Friday 13 July 2012

Back to travelling



(Sorry Marcheline and Friend-and-son-in-law-who-loves-otters – you’re going to have wait even longer for the otters!!  Perhaps tomorrow – who knows. ) 

When we last left our travels North we were leaving the Lake District and heading towards heavy clouds.


 Now, in Scotland, the sign says ‘Heavy rain forecast’ and the forecast was right! 


 Did you know the lights on those signs scroll so when you take a photo you don’t get all of it?  You do now. 

A friendly Chaffinch at a loo stop.


Just South of Erskine Bridge these three ambulances passed us on their way to an accident that was to close the A82 and cause us a very lengthy diversion.


More blue lights go past.




What alternative route.  You don’t mean all the way round via Inveraray?  You do…

It’s meeting the caravans diverted this way that’s the problem!


Yes, it’s still raining.


There’s a car in that spray somewhere.


Rannoch Moor in the rain.


Will you please stop focussing on the windscreen!


This sort of mood suits Glencoe.


Journey’s end – for Saturday – and for me it’s haggis, neeps and tatties at the Cluanie Inn.

 
But the most important thing for GB is ‘Is there a signal?’.


8 comments:

  1. You're so right that sort of mood suits mountain and moor scenery, but I'm sorry about all the rain. Hope it brightens up at your destination. That is a fabulous shot of the chaffinch. For such a common bird they have beautiful colors. I remember that head as being a distinct slate blue.

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  2. When you travel like this, long hours in the car, the rain and a lot of traffic outside, what (apart from taking pictures) do you do? Do you listen to music, or just talk, or both, or snooze a little (not the driver, I trust)?

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    1. We chat a little (and some of it even makes sense) and I admire the scenery and whilst I don't usually do it, on this occasion, I snoozed a little. I'm assuming GB did not snooze or we wouldn't be here!!

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  3. I don't know about you but I am starting to feel I have seen enough rain and rain clouds lately ! :D But if you HAVE to see rain, then Scotland is definitely the place. It really does suit it. And your meal looks positively Dickensian in its welcome. And weirdly like a Christmas pudding, which I presume it wasn't ! !!

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  4. The shots from the car (from the narrow roads especially) give me flashbacks to our family trips in the 70s. My parents bought a Super 8 film camera and we got endless film clips of scenery like this, shot from the moving car... As I have a certain tenedency for motion sickness, I never really enjoyed re-watching all the ups-and-downs afterwards. I prefer the still photos. ;) But it's a beautiful scenery indeed and impressive even in rain and clouds.

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  5. What lovely photos, rain or no rain. My sister-in-law has visited Glencoe and said it's the most melancholy place she's ever been, even when the sun is shining. It's as if the very stones remember what happened here so long ago.

    Hugs, Carol

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    1. The first time I saw Glencoe I was only about twelve and I knew little about the battle. And at that age every place one visited seemed to have had a battle at some time in its history. Nevertheless it sent shivers down my spine. The only other place that has such an atmosphere, in my experience, is the Rollright Stones in Oxfordshire which I have been to once and will never visit again! My hair literally stood on end there and I've just looked at my arm and I've got goosebumps thinking about it. How impressive is that!?

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  6. I went to Glencoe on my solitary travels through Scotland. I asked the locals where the Glencoe monument was (as an American of course I expected it to be just off a main highway, with a snack and gift shop attached)... it turned out to be in someone's back yard, down a dirt road that it took me three wrong turns to find (lovely side-trips though they each were). I actually had to knock on the people's door to ask permission to go on their land and see the monument. Totally worth it, though.

    The chills for me were seeing my clan name (MacRae) on the Castle Eilean Donan, and visiting Culloden. To stand on that field... there are no words.

    P.S. I am totally jealous that you have chaffinches and we don't. I mean, even just the name "chaffinch" is cooler than any bird name ever, innit?

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