After Wednesday’s epic walk we both decided to have a day off from the mountains and instead went for a bike ride. The weather was cold but the sun was shining so we headed off along part of the Caledonian Canal from Corpach to Gairlochy. The Caledonian Canal was built by Thomas Telford over a period of twenty years and opened in 1822. It follows the Great Glen fault line and joins the west coast of Scotland at Fort William to the east coast at Inverness.
Corpach basin at start of Caledonian Canal
There is a lighthouse at the end of the Gairlochy section, which looks over Loch Lochy. We stopped for a quick lunch break to enjoy the views and then cycled on to Achnacarry via the beautiful single-track road that heads towards Loch Arkaig. By now the sun had disappeared and the temperature plummeted. My hands and feet were feeling rather numb so we only cycled to the village and not to the Chia-Aig waterfall as we had originally planned. We took the more “hilly” ride back via Banavie, which certainly warmed me up! A stop off at The Moorings Hotel in Banavie for a drink was called for (just to thaw out completely you understand!) and then it was back to Corpach. The route was a total of 23 miles.
Gairlochy lighthouse
As the weather was rather dismal over the next few days it gave us the opportunity to catch up with writing more blogs for the website and seeing more of our relatives. One evening, Gail (Cameron’s sister), brought round some photographs of the family taken many years ago. It was funny in one sense and horrifying in another to see how young we once looked! We also caught up with Dave (our brother-in-law), Ashleigh and Ross (our niece and nephew) who are both taller than me now! By the way Ashleigh, I love the new hairstyle!
Windana's travel chronicles