Glen Etive

I had a free window before the start of my radiotherapy so headed off to the Highlands for a few days. I managed to get a room at The Moorings Hotel at Banavie which is situated right next to Neptune's Staircase on The Caledonian Canal. It's not cheap but I can afford it so why not?

The Staircase raises the canal by 19m (62ft) over a quarter of a mile of continuous masonry and takes around 90 minutes for a boat to travel up or down the locks. It was built by Thomas Telford between 1803 and 1822 and is the longest staircase lock in Scotland. It is a great location to enjoy ‘gongoozling’ the boats as they travel up and down the lock flight! Fortunately my room overlooked the locks so I got a grandstand seat.

I made good progress travelling up so I decided to have a drive down Glen Etive as I hadn't been down there for years. It is a long road, which goes on for some 14 miles, so I limited myself to going just as far as the first, unsightly hydro-electric works. They are under construction at the moment and planning permission has been given for seven in total. I stopped at the first one which was being built across the Allt a Chaorainn and the land surrounding it has been totally decimated. The constructors had made an utter mess of this once beautiful glen.

I took quite a lot of photos of the many cascades and waterfalls in the glen and also of the surrounding hills and woodlands. Due to recent dry weather, I even managed to get to the falls on the River Coupall and take a shot of the classic, much photographer Buachaille Etive Mor which normally would have been a mud bath. The usually glutinous peat was pretty dry albeit a bit spongy.

My drive through Glen Coe was very busy so I didn't stop. The sunny weather had brought all the visitors out and all the car parks looked to be full. I arrived at the hotel about four o'clock unpacked and had a nice cool lager sat outside, just watching the world go by.