delicious dinner I put on some Wellies and walked around the gardens. They keep a whole pile of boots by the doors for guests!

My Scottish host and walking companion.


A rainy day (mainly cloudy and misty) but still a beautiful day in Scotland. Another adventure awaits tomorrow!

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