2macstracks

Along the Waterways

The River Ness is only 6 miles long and runs from Loch Ness to the Moray Firth which is an inlet of the North Sea. Today we went for a walk past the Hydro generating plant on the river.

I was excited when I saw an arrow on a post beside an image of a squirrel and thought that at last we might spot one. I was wrong, we didn’t see any and the signs were only designating a particular path. We did see some bright flowers in amongst the grasses and trees.

We walked back towards our car on the Caledonian Canal side, the canal goes from Inverness on the east coast to Corpach near Fort William on the west coast. Some people were having fun in canoes until three boats came along towards them. One couple zigzagged wildly to get to the bank where the others were already grouped together. Those learners also struggled to get their canoe back on land when they returned to their starting place.

We did a bit of shopping then headed to another spot on the canal, this time closer to Lena’s home but didn’t get far before we had to wait for the road bridge to be repositioned. A boat was coming along the canal so the bridge was swivelled out of position.

As we walked towards a cafe beside the canal a man was mowing the bank and he wasn’t using a little Flymo!

The “Jammy Piece” cafe was very dog friendly even having a menu for them including Pupcakes, Puppucinos, K9 Coolers (ice-cream), and Dog Sausage. There were three dogs inside but only one seemed to be dining on mashed up Dog Sausage, I think they were all enjoying being out of the cold wind.

On our way back to the car and “home” we watched the activity at one of the 29 locks along the length of the canal. A couple of sailing boats were waiting to pass through the locks and the lock operator seemed to be explaining in detail how it worked but to get to that point the boatman must already have passed through at least one. As soon as the boats were out of the first part of the lock the gates shut and water poured in again to refill that section. The boats were flying French flags though I did see the name on the second boat was “Dilly Dally IV”. Not very French. If you ever need to open the control console of a canal lock apparently you need a key to the padlock and a butt strong enough to bang the door open.

I thought I knew what a car engine looked like until we lifted the bonnet of the Toyota CHR- hybrid we hired, we were upgraded from a Khia Ceed. It’s very smooth and quiet which can mean ramblers have no idea you are behind them.