Day 24 (13th July 2022)

 Once again, I was woken by rain drumming on the roof above my head. I swear Scotland will forever be associated with rain for the rest of my days. I tried hard not to get too despondent (and wet) and went about making tea trying to shelter the gas stove from the wind without singeing too many hairs on my arms.

Although my destination today was relatively close on the map, it involved another ferry ride and once I was over the other side, it was deserted. Totally deserted. The few vehicles I did see just drive straight through it on their way elsewhere, or were logging lorries. More about them in a bit. This particular part of Scotland is probably bigger than the Isle of Wight but has only one town to speak of, and that is stretching the very definition of a town to its limit. The entire area is stop #44

MORVERN 

As you can see, I've labelled this pic (1). The place I initially chose is right in the middle of Morvern. It is the site of Aoineadh Mòr, a small town that was forcibly cleared in 1824 so that the "landowner" could graze his sheep. This happened all over the Highlands in the early 19th Century but an account by one of the townspeople called Mary, and the fact that the exact whereabouts of the town were unknown until the 1990s made a visit here irresistible. Her account of the eviction is truly heartbreaking. You  can just about make out some of the remains of their houses. 

But, in keeping with the whole "coastal placenames" bit of Germinal CCXXIV, I thought I should at least look for a bit of waterside Morvern, so here is (2)

This is "The Morvern Cross", which  dates from the 1300s and overlooks the Sound of Mull (Mull being  the place all the cars in Morvern were driving to). I was unbelievably jammy with the timing of the pic showing the sunbeams from the centre of the cross. I grinned all the way back to the van.

I thought about getting another ferry over to Mull just to see what Tobermory is like, but realised that by the time I got there and back, I would be late for my rendezvous with our friend Tim who lives part of the time up in Fort William, so instead I took a drive along a different road through Morvern along the coast of Loch Sunart, across Glen Tarbert and the follow the coast of both Loch Linnhe and Loch Eil and then join the road to Fort William from the west. 

Aside from some of the most beautiful and dramatic scenery, which really are breathtaking in places, there were quite a few patches of land, especially in Morvern, where the clearance of Pine has left acres of hideously scarred land. I can only hope these people know what they are doing as I didn't see equal areas full of small growing pines to replace them. Some of the land left behind looks what I imagine areas of Frace and Belgium looked like during WWI.

I stopped off for a coffee at Neptune's Staircase as the sun had come out for more than 5 minutes. It is a series of 8 locks over a quarter of a mile on the Caledonian Canal that according to Wiki is the longest canal staircase in Britain. Also saw a very brave small bird sat on the head of a plastic bird of prey which made me chuckle.

Eventually got into Fort William just as the shops were starting to shut, but not before I finally admitted defeat and bought myself a pair of walking poles. It was only few years ago I scoffed at walkers earnestly plodding along with their elongated ski poles through Clissold Park but after another hard walk through woods and hills to find Aoineadh Mòr, I have decided I too need any help I can get and bugger what anyone else thinks!

Met up with Tim and had a wonderful pizza and wine supper and talked our way through an incredible amount of subjects, including our days at boarding school and my mispronounciation of almost every Scottish place I've been to so far! It was great to catch up.

Tomorrow should be very exciting so stay tuned.

Allons-y 

Douglas Germinal CCXXIV Brain over and out