19th Loch Oich

I’d omitted to mention an episode with Smudge on the first day. Smudge is a lovely dog, a cross poodle and Spaniel rescue dog, she has a mind of her own and can sit, heel, come, stay and so on. If it suits her. She has a liking for left overs and  if left to her own devices will get up onto the dining table and potter about finishing the butter, yoghurt, jam and etc, when caught she has no guilt and the yoghurt sticks to her whiskers in an amusing way making it difficult to be cross with her. When Sue and the dogs joined the boat in Inverness Sue had gone off somewhere and Smudge and Drizzle were on their leads in the cockpit with the leads tied to winches to restrict the area they had to roam around. I saw Smudge look over the side of the boat to the pontoon below, obviously thinking about jumping off and  said to her, in my commanding voice, No! She ignored me and jumped off anyway but the lead came tight and she was left dangling over the side of the boat, scrabbling to get a grip on the fender step. To her credit she was quiet and not making a fuss, perhaps she felt bad about not listening to my No. Perhaps she couldn’t voice an opinion as she was hanging from the neck. Anyway she had her lifejacket on and I picked her back up and put her aboard again  and, since then she has been a bit reticent about jumping off the boat until told to do so, perhaps no bad thing.

Double cantilever bridge to nowhere

Glengarry Castle Hotel

Yesterday we went for a walk on the Southern footpath. After about 500 metres there was some glorious blooming heather over the fence and this merged into a golf course with the purple heather mixing into the golf course appealingly.

Back on the boat we let go and headed off towards Loch Oich. From the skipper’s guide I’d thought I just had a bridge to negotiate prior to stopping to look at my favourite bridge. I omitted to notice two locks which were marked with the symbols for a lock on the big map but not the words lock.  Anyway as Sue had just passed up porridge and was preparing for tea as the lock appeared  and we were rigged for port side locks and the lock keeper wanted us starboard side to we didn’t make the best fist of arriving, particularly as, once I’d transferred the stern line from Port to Starboard, and put a bowline in it  and thrown it up to the lock keeper and he’d put it on a hook, and I’d tried to lean on it to come alongside - the bowline had not been tightened up properly so pulled out so we drifted about for a bit before regaining control. As we were the only boat in the lock this wasn’t the end of the world and soon we were making our way towards the next lock prior to the bridge  where we were to stop.

Lock passed and bridge passed we secured to the pontoon and went for a walk to the double cantilever bridge, over the river beside the canal, which, although looking beautiful from an engineering point of view could to with some tlc and a lick of paint. I’d hoped that we could take the dogs for a walk on the other side of of the bridge but it was a private estate with a ‘go away’ sign. This was sad, mainly because it makes the bridge useless as a bridge and only valuable as a a monument which may not  bode well for it’s future.

We then had a coffee and, possibly a couple of chocolate biscuits, before heading off for a walk along the path to the South of Loch Oich, along the cycle path which runs along the Great Glen. We came to the Loch from the canal where we had parked and passed a couple sitting on a beach with a canoe and trying to enjoy a snack which the dogs were keen to help them with. After this, following the path we came to a bridge over a little river where the path joined the remains of, probably, a Beechings abandoned, railway. It was, now, a victorian, riveted, bridge purely for pedestrians and cyclists. Shortly after this we passed an odd girder sort of thing crossing the path of the railway with a slope of about 30 degrees  and no obvious purpose. There was another one about a hundred yards further on but at about 40 degrees slope, both quite substantial and riveted the tops being supported by the local rock and the bottoms resting on brick pillars. Mysteries. Another further on; the track was a cutting through rock and up ahead it looked like a bridge crossed the railway, however it turned out to be about 40m through so was more like a mini tunnel. There was no road above so no obvious reason it was a tunnel not a cutting and the rock wasn’t particularly taller here, I assume that the rock was just that but more voluminous that the calculations showed a tunnel preferable to a cutting and  the inside had recently (ish, probably some years ago but not  in the 1800s) been given a skim of concrete wash and there were plaques which had probably been put up at the same time with bats on them, possibly it had been a bat home at the time, currently there were no signs of them.

Anyway this seemed a good enough place to turn around and we went back to the boat, pushed off, set the genoa and sailed half way down Loch Oich to Castle Bay and dropped anchor, after lunch, headed ashore to look at the Castle and Hotel. Getting into the dinghy involved passing dogs down and hoping that they didn’t pop it with their claws then paddling red Indian style as there wasn’t room for the thwart and oars. The castle is a ruin and fenced off but still looking quite castley. The inside supported with timber baulks to stop the walls falling outwards. From here we walked up to the Hotel, a large Victorian house from 1869 with 3 floors including the attic floor. An attractive typically Victorian house we enjoyed the views and went for a walk down along the river on the opposite side to the Loch in gorgeous dapples sunshine. Returning to the Hotel we had afternoon Tea and Scones on the lawn and enjoyed going to the Loo which had lead glaze urinals in the gents, a la Rothesay, along with a couple of easy chairs where, presumably, one could relax and read a paper in peace. Coming back outside, having been to the loo, Smudge was on the table having finished the butter, jam and cream although, entirely in her best interests, I’d had a pretty good go myself before going to the loo. She tends to look pleased with herself at these moments, like she’s come up with a good way of helping out. Back on the boat we carried on towards the swing bridge at Laggan, passed through, having waited for an emergency vehicle for  a bit, then on to the Locks at Laggan, through them and we moored for the night on the far side. There is a barge here which operates as a pub / cafe but, again, it was closed so once we’d been for a walk and had spag bol for dinner I let Sue beat me at dominos to keep her happy.