A misty drive around mountains and lochs today. Bewdiful... Very very bewdiful...
We took our time with a full breakfast at Kings Arms Hotel in Kyleakin before packing and heading off just after 9am. First stop was The Co-Operative, a supermarket at Kyle of Lochalsh just across the Skye Bridge on the mainland. We knew that our next stay would be in a small village with few services and we needed supplies for lunch today and hiking in coming days.
Plenty of selection, particularly for lunch today and we had some moments of indecision - fresh pasta salad or baguette with yummy toppings like smoked salmon or cheese? Baguette won. We picked up hiking lunches and other snacks, using the sign boards for each aisle but ignoring the Gaelic.
And... They sell beer and wine too...
We then headed to the wine section, where they had a really good selection of Aussie reds and some of our favourite producers - Jim Barry, D'Arenburg and St Hallets. With a few bottles under our arm, and some panadol for the consequences, we joined a queue for checkout.
Except...we encountered some very specific Scottish laws (not British) - you are not allowed to buy:
- more than 2 boxes of panadol at the same time and
- alcohol before 10am (or after 10pm). In fact, apparently alcohol free beer also falls into this piece of legislation!?
So back on the shelves the wine bottles and one pack of panadol go... temporarily...
Out in the car park, we packed away our groceries into the car and an older local guy was laughing his head off because he had heard our bewildered discussion with the checkout lady. He thought it was very funny too and joked about us waiting at the pub door at 9.50am. Yes, we laughed and agreed that we could of course have sucked straight from the bottle whilst in the car park (not likely with a nice Australian red for £10 or more) but maybe with a baguette at lunch time...
At 9.56am we returned for the supplies we missed out on and at 9.58am we were allowed to buy the alcohol as the clock on that particular cash register was 3 minutes ahead of time against the clock on Hans mobile and against the (correct) clock on the next cash register. Go figure...
Hans was happy with the outcome though...
On the road again heading south east. The views, as usual, were stunning but we did not stop for any more photos as we had mostly light rain or low cloudy mist all the way.
We rounded one mountain bend and saw lots of parked cars - so we had to stop too - and we found more vortexing! This time we did not understand - vortex rock stacks before have been in awesome locations, away from crowds where you could see someone feeling spiritual and connected to nature. This was literally beside a busy A-road. Not right in our books but maybe Scottish vortexing is different.
By 11am we felt like a cuppa and this place, Invergarry Hotel, advertised coffee and looked cool.
Invergarry Hotel reminded us of Tongue Hotel and we liked it a lot. We ordered coffee and made good use of their free wifi while sitting in the lounge. Very nice.
This old style map on one of the walls inside Invergarry Hotel showed the areas of the Clans in Scotland and it appears we are moving into the large Campbell area in Loch Lomond, our destination for the next few days.
We arrived in Fort William and decided it was time for lunch. The misty rain continued so we found a nice spot and picnicked in the car overlooking the loch - very British. We've seen it done a lot. Still good.
Hans balanced smoked salmon and baguette, occasionally nibbling on cheese, Di did the same but with pâté instead of smoked salmon. All good.
We still had about 90 minutes to drive so continued on our journey. Whilst the road was generally in good condition traffic was a bit heavier as this was the main way to and from Glasgow. A bit of a slow journey but the scenery again was lovely.
A funny moment...we went through a small town and saw these 2 hippie looking young people holding up a sign that said "south". Would you pick them up? Not us!
We stopped for some information and a toilet break at another small town, then rounded the corner and who do we see again??? Someone took the hippies with them for 20 miles on their journey. Braver than us, and perhaps without a sense of smell as we doubted in their travels that washing was a priority.
Arrochar turned out to be just 10 miles from where we had stopped and we easily found our hotel - very nice.
Our room is behind the top left window in the picture below.
And if you follow further to the right from the pic above, you see this.
And looking back...
We were happy with our room and think the Arrochar Hotel is great - except for the epidemic Scottish wifi issue - slow and regular drop outs. Especially our room which must be the furthest from the router. For example, it works on Hans' side of the bed but not Di's.
Some lazing and blogging before we headed down to dinner in the bar at the hotel. Busy and nice atmosphere.
The bar food was pretty ordinary tucker. Here is Hans "beef burger" with chips...
Hans was only moderately interested in the 50-60 year old songs that the "musician" sang to from pre recorded tapes.
Our singer picked his audience right with a tour group of Dutch baby boomers. He started to get more upbeat with Cliff Richard and Bobby Daran and even got both of us occasionally singing along and one older couple was even dancing. RSL night in the burbs...
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