Day 120 Lochailort to Kilchoan

 

 Date: Friday 21^st September 2012   Distance: 42.01 Miles

 

Bob and chillied cheese didn’t mix and he got up a lot through the night. I was really grumpy when I woke for the umpteenth time at 3am but then I looked out of the window. As I rubbed the condensation it revealed billions of stars, a real treat for one who lives in a light polluted area and I was grateful for being awake! This is the first time we have seen it properly dark for months.

 

It was a really tasty breakfast and not at all greasy. The 19 year old chef has a good future ahead of her. We had stayed here before about 15 years ago and it was a disaster. They charged us twice and we had great difficulty in getting our money back. That man has gone and it is company owned now but the same nearly happened again. Record keeping hasn’t improved and they didn’t know we had paid electronically. Attitudes were much better though and it was quickly sorted. They have kept the stuffed animals but apart from that it is a nice friendly place with several family members involved in its running.

 

The water is faintly coloured and even more “peaty” in the loo cistern. It comes straight from the hills and is filtered for their use.

 

Breakfast was very sociable as we chatted to the couple of reps for liquid oxygen. Apparently oxygen is pumped into salmon farms to help production. I told them about the bubbles we’d noticed in the water at Kyleakin and they said that it was unlikely to be oxygen but thought like me it might be methane or volcanic gases.We left later than usual as we’d not woken till 8am- very unusual!

 

It was a sunny start with a bite to the air. We passed a deer, dead by the road looking unblemished but probably killed by a car or lorry. We were told that every winter people wreck their cars knocking them down as the deer come down from the hills looking for warmth. Perhaps they should drive with more care.

 

We passed the salmon farm on Loch Ailort and it seemed to have quite a bit of technical equipment. Eggs are often sent from Norway to salmon farms we were told and another guest at the hotel from Spain was a marine expert working here.

8 miles away we passed the next Inn and a lady with her purchase from the Smokery shop there. We had seen beautiful views across to Eig and Rhum and then later along the side of Loch Moidart we passed the 7 Men of Moidart. These are beech trees planted to commemorate the7 men who helped Prince Charles to reinstate himself in Scotland( albeit for a very short time). They are looking quite the worse for wear now.

Moidart as a region has few actual inhabitants. I just love the name. It makes me think of Lord of the Rings and some of its terrain is just as impenetrable. Someone described the roads as “adventurous.”

 

We went up a 1 in 10 hill with pine trees chopped back from the road at Drynie Hill. This was a pattern in some western highland beauty spots where the roads had been widened losing some of their charm- to be sterilised with EU money as some graffiti, on road signs, deplored.

 

 

There was single track some of the way and very pretty to Ardshealach where we stopped at the Highlander cafe for lunch. There was only room for 10 people and when 4 elderly ladies came in to find no seats available 2 people rushed their lunch feeling obliged to leave. It was a shuffle round so that everyone could sit with their friends and the stream of customers was constant. We moved out as soon as we had eaten and I started writing notes for the day when I had to make use of the umbrella stowed with the waterproofs.

 

It rained on and off for some while after and Bob put on his cape. The weather behind looked awful and was closing in. We came into Ardnamurchan at Salen and then it was gorgeous views along Loch Sunart. All along this area duck egg green lichen thrives on the trees making them look hairy.

 

Later at Glenborrowdale we looked for a hotel we had stopped at for shelter from the rain once. We remembered it well because an over-laden canoe had worried several of us, particularly as there were children in it. Now there is no jetty to see or hotel though the building is still there as a house we were told. When we stopped at Nadurra, a visitor centre, instead for a break, we found the same lady working there as had owned the hotel and lived in the house. A person with strong social conscience she now does 30 mile school runs and runs nature walks up at the lighthouse. A lady of leisure, sitting at one of the cafe tables said she had seen us putting on our capes and wanted our endorsement of the fact that it had rained as no one believed her.

Nadurra is a lovely little place with grapes growing in a room festooned with antlers of all sizes. A suntrap, it had exhibits that we didn’t have time to see and boasts sightings of golden and white tailed eagles from the centre car park. Even pine martens have been known to prowl the centre grounds in daylight but unfortunately not when we were there.

 

There was a digger taking chunks out of the mountain to build a house or wind turbines maybe. The men there waved across and said it was downhill all the way after. Well it wasn’t, but the last 3 miles were like a roller coaster and quick.

Continuing on from the excavations we came across a lot of highland cows with their calves holding up traffic and looking ready to bolt in any direction. It was hard to negotiate our way round them. We’d had several episodes of spooked sheep but we have become practised at herding them to the side. These animals were really big and wild eyed.

 

We gave the cow warning to 4 cyclists who passed us- that was 5 cyclists all day- arriving at the Kilchoan Hotel at 5.30. No places to eat round and about but the hotel did take-away fish and chips, in paper wrapping. We ordered ours for 7 as they were busy with orders till then but it was still a while till we got ours and we were starving! Because of this we missed the sunset. The previous night by all accounts had been spectacular. At £6.50 each, our fish was certainly tasty and we went to bed at 9.30 after a little evening stroll for the remnants of sundown, bats and the last of the dusk chorus.

 

Our room was very warm. We were surprised we couldn’t find record of us staying here in the  1990s. On show were all the guest book records going back to the 50s.

The bed was comfy but I woke a few times to the sound of singing and guitar music- Apparently another impromptu folk evening. I would have liked to join in but couldn’t stay awake!