Day four / five on the Caley Canal, day 50 of our trip.

Day 50 of our trip and day four (or is it five?) on the Caley Canal. We awoke to mist and rain, while the rest of the country is basking in record temperatures! We left Fort Augustus and on to Loch Oich and Laggan.

We had two more "up" locks to do, Lock Kytra, only a small one. The lock keeper was a very amiable lady who gave us five gold stars for all wearing lifejackets, so we stuck those in the log!  The next lock was Cullochy, another small "up" lock , a couple of swing bridges and by 1.30 we had arrived in Laggan.
Our berth at Laggan
 It was still cloudy but it had stopped raining so four of us (Mick , Linda, Pauline and myself) decided to go for a walk and try out our two folding bikes for the first time this trip. The sun did come out and the scenery was stunning. There is a path along the Caledonian Canal called the Great Glen Way, so we did about a mile of this up into the hills that looked down onto Loch Lochy.

Looking down onto Loch Lochy.

There was a subsistence hill farm with sheep spilling out of their fields onto the road with their lambs, a clear bubbling stream cascading down the hill over rocks and wildflowers.

 I couldn't resist trying the water which was clear and tasted a bit peaty but very cool and refreshing.


 When we got back to the boat a piper in full Highland dress was walking along the tow path playing the bagpipes! There was also a film crew from Channel 4 - all to do with the large barge, Scottish Highlander, which had arrived (and moored in front of us) and talk of a model railway line from Fort William to Inverness! More of that in a later blog.

We had expected a village or something but nothing at Laggan except the next lock to go through tomorrow into Loch Lochy. There was a floating restaurant on a small barge by the lock but this was closed, so we ate "Loch Oich Chilli" prepared by Mick and Linda on board. Pauline and I toasted day 50 of our trip with a glass or two of Prosecco in Dee's lovely wine glasses (plastic to avoid breakages!)


Next day we woke up to sunshine!

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