Laggan to Banavie (Fort William)

Tuesday 20th June. We awoke to a glorious day of sunshine and stunning views, birds chirping (I heard a cuckoo) and a beautiful calm canal. Pauline had decided to make the most of the forecast good weather and take the bus to Fort William, do the Mallaig train journey (made famous in the Harry Potter films) and then home on the Caledonian Sleeper. We waved her goodbye at the bus stop, returned to the boat and set off for Fort William, now with a crew of four. The Loch into Loch Lochy was one small "down" lock so very easy compared to the "up" locks we had done so far. We had news from the lock keeper that the Gairlochy swing bridge at the end of Loch Lochy was broken but should be repaired later today, so we pressed on. A beautifully calm loch, sunshine and warmth...heaven. We even had shorts and tee shirts on and I did contemplate a swim but it was too shallow at the edges of the loch to moor.

When we reached the end of Loch Lochy at Gairlochy we moored up and had a picnic lunch on deck and fed the local ducks with defrosted frozen peas, which was entertaining.





 
After lunch we headed for the Gairlochy top lock and while we were waiting to go through we saw the Greenpeace ship, Baluga II coming out of the lock. They got an enthusiastic wave from me.

The swing bridge was now mended so we sailed through and continued our journey in the sunshine to arrive in Banavie by 5pm. It had been a glorious day and the sun remained all evening. From our mooring we had a fabulous view of Ben Nevis and Neptune's Steps, the last flight of locks before we head out to the end of the canal.




 

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