8.Day - Saturday, 19.May 2001
8.Day - Saturday, 19.May 2001
Route: 396km, 246mi (GPS track)
Diary:
Tonight was the last night on the beautiful camp site near Oban (GPS waypoint OBAN).
Yesterday we had decided to drive towards Inverness today.
After getting up, having breakfast and packing our stuff
on the bikes, we first drove to Fort William.
Although the sky was cloudy and there was not much to see, we
took the dead end road into Glen Nevis.
We couldn't see Ben Nevis (GPS waypoint NEVIS), Scotland's highest mountain, but
at least we've been at its bottom and it was a nice road (first picture).
On the next two pictures you can again see foot-and-mouth disease
precautions for hikers.
After leaving Glen Nevis, we didn't head north but added a second extra round to Moidart and back (fourth picture). When we drove down to Strontian, I suddenly saw a thick hose coming from the sea and leading under the street to some machines on the other side of the street (pictures five and six). Since I'm a curious person, I stopped and went back. It turned out that it was a device for pumping the salmons from their basins directly to some workers, who immediately killed them and threw them on a truck (GPS waypoint SALMON). When the truck was full, it drove the fish away. Wow, that's a quick procedure. Imagine you were a fish, swim around in the sea cluelessly - plopp! - get sucked into a pipe - bang! - get one over your head and finally are transported to some market. I don't like that idea but I like having fish.
Further on our way, we shortly stopped at Neptunes Stairway in Inverness (GPS waypoint NEPTUN), which is the start of the channel to the east coast of Scotland.
Nothing special happened on the remaining part of today's trip beside some misunderstandings between Manfred and me about driving style and where to go. I won't go into details. After some clarifying words, everything was okay again in the evening - I think.
One thing, we learned in Scotland is to watch out for lambs. They always run to their mother if they feel in danger, whether they have to cross the road in front of you or not. Older sheep are no problem, but the young ones are.
When we arrived on the camp site in Beaully (GPS waypoint BEAULY), two children showed up, who closely watched every movement we made while building up our tents and cooking. They asked us lots of questions. Sometimes it was hard to understand their strong slang. After a while, the boy asked me whether he could start my engine. Okay, I sat him on my bike and showed him what to do. And of course he fully opened the throttle with a smile in his face once the engine was running. After some seconds at the red line, I told him: "Okay, that's enough now, boy" and switched off the engine again.
Tour