Tuesday 27 August2013. Inverbeg to Cumbernauld, Falkirk Wheel

The first thing we do when we awake is check our emails as we were still $574 out of pocket with the additional charge to our Travel card viz  "EC Car Rental"  for the sum of  $A574.28. This expenditure appeared to be have been made after the card had been cancelled. It turned out, apparently, that the charge had been made but not posted before the card was cancelled.

There was an email from the ANZ bank as follows:

Dear Michael

We’re writing to tell you that we have finalised our investigation in relation to your disputed transaction, for the amount of AUD 574.28, on your ANZ Travel Card, card number 4363 XXXX XXXX 8208.
Your disputed transaction has been resolved..
We are pleased to confirm that the dispute has been resolved in your favour. The disputed amount has been credited to your ANZ Travel Card. The funds will be available for use the following business day.

So we are all square for now so back to business.

 There was some rain overnight around our hotel in Inverbeg but it had stopped by the time we left at 9.50am, heading south towards Glasgow. We had booked a hotel about 20klms east of Glasgow so that we could visit the Falkirk Wheel and have easy and quick access to Glasgow via the motorways.

We set both the GPS's to take us through the maze of motorways and A roads that surround Glasgow and as always, they differed on which way to go. Not surprising really if one checks the map which is a mass of different rout possibilities.

We stopped for a coffee off the M80 and patched in the postcode to take us to the Falkirk Wheel. It wasn't hard to find as it was well signposted.

The Falkirk Wheel is a rotating boat lift.  It was designed to connect the Forth and Clyde Canal with the Union Canal.. It is named after the nearby town of Falkirk and it opened in 2002. The two canals it serves were previously connected by a series of 11 locks, but by the 1930s these had fallen into disuse and the locks were filled in and the land built upon.


The plan to regenerate central Scotland's canals and reconnect Glasgow with Edinburgh was led by British Waterways with support and funding from seven local authorities, and the Millenium Commission. Planners decided early on to create a dramatic 21st-century landmark structure to reconnect the canals, instead of simply recreating the historic lock flight.

Designs were submitted for a boat lift to link the canals and  the Falkirk Wheel design won. As with many Millennium Commission projects, the site includes a visitors' centre containing a shop, cafe, and exhibition centre.

The difference in height at the wheel is 24 metres (79 ft), roughly equivalent to the height of an eight story building. The Union Canal is still 11 m higher than the aqueduct which meets the wheel, and boats must pass through a pair of locks to descend from this canal onto the aqueduct at the top of the wheel.

The Queen opened the wheel on 24 May 2002, as part of her olden Jubilee celebrations. The opening was delayed a month due to flooding caused by vandals who forced open the wheel's gates.

We were sitting on the boat waiting to go up on this fantastic piece of machinery by 11.30am filling the last two spots on the hourly boat trip.

The boat then left  the side of the dock and entered the gondola where a steel door then closed to keep the water in. The huge wheel then rotated taking the boat or boats, it can hold two, including the water, through 180 degrees to the top of the wheel where it met the other canal. Since there are two gondolas, it is possible to have the other one containing boats coming down.

An interesting point is that it doesn't matter what the weight or size of the boats are, the weight of the gondolas is always the same as the displacement of the boat reduces the quantity and weight of the water by and equal amount. Get it? This is one for my mate Peter to contemplate.

Anyway, when it reached the top it equalised the water levels before the steel gate opened and the boat sailed out down the canal. Boats travelling into the wheel from the upper level travel down the canal through a pinch point which prevents boats attempting to enter the gondola which are too wide.

On our trip the boat turned around and came back and went through the reverse process ending up at the bottom again. It was a fascinating and a brilliant idea.

We then spent some time looking at the displays which included a working scale model, and bought a picture of ourselves on the boat. Mick asked the photographer for the .jpg but he couldn't get it.

After a walk around the area surrounding the wheel and watching several boats going up and down we headed off to Cumbernauld to our hotel. This turned out to be a revelation as we found it was a two level unit with heaps of room.

