We left Fort William and made our way down to Glencoe. Tim had been there before and was very keen to show us the scenery and mountains in the Glencoe region. The road was nice a quiet and we were soon climbing up into the mountains on a road which reminded me very much of the crown range. There were lots of parking zones to pull off and the views from each were fantastic even in the misty weather. We drove through the picturesque Glencoe mountains and the flat-as-a-pancake Rannoch Moor.
We approached another parking area which was packed full of cars and people. We found a park and hopped out to see a wonderful view across the valley with tall mountains and a lovely blue loch. We glanced to the field on the right and were surprised to see two deer sitting placidly in the field no more than 100 paces away. We found a hot dog stall and the man inside told us that he feeds them but they are still quite wild and there have been quite a few dumb tourists injured while attempting to go over and give them a pat! I discovered a cairn dedicated to one Sir Hugh T Munro who compiled the Munro Tables detailing locations and height of all Scottish mountains over 3000 feet. Thereafter all peaks over 3000 feet became known as “Munros”.
We carried on down the road and eventually emerged at the northern end of Loch Lomond. The weather had taken a turn for the worse and the conditions on the road were a little rough. About halfway along the loch is a little village called Luss which I had discovered in a travel book and was determined to see. We left the main road and after finding a park we walked down the main street of Luss to the water’s edge. It was indeed a very pretty village with a line of lovely houses and a nice secluded beach. Will was happy to see more ducks and one duck had four ducklings following her and they came right up to us. I gave one a pat before retreating carefully as mother duck started to flap a bit!
The weather improved on the short walk back to the car so we found a little café and went in for lunch. Will wanted some chippies so we bought a bowl full for him and milkshakes and coffees to keep us going. Tim and Hayley were keen to get to Edinburgh quite soon as they had a train to catch and needed to organise a connection from York to Leeds so we headed straight for Linlithgow. To get back on the motorway, we made our way to Stirling wanting to avoid the chaos that would inevitably surround Glasgow. We rushed the edge of Stirling and caught a glimpse of the castle and the William Wallace memorial before joining the motorway.
En route to Linlithgow, while passing a large truck I missed a sign that warned of the motorway splitting in two and in horror we found ourselves heading towards Glasgow. We left the motorway at the next junction and found the quickest way to Linlithgow via Falkirk. The “detour” cost us a good half an hour but we did get to drive through some nice little villages and also caught a glimpse of the Falkirk wheel which would later turn out to be all we saw of it.
We arrived at Linlithgow with plenty of time and found that the nearest train to Edinburgh was due to leave in seven minutes. While making our way to the other platform, I plugged Tim’s camera into my computer and copied his pictures off his camera just in time. We said goodbye to Tim and Hayley and wished them well for their long trip back to Leeds. We will see them again in December when they come over for Tim’s brother’s wedding so we didn’t feel too sad about saying goodbye.
We made it back to Bo’ness and Isobel cooked Stovies for dinner which was fantastic! Our friends Cas and Morgan live in Edinburgh and we arranged to meet them at Linlithgow to go out for a drink tomorrow night. Isobel retired to bed early so Lou and I had a nice quiet night watching Still Game on TV and relaxing.
