Dunstaffnage - a temporary base to explore and chore

[Kyle]From our Eriska anchorage, once I'd had my coffee, we called Dunstaffnage Marina and told them we were coming. They said to call them on the radio when we arrived. When we got there, we got no answer on it or the telephone, making for a few aggravating minutes of hovering in tight quarters in the strong wind. Eventually, someone came out in a tender and directed us in. It turns out we arrived at a rare simultaneous radio/phone failure. They were embarrassed but very friendly.

We were getting a little stressed because we had booked a car for the week and the end of the day was fast approaching. We had just missed the bus so we walked the 5 miles into town as fast as we could go and arrived with 20 minutes to spare. Once we had the car, we let out big sighs and headed to the store for a big load of heavy groceries. It’s nice to have a car.

The next morning (Saturday), for the first time since the BVI, we got up and went for a run. We were both pleased to find we weren’t in as poor shape as we feared. I suppose all of the recent hiking with heavy packs had something to do with it.


Scenic (bicycle) Trails make good running trails too
After our run we set to on following up on one of John’s (CatFlap) tips and driving up to Barcaldine to see one of the marinas about winter storage. We found a place that we really liked but the guy said he’s full for the winter. Oh, well. Back to plan A.


Ben Nevis distillery
Since we were partway there already, we decided to drive up to Fort William to see the Ben Nevis distillery. It wasn’t really anything special but the drive up there was amazing. Maryanne and I spent the whole day going down Memory Lane, including a replay of the drive past Castle Stalker. This part of Scotland is just incredible. We must have pulled over 100 times to look at the view. I’d turn to get back into the car and realize that I had missed equal beauty behind me. It was painful. I didn’t know where to look. I wanted to climb every hill and taste every waterfall.

[Maryanne]Kyle and I have now been to quite a selection of whisky distilleries, and we both agree that the Ben Nevis one is the worst.. It is an ill informed tour through a dirty/decaying factory and with lackluster presentation at that! The whisky was unimpressive too; we suspect that nearly all this whisky goes to making blends. Hmmmm.. at least the tour was inexpensive.

Fort William is a backpacking/hiking capital in Scotland and there are plenty of ways to part with your money. I insisted it was time for me to purchase some decent walking shoes/boots (mine have long since disintegrated). Kyle was none to impressed once he started to notice the price tags. Most were so expensive that the £95 I eventually spent seemed cheap. I'm now the proud new owner of some fancy black gortex trainers - initially designed for hill running (I know boots are better but boots just don't work for me, although I keep trying). Several days later Kyle is still recovering from the cost (he keeps converting to US$ too, just to make it worse).

Maryanne enjoys a girly shoe purchase session.. for walking shoes
[Kyle]A little about the Ka

The car we rented in Oban for the week is a Ford Ka (which, of course is how the English say car, which makes it even more hilarious). The thing that gets me about this is that it’s made by Ford. In the U.S., Ford has been doing all of this hand wringing about potential fuel economy regulations by saying they would have to retool everything they have, etc. at huge cost.

Bollocks! I’m sure this Ka is actually put together somewhere over here in Europe, but seriously, it’s a Ford. It’s small, comfortable, safe (well, probably not against a Chevy Suburban, but that’s another rant) and it gets a posted 67 miles per gallon. {Maryanne - we are getting 55mpg easily}. They already build loads of these cars. I bet it’s cheap, too. Although, over here everything is relative.


Our wheels for the week - the Ford Ka