We have four days here to visit Glasgow and surrounds. What a great way to finish our Scottish adventure.

 The Falkirk Wheel and aqueduct

 

  

 

  

 View from the top

Monday 26 August 2013. Roybridge to Inverbeg via Fort William and Glenco.

A mostly sunny day and we left our hotel and headed into Fort William to have a look around and see if we could get a better view of Ben Nevis, the highest mountain in the UK.

We called into the Ben Nevis information centre, which is at the foot of a mountain, to ask the young bloke behind the desk where we could get the best view of the mountain.He said that the mountain outside was directly in front of Ben Nevis so it was not visible from the centre so he drew a map as to where we should go.

Armed with his map we drove a couple of miles across the Loch and found the spot. There was some cloud in front of it but we still got some nice pics.

Whilst we were there we met a lady from near Swan Hill in Victoria, who was in Scotland  to attend her nephews wedding. He was marrying a Scottish girl in Inverness so she and her husband had come over for a month.  She told us all about the wedding where all the men wore kilts. She seemed very happy. Her husband had gone off with another nephew to climb Ben Nevis which was takes 8 hours so she was free to explore Fort Williams and surrounds..

We looked over at the mountain and it appeared that they were going to encounter some cloud about half way up! See pic.

After looking around Fort William we headed off for a one night stay at Inverbeg on the shores of the Bonnie Bonnie banks O' Loch Lomond. We took a few high roads and a few low roads and we were there for check in at about 4pm.

Things were going well until Mick tried to do the blog on their free WiFi which blocked access to Google's blogger web site with the display:

"Request blocked by WebBlocker"

.
He went down to reception to complain and she had no idea about anything technical and said she would turn the modem of and on again! Yeh, that'll work.

So that's why the blog is late as we also had zero O2 coverage in Inverbeg or Roybridge but the Roybridge.hotel  WiFi worked well.

When we left this morning Mick lodged a "How did we do" card with hotel management moaning about it saying that in the 3 months that we have stayed at all manner of B & B's and hotels we have never been blocked from using a web site. (We must admit that there are those that abuse the system as in Pitlochry, Mick was talking to a guy who had to rush off to watch the Rugby on Internet TV using the hotels WiFi.).

 Ben Nevis viewed from Fort William

 Viewed from a different viewpoint

 Yeh, as Lyn would say " We've been there..."

 Inside our hotel room at the Stronlossit Hotel in Roybridge

 Hungry young swallows at the Nevis Range information centre

View of Loch Lomond from the window of our hotel in Inverbeg

Sunday 25 August 2013. Roybridge. Nevis Range, Ben Nevis, Fort William

A bright and sunny day today and after watching the Motogp and F1 races, we took off down the highway to Nevis Range Gondola Centre which is 7 miles North of Fort William.

We arrived to find the centre quite busy but as it was Sunday it was not surprising. There was plenty of room in the car park though so we parked and walked to the ticket office.

Lyn thought we were just going to look at a mountain called Ben Nevis which is not far from here. Well we were but there were extras.

Ben Nevis is the highest mountain in the British Isles. Standing at 1,344 metres (4,409 ft) above sea level, it is located at the western end of the Grampian Mountains in the Lochaber area of the Scottish Highlands, close to the town of Fort William.

Mick hadn't told Lyn that we were visiting the centre to go for a ride on a Gondola up to the top of the Nevis Ranges. Fortunately she didn't protest and we went to the ticket window and paid £10 each for tickets for the return trip to the top.

We climbed aboard the Gondola and away we went. The views were fantastic as the countryside was in brilliant sunshine and we got off at the top to have a look at the restaurant and stand out on a verandah which had commanding views of the Glen right across to Fort William.

There were many mountain bikers taking the trip up with their bikes so that they could fly down again on the specially cut track. Various types of bike could be hired at the shop as well as GoPro HD helmet cameras so that one could record ones demise if you didn't make it down!

Having taken in the view and checked out the beautiful photographs of the Nevis Ranges we caught the lift back down and drove into Fort William.

Here we decided to have dinner and found a nice Chinese Restaurant where we had a very nice meal.

Since we were passing through Fort William on the way out tomorrow we didn't  look around the town and instead headed back to the hotel in Roybridge.

Ben Nevis, the highest mountain in the British Isles

 
 
 
 

 

  

 

Saturday 24 August 2013. Roybridge. Spean Bridge, Commando Monument.

Plenty of rain over night which had stopped when we awoke. We had quite a good nights sleep as Roybridge is a very small place and the hotel is on the edge of town on the A86.

As our room has a nice 32" Samsung LED TV, we stayed home to watch the Motogp (Czech - BRNO) and F1 (Belgium - Spa) qualifying before going into Spean Bridge, just down the road to collect some fruit and breakfast items.

We also went to look at the Commando Monument just north of Spean Bridge on the A82, which is a large three-figure bronze statue commemorating the service and sacrifice given by thousands of Allied troops during the Second World War and since.

It is a place where history was made and the Monument is a place of reverence and respect, located in a stunning location overlooking Ben Nevis and the Mamore mountains.

Whilst we were there many tourist buses full of mostly Asian visitors came and went.

We then returned to the hotel to catch up on some newspaper reading.
 

 The Stronlossit Hotel at Roybridge £85 per night plus £8 breakfast each if we wanted it

 Beautiful deer antler bedside lights. Behind the camera the room is very spacious.

 

Friday 23 August 2013. Ardaneaskan to Roybridge via Plockton & Eilean Donan Castle.

On a cloudy morning with the threat of rain, we left our lovely spot at the RONA B & B overlooking Loch Carron for the final time and took the 15 minute drive on the narrow winding road to the A890. Lyn decided she needed to keep her hand in so took the wheel to see how she would go on her maiden drive.

She did OK and we got to the little village of Loch Carron to buy a few food items for our breakfasts. On reaching the shop Lyn retired from driving finding it a little too stressful.

Mick didn't book breakfasts at our next stop as they cost $16 each morning and we are not really into huge meals at that time of day so paying that much for cereal and toast is a bit silly.

We had decided to take a detour to have a look at Plockton, which is a small village also down a narrow winding road.

Plockton was a very quiet little place with the odd tour boat chugging in to pick up a few tourists who were wandering around the single street that makes up the village. We had our cup of coffee whilst we were there and sat looking over the very pleasant harbour. Unfortunately as the tide was out it was a bit smelly sitting on the sea wall.

We then had a walk down the main street with Mick photographing the bird life (Robin) and Lyn dropping into the craft shop.

Having had a rest, we left town on another road which was as narrow and winding as the one coming in and ended up on the A87 coming out of Kyle of Lochalsh. This road passed along the edge of Loch Alsh and passed through Dornie where we stopped to visit the beautiful Eilean Donan Castle.

We managed to find a spot to park the car and went in to the ticketing, restaurant and gift shop area and perused the goods on offer with Lyn buying one or two items. We then purchased our tickets which were a reasonable £5.50 each.

Eilean Donan is on a small tidal island in Loch Duich in the western Highlands of Scotland. Since the castle's restoration in the early 20th Century, a footbridge has connected the island to the mainland.  It looks amazing from any view.

We found the interior to be relatively modern with many of the rooms decorated in the period of the early 1900's.


We both quite enjoyed the visit which had some interesting audio visual aids projecting video onto the walls in some of the rooms telling the stories of the early life the castle.

We then left the castle and continued our journey down the A87 with quite a bit of rain falling and passed even more mountains and Lochs en route before arriving at Invergarry where we stopped for a cup of tea.

We then continued down the A87 and turned onto the A86 before arriving at our next stop, the Stronlossit Inn in Roybridge, at about 4.30pm.

We were happy that Mick had specified a good TV so that we could watch the Motogp Race and the Belgium F1 race, as the room we were allocated had a nice big 32" Samsung flatscreen.

 Fiona, Roy and Lyn saying goodbye at the RONA B & B on Loch Carron

Lyn piloting us out - check out the white knuckles

 

The Five Sisters