Old Pines Hotel and Restaurant Fort William

... of my mountains?' Now bear in mind the Nepalese man is from NEPAL - you know Everest, K2, all the big ones - so clearly he wasn't too impressed. So the Scottish man challenged him to run up the hill - which the Nepalese man did and was back at the bar having his 6th beer in just over an hour!

Our final event for the night was the telling of the Tale of the One Eyed Woman. In the area we were, there was ancient rivalry between two clans - both of which names totally escape me ...

... It's about 24 miles end to end and about 1/5 miles from side to side. Despite our best Aussie haka, Nessie didn't come out to visit.
Further along the Loch to where we are staying tonight AND tomorrow night - two nights in one place, how amazing! We're in a 4 bed room with our own ensuite - our room for those playing along at home? Braveheart of course! We're heading off soon to a Highland History performance, then back to the hostel for some ...

... section and with added confidence, only to come off the bike
on a really easy section early on. I had a quick look at the bike and I noticed that the rear brake was getting stuck and not working properly, therefore the front locked up on a downhill section and sent me over the handle bars.

I finished the red route and stopped at the cafe for a jacket potato and a hot chocolate ...

... up to the room and bagged the double bed and then went into town for a walk around. Took a few pictures of Loch Ness and some of the town. Not much going on here, just a few shops for the tourists. Back to the hostel for a drink and to use the PC's so that I can upload some photos (which you may have noticed already!). Not sure what to do tomorrow???

... sightings were in the 1930's by visiting professional man, many didn't believe him until 3 months later their own doctor took the now famous black and white shot of the monster.

We passed the wells of the seven heads, legend has it that the chief of the Macdonal clan died, his sons, twins currently overseas studying, in their absence the elders ruled. They ruled quite ruthlessly and killed the sons on ...

... is at about 10m and we have to make sure we don't get too close to the wrong edge as there is a 2000 foot drop on the north side of the mountain. Up at the top I get out my stove and make a very welcomed hot chocolate for the two of us and we quickly get a couple of photos taken and the get our asses off the summit as quickly as we could.

The walk down which we though would be a lot quicker and ...

I've made it to Fort William, checked into the SYHA Glen Nevis and decided to go for a walk in to town to get some dinner. Little did I know that it was 3.5 miles each way in the pouring rain to Morrisons.

Gone to far to turn around and I am wet now.

The final stage of the Great Glen Way runs down Loch Lochy and back onto the Caledonian Canal all the way to Fort William and Loch Linnhe. The Caledonian Canal is another feat of 19th century engineering, where rather than use specialist "navvies", the local Highlanders were pressed into service in between their ordinary droving and crofting activities.

It ...

... Also purchased a new backpack here. After that continued on to Fort William where we intended to stay the night. All was quite busy here so decided to use Information centre for our accommodation and they found us a place called Clan MacDuff a couple of miles out of town. Very nice place and we ate our meals overlooking the Loch. Also booked 2 nights in Skye here as well just in case.

We got off the train in Fort William and then caught the bus to Mallaig. The driver was a bit nuts and drove really quickly and recklessly along the narrow roads, but he gave us a bit of a commentary and was actually quite interesting. We got to Mallaig port and while waiting for the ferry to come over we saw a common seal in the Harbour! Apparantly he's there quite a lot and the ...