Round Britain for the RNLI Blog

Today has been quiet and relaxing but that doesn’t mean boring! It started out with me awakening to a completely glassy Loch Oich with mist and cloud gently rolling through the valley and covering the hill tops… how peaceful it was. There was not even any traffic on the A82 to spoil it.

So, a spot of breakfast (cereal and milk from the shop nearby) and out onto the quiet water. The route was a short one just to Fort Augustus where I wanted to spend night 2 on the canal.

The mist and low cloud cleared as I neared the top of Loch Oich and the peace and quiet was completely shattered by the roar of a jet fighter at about 200ft screaming down the loch! I didn’t get a photo as it was gone before I had time to reach for the camera. This has happened a couple of times on the canal now so it is clearly one of their training routes. I have also seen several Hercules aircraft (four engine cargo planes) at about the same height but they are much slower and usually come in pairs so I have managed a few pics of them.

Going through the next loch I heard a bang that was the sound of two hire boats colliding! I would like to say nothing was broken except their pride but it was clear that the boat that was hit in the side had broken windows on the starboard side. I spoke to them later in the day at Fort Augustus and they seemed totally unfazed nor concerned and the hire company had told them just to continue with their holiday… fair enough.

Arriving in Fort Augustus I had to decide whether to stay for the night at the top of the lock staircase or the bottom. There are pontoons and facilities at both so I moored up and took a walk to the bottom to see which was best. It was clear that there was little space at the bottom and although going through the locks immediately would mean that I wouldn’t have to wait to go through in the morning it wouldn’t make a great deal of difference to me as my leg the next day was just 15 miles up Loch Ness to Drumnadrochit. So I decided to stay at the top and descend in the morning. As it happened this was not the best decision I have made on this trip. No sooner had I converted the boat into a caravan again then young boys started pitching tents on the grass next to the boat. Not just one or two but they kept coming and in the end there were over 20 two man tents and the associated occupants shouting, mock fighting and generally being teenagers… aaaagh! I thought I would have a quiet night in this small village but it looked unlikely now and I was starting to wish I had descended and moored at the bottom. As it turned out I was worrying for nothing as they turned out to be very well behaved and nowhere near as noisy as I thought they would be and I was very pleasantly surprised not to say pleased. Chatting to a few of them I found out that they were canoeing the canal and were from Edgbaston.

Fort Augustus is small and is really just a few shops, restaurants and hotels and B&Bs centred on the canal. It took all of 30 mins to see it all but there are a couple of things worth spending a little more time on. The Caledonian Canal Museum is a great place to get all the information about the canal, how it was built and why. I was pleased to see one of my posters on their wall! The Clansmen Museum is also worth a visit.

So I settled down for the rest of the afternoon and evening, relaxing on the boat and listening to the radio.