Friday 9th -- Loch Tay

Still catching up: Friday we drive. Again.

We head off up Main Street, which is the main street in Killin (rofl). Drive over the bridge at Dochart Falls. The Falls are largely horizontal. Rapids, really. An impressive amount of water amongst lots of solid rocks. The bridge is, in part, single lane. With cars and sightseeing pedestrians weaving across in both... all... directions.

Just past the falls is a road to Ardeonaig, we've never heard of it so we follow the road. Our holidays always involve a lot of impulse visiting :-)

There's a hotel at Ardeonaig, nothing much else. Should we come here for dinner? we wonder. Not along this road, we think...

This road is one lane, narrow and winding. Luckily, not much traffic. We pass less than a dozen other cars. We do pass one truck, parked, changing a tyre. It's a bit of a squeeze to get by.

The road is signposted as, good for walking and cycling.

It's a very pleasant drive through, mostly, forest. With regular glimpses of a loch, off to one side. The road, as it turns out, follows one side of Loch Tay, from Killin to Kenmore. There may be more than loch "glimpses" but, as driver, that is all I get... It's a road where the driver keeps his eyes on the road. Very pleasant, even so.

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Almost at the top of the loch is The Scottish Crannog Centre. Deb insists that we check it out. Even though it is now raining. Brilliant Deb :-)

It seems that a crannog is a bronze age sticks and straw house built over the water. Over water for security, convenient sanitation -- and because cleared land is valuable for agriculture. The Centre has a full size replica crannog.

We join a guided tour into the crannog. Then check out the other areas, of cooking, fire-lighting, grinding and spinning. There's a man using a bobbin to spin wool. I've heard of it before, possibly seen the equipment. I spend some time asking and watching to see how it really works. Fascinating!

Yes it's raining. Barely worth noticing, as my Irish cousin would have told us. Enough rain so we decide -- since coffee is served outdoors -- that we will not stay for coffee. I do ask who runs the Centre. It's commercial, with profits going to the National Trust. To support more archeology on crannogs.

Brilliant stuff, I'm glad Deb had the sense to make us go in.

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At the end of the loch is Kenmore. I post a postcard to our grandson. Then into the Kenmore Hotel for lunch, mushroom soup with tarragon. This is "Scotland's oldest inn", now with an all-Italian staff. So it seems.

Also here for lunch is a gang of soccer hooligans. Or, perhaps, eight or so high school boys who have been kicking a football. Lots of discussion over what to order.

After lunch we drive through the "Taymouth Castle" stone gates. Drive? Yes, it's been raining since just before lunch. Through the gate is a lot of open space -- and a relatively new primary school. If there was a castle, only the gate remains.

Hmmmm... on google maps the castle gates are labelled as "Thaimouth castle door".

We drove here along one side of Loch Tay so we drive back on the other. Just as pleasant a drive, less narrow, less twisty.

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Back at Killin we decide to go for a walk. Up main Street to the Falls. Deb wants a walk map from the visitor centre but it closed five minutes earlier. We cross the bridge, I take some photos of the water. Then we walk home. Which is, I'm glad to say, a downhill walk.

I claim that I'm tired from all the driving. Really, I'm just tired. And not dressed for too much walking. At least I do have a change of clothes, if it rains while we're out walking... as does Deb... now. Her suitcase has finally arrived. Phew!

I've been wearing the same clothes each and every day, so Deb does not feel alone. (Now I wear the same clothes because that's what I do.)

And that (after another hotel dinner) is Friday.

====    Dr Nick Lethbridge  /  Consulting Dexitroboper
             Agamedes Consulting / Problems? Solved.
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"Life is not measured by the number of breaths we take, but by the moments that take our breath away." … Blazing Swan Survival Guide

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dying for you to read my blog: notdotdeaddotyet.blogspot.com.au :-)
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