Betty the black Pug, Locks, and Japanese

Day 10 Walking (no walk - but hopefully tomorrow). Saturday, June 15

Forest Lodge, South Laggan to The Holt, Fort Augustus 

10.5 miles - traversed by City Link bus service.  

15752 Steps which unfortunately were not on the Great Glen Way ☹️

Sea birds fly inland up and down the Great Glen following the Caledonian Canal from the Atlantic Ocean to the North Sea using it as a flight path. 

Hosts from the Forest Lodge, Laura and Loraine looked alike.  They came to Scotland to run their dream of a B&B. Formerly they were high school teachers, but were burned out by the system. 

An unidentifiable fruit was in the breakfast mix. Turned out the tiny sharp tasting berries were fresh black currants. 

Betty the two year old rescue pug from Yorkshire 

The 5 bikers and driver staying last night were on a sponsored LEJOG ride to raise money for their local hospice.  They were peddling 100 miles each day.  My bus had to slow doen on a long  curving uphill because the bikes were stretched out on the edge of the pavement and the road is very narrow. 

Talked with Katherine at breakfast. She had been staying each night in the same places as me, only she is walking.  Katherine is from Drum????   Will learn better later. 

From the bus window a great sight was passed too quickly to get the phone/camera out - at least 7 sets of large antlers were poking up among the grasses.  The deer were having a morning break.  

1964 Citron converted to a coffee shop 

Arrived in Fort Augustus, along with BUS loads of tourists, many Japanese with selfie sticks.  The village is only a few blocks long and about 2 wide.  The long part is stretched out on both sides of the staircase of locks.  Found tonight’s home and left my pack with Phill and a reminder to not come back until 4 pm.  

Everyone kept telling me to go see the Pharmacist, so I did.  Was going to buy a shoe insert but he said not to.  Instead got more Ibuprofen and Paracetamol.  

Monument to Queen Victoria and her Jubilee 

Had a small quinoa salad with beetroot, tomatoes, orange peppers and apples for lunch at the Caledonian Canal Center.  A shop for tourists, with take-away foods, trinkets, woolens, and indoor/outdoor restaurant.  I sat indoors. 

Passed a man wearing 2 long thin scarves.  The lower one was pink and white plaid and the top yellow. 

Calendonian Canal 

Wandered down to the edge where Loch Ness officially starts.  What a huge inland body of water.  

Passed the old Benedictine Abbey of Fort Augustus. The building is now The Highland Club and is available as a wedding venue.  Walking around the outside of building was permitted but not too close.  

Learned a lot about the Caledonian Canal History in the little visitor center, and watched sailboats and yachts being raised and lowered all day through the series of 5 locks. The process and time for a boat to get from one end to the other is 1.5 hours.  Two people from the boat stand up on the towpath with ropes and pull the boat from one lock to the next.  Quite a chatty bunch who all had to wear life-preservers while up on the banks. 

Queen Victoria and Prince Albert traveled the canals a few times and the Queen was a bit annoyed at the slow process of raising and lowering the water level.  But she also said “it was amusing to see the people, including the crew of the steamer, running round and round.”  Back then the gates would have been manually turned, 7 times, to open or close.  Now all that is done by a machine or electronics or something. 

Boats beginning their descent from Loch Lochy and the canal to Loch Ness. 

Browsed through a book of old postcards of the canal and saw one taken here in Fort Augustus that when the steamer began the lock up and down process, all the passengers got off and knew exactly how much time they had to shop, eat, or drink, before rejoining their boat at the other end and moving onward. 

 

Kilts 

Tried walking a bit on the path of the GGW back out of town along the canal where a few fishermen were attempting to catch Pike with a fly casting method.  They were tossing a yellow wooden duck into the canal and reeling it back in. I thought the duck looked more like a yellow chicken. 

The chief engineer for the construction of the canals was Thomas Telford.  Mr T also engineered the Pontcysylite Aqueduct in Wales that I walked across twice.  Another amazing man-made feat. 

Had the Magnum white chocolate ice cream bar this afternoon. 

View out my bathroom window to the remains of the old steam train track. 

“There are no foreign lands.  It is the traveler only who is foreign.”  Robert Lewis Stevenson