Fort William

Like most people in the area, we go in to Fort William once in a while to do a big shop and to deal with other things that can't be done locally.  It's something we don't enjoy, even though the scenery along the first 45 miles of the route is often spectacular - this is the view up Loch Sunart from the top of the hill at Ardslignish - so we go as rarely as possible.  As can be seen, we leave early to avoid the traffic that builds as the day progresses.

The MV Corran, the larger of the two ferries at the Corran Narrows, is away for its annual service, and the spare ferry, the Maid of Glencoul, isn't big enough to cope with the traffic.  When we reached Corran, she was shuttling, and she continued to shuttle all day.  To make matters worse, when we came back, a long line of cars and trucks was waiting on the Ardgour side, many being people who had been to the Mull rally over the weekend and were trying to get home.

One of the enjoyable things about the crossing is watching the ships that pass up and down Loch Linnhe.  Some are destined for Corpach, just beyond Fort William, but this well boat, the Ronja Pioneer, was on its way to one of the fish farms in the loch.  As can be seen from the pictures, while the sky was clearing over Kilchoan when we left, Fort William was cloudy and dull - which isn't surprising as the Fort has one of the highest rainfall totals in the UK.

We didn't spend much more than a couple of hours in town, just enough time to have the rear lights on the car fixed and to visit the supermarkets.  Between Strontian and Salen we were slowed by a small orange camper van whose driver seemed to enjoy having a tail of other cars behind him, but when we finally reached Camas nan Geall the sky cleared and the sun shone.

We were home in time for a late lunch on a sunny terrace in front of the house, when we were joined for the meal by this friendly hoverfly, less than 10mm long, who took a particular liking to the honey and one of Mrs Diary's specialities, millet cookies.