Wifi and mobile connections are not the best in this remote corner of Europe so you will, like today, find the blog being posted late, whenever we can find the necessary bandwidth!

After a very quiet night on the banks of Loch Lomond we awoke to a grey misty day, with clouds obscuring most of the mountains. Our CL was fully booked for the next night and so we had no option but to move and so we pointed Basil north and headed for the highlands.

The first part of the journey was alongside the very long Loch Lomond, but the expected spectacular scenery was obscured by constant Scottish drizzle. To make matters worse on such a miserable day Basil’s heater started pumping out cold air. I realised that one possible reason for this was a low coolant level in the engine. We pulled over and sure enough the coolant was low so I topped it up and that solved the heating issue. We now have to hope that this isn’t a sign of a leak in the radiator, so I will be keeping an eye on that with my fingers crossed.

Highland Moorland

No sooner had we left Loch Lomond behind than the weather became steadily brighter and it soon reminded us why we love Scotland so much. Once you get into the northern part of Scotland the scenery rarely disappoints. We first had the barren moors dotted with small lakes, the culmination of which is Rannoch Moor. There is no scenery like this anywhere else in the UK and apart from Norway, we have not seen its match.

Rannoch Moor

Soon the moors give way, at Glen Coe, to the high mountains. Scotlands mountains are not big by world standards, with none greater than 5,000 feet, but with the sun glinting on the still snow covered peaks, they are rugged and spectacular. Glen Coe itself is otherworldly. A steep sided glacial valley with tall mountains on either side, the sun is a rare visitor to the valley and as a result it has an almost claustrophobic atmosphere.

Entrance to Glen Coe

After three hours of glorious scenery we finally reached one of the main towns in this part of the Scotland, Fort William, sitting at the base of Britain’s highest mountain, Ben Nevis. We made a quick compulsory pit stop at LIDL for a few essentials we had forgotten before heading a short distance along the Caledonian Canal to our final destination, Gairlochy Holiday Park, near Spean Bridge. The campsite (56.907011, -4.975989) is a fairly basic sort of a place, mostly made up of static caravans with a few spaces for tourers.

Ben Nevis Range from our Campsite

Although set in the Great Glen that contains Loch Lochy and Loch Ness and splits Scotland diagonally from Inverness to Fort William, Spean Bridge will not be on most people’s list of places to visit. However nearby lies a small village both a connection to my family and a much closer connection to Sarah’s. Tomorrow all will be reavealed.