Driving my Life Away!

Looking for a Sunny Day…

We had to be up and out by 6:00 a.m. this morning to join the queue for the ferry from Stornoway to Ullapool.  We had originally planned to come and go from the Isle of Skye but for reasons unknown to us, that route was not available for this date.  We had to cross The Minch in a 2.5 hour journey.   Once arriving in the charming little port town of Ullapool we struck off down the A835 toward Inverness.  Ahead of us were snow dusted mountains.

Our #1 priority today was retrieving Sally’s luggage from the Kenmore Resort where the worst-courier-service ever, had dropped it there in the afternoon of the day we had left bright and early for Uig.  Of course, we had not planned to loop back to Kenmore, but there it was on our agenda.  We would travel nearly to Inverness and then, as a consolation we took a slight detour to the small village of Carrbridge.

In Carrbridge there is what remains of an old packhorse bridge built across the River Dulnain in 1717.  It was an amazing place to visit and to photograph.  The bridge has suffered damage over the centuries yet, one can nearly imagine the people traveling up and over to the other side of the river.  It was enchanting.

We reached Kenmore without incident and Sally was reunited with her luggage!  That was such a relief. After a week of luggage trekking, I was pretty convinced that she would never see it again.  

Our lodging for tonight in Corpach was secured prior to having to loop back to Kenmore.  We thought we’d do some quick sightseeing on the way.  First up was Kilchurn Castle outside of Lochawe.  The castle was built in the mid-1400s by the Clan Campbell.  Rather than taking the route directly to the castle we took a secondary road at the coaching of Sally, for an amazing overlook.  By means of a style next to the road, she and I hiked down through the sheep field to the water’s edge for some amazing, reflective photos.  There were all kinds of young folks camped around Loch Awe with a great morning view of the castle.  Kind of made me wish I could go back in time, and do some camping here myself.

A bit farther up the road was the ruins of Castle Stalker.  The 4-story castle keep was erected in the 1440s on the site of a small fort built by Clan MacDougall in approximately 1320 A.D.  We saw the castle from a high viewpoint.  We did not venture closer.  Quite frankly, my energy was seriously flagging – as was that of my passengers.

We checked into Mansefield Guesthouse in Corpach around 5:00 p.m.  We found some food at a pub just a short distance down the road and called it an early night.  We had traveled over 275 miles this day, not including those miles we were carried on the ferry.