Homeward bound

I left Tarbert this morning and started making my way back home - first stopping for a delightful coffee and home made scone en route. The day was much brighter than of late so i decided that i would not hurry on the journey home and freely stopped to take photos whenever the road conditions allowed! Here I am at Ardrishaig where six very happy gentlemen were negotiating the first lock of the 9 mile long Crinan Canal which links the Atlantic Ocean with Loch Fyne. The canal was opened in 1808 and meant boats no longer had to navigate the long and hazardous route around the Mull of Kintyre. There are 15 locks in total and at the summit it has taken boats as high as 21 metres above sea level. As each locking procedure uses 300,000 litres of water, the canal has to be supplied with a constant source of new water from 7 reservoirs. I stayed to watch as the water level rose to enable the first lock to be opened, after which the road bridge was moved aside and the boat gently eased into the basin ready to negotiate the next lock on its journey west.

I stopped for a spot of lunch at a very well know place called the Loch Fyne Oyster Bar and while I was enjoying my fish soup I noticed these words printed above my head which made me chuckle.

"Oysters are the most tender and delicate of all seafoods.
They stay in bed all day and night. They never work or
take exercise, are stupendous drinkers, and wait for their meals to come to them" Hector Bolitho - The Glorious Oyster.

I continued northwards and decided to take a different route home from Inverary and turned eastwards towards Loch Long and Loch Lomond passing through the famous stretch known as the Rest and Be Thankful. The old road was notorious for its steep hairpin bends as the road climbed out of Glen Croe and it was traditional for travellers to rest at the top, and be thankful for having reached the highest point. The more modern road traverses the hills a little higher up the slopes and is still notorious, but for a different reason. The steep slopes have become fairly unstable and heavy rain frequently results in landslides blocking and temporarily closing the road - the last of these was only last Thursday.

Another point of interest on the drive home was the sight of The Cobbler - also known as Ben Arthur - which has the most distinctive outline of any mountain in the Southern Highlands. It is just under the height of a Munro at 2,900' and is therefore known as a Corbett but it provides a very challenging climb as you can see from its profile and which i can vouch for as I completed it when I was much younger.