Right, the last post left off two Sundays ago when we left Keswick in the morning. Plan for the day was simple, drive up to Loch Lomond, grab some dinner and then continue to Mallaig.
As we saw initial signs for the first motorway service station, we noticed the Marks and Spencers sign. Although we had only had breakfast an hour ago, the wish for some nice M&S sarnies was too much to ignore, so we popped in to grab some – their purpose would be a dinner backup in case our initial research into lack of pubs in Mallaig was correct.
The drive was interesting upto Loch Lomond, having to drive through Glasgow proper, lots of complicated dual carriageways through the city, but luckily TomTom didn’t let us down. Now, I always wanted to try some authentic Scottish cuisine during the trip, so we decided to eat at a local Scottish restaurant in Balloch, south of Loch Lomond. A place called McDonalds, where I tried a ‘Big Mac’ and Cheryl had a burger and ‘McChicken Nuggets’, and nice they were too.
Back in the car, we stopped for the last time at Inverglas, parking at the visitors centre and taking pics of ‘The Ben’ – our target for the following Thursday. Loch Lomond is a beautiful lake, with some majestic hills surrounding. However, I was getting excited….
Buachaille Etive Mòr
The drive up the A82 had already seen some great roads, nice bends etc, and I knew the best was to come – from the Bridge of Orchy through Glen Coe then the A830 Road to the Isles. So back in the car, and I took great pleasure from the pretty open roads, and lack of slow cars in front. A few easy overtakes and we were through Glen Coe. However, a a reminder about road safety was clear – a police car and ambulance were on scene just before the visitors centre to assist a car that had made it over a ditch, albeit it upside on it’s roof. Pretty hairy scene. Anyhow, a couple of brief photo stops by The Buckle and a sea loch just before Mallaig satisfied by urges to see the best of Highland scenery.
Eigg and Rum from Mallaig
We finally got to The Moorings Guest House at Mallaig about 8ish, booked in and took the landladies advise to walk over the hill overlooking the harbour. Quite a hill, the walk taking about 1 hour though this did include eating those M&S sarnies and taking many photos of Eigg, Rum and Skye. Fantastic scenery, beautiful weather rounded off by a bottle of Rosé whilst watching The Apprentice Finale in our room.