Further in the Caledonian channel, we encountered Loch Oich, the most beautiful lake to our opinion, but it could also be that the weather was finally sunny and warm, making all sourroundings brighter and greener!
We saw the Invergarry castle and a creepy monument, called the Seven Heads well, which was built to commemorate a vicious killing of 7 people.
We ended our day with some delicious local waters at a floating pub, named Eagle barge, an old Dutch barge.
On 25th of July, after crossing Loch Lochy, we moved towards Fort William and the famous Neptune’s staircase, which is no other than 7 locks together!
Surprisingly enough, the crossing went smoothly, partly due to the helpful lock crew and partly due to our recently gained experience (21 locks so far!).
After safely mooring Libra, we finally took our bikes out for a spin in the city. We saw the beautiful Inverlochy castle, where Jelle did not hesitate to climb over the 800 year old ruins!
Fort William itself did not pose much interest, except a quick stop to refill our groceries supply.
Leaving the Caledonian channel, we were finally able to sail! We did some nice upwind sailing in Loch Linnhe until Isle Lismore, where we threw our anchor.
The day after, we decided to discover the isle of Lismore. With a printscreen map from the Internet, we felt condifent we could explore the island with our folding bikes. This proved to be much tougher in reality.
By climbing over fences, walking through mudfields, among many sheep, we reached the castle of Coeffin. Then we decided to take the “short” route back, which turned out to be the longest, as we had to walk through endless fields of grass, rocks, and mud.
After some better guesswork, we turned out in someone’s backyard, close to the bay we were anchored. Nice little adventure for the day!
Stay tuned as more sailing coming up while we are heading up north!!