It was good that we wanted to stay so long in Fort William as we
needed to solve a few major issues. The first one was that the
credit card company was so kind and closed my card due to
"suspicious activities" and even after a long phone call with my
bank it was not possible to re-open the card. Instead I needed a new
one. Without credit card it is often not possible to do e.g. motel/room
reservations and thus it was essential to us to get a new one
quickly. That is normally not so difficult and only takes a few
days, unless you happen to travel around the world ;)
Lucky us, we
could now offer a temporary address where we would stay long enough
so that the new card can be shipped. That was one reason to wait,
stay foot and hope that the letter arrives before we need to depart.
The next major issue was the problem with Skippy's bike. During the
normal chain maintenance I noticed that the brand new Hyperpro rear
shock was leaking. I made a test sitting on the bike and for sure
the oil was gone in the suspension. Milady only commented that there
was a "klong" once in a while (she thought they came from the
sidecases) ;)
 |
| Broken Hyperpro shock |
So I emailed and called Hyperpro and they agreed to send the
required spare parts, so we can get the shock fixed in the next
bigger town. We had several options where to go (all about 100miles away) and the second
company I called did repair shocks and they also had time. Great