Skye to Lakes

Went to bed last night with roof up. 15 minutes later we got up, moved all the stuff, and put the roof down. The wind was gusting really strong. Once again we weren't asphyxiated in our sleep despite having no windows open.

Roof up in the morning for breakfast, dashed to facilities before the forecast rain. As usual in our experience up here, the sky was clear blue at dawn, then the clouds quickly appeared. We left at 9am. The drive off Skye and across the mountains to Invergarry and the Fort William was splendid, despite heavy rain and slow Dutch drivers.

Leaving this 'camping' section of our trip we reflected on a couple of things. We never used the awning, for a number of reasons: it was almost always very windy; we didn't have persistent rain, where we might have wanted to protect the sliding door; most sites we arrived after 5pm and left before 10am the next morning - no time for sitting around. However it didn't get in the way, sitting in 'L's' seat locker (along with footwear and swimgear and of course her Duvalay), We never used the folding chairs for similar reasons to the awning; the lesson is between mid Sep and mid Mar, leave the chairs in the garage because they rattle and impede the gas locker. Everything else in the van and with our stuff worked beautifully. 

After our 'service' stop at Fort William Soap factory Visitor centre - so popular, we had to queue for a table - we went, in the rain, to see Neptune's Staircase and remembered how we took Sirena IV through this flight of locks. 

Our next stop was the Loch Lomond viewpoint that we used on the way up, with hot chocolates from Bonnie & Ben's again to lubricate our own sandwiches. People were still going on lake cruises in the pouring rain.

Here's an artistic shot of ... rain.

Final stop was Cairns Lodge Services on the M74 - a mini Tebay for a 'Lytham tea' i.e. v early dinner. On again through torrential rain still, eschewing the B road offered by Googlemaps and sticking to A66 and A591 - even the latter was hard in the wet dark. A final driver swap in Ambleside and we got to Ann's in Little Langdale 11 hours after setting off. Saw a barn owl on the fence by The Bield. Lots of lo elephant with Ann nylon the fire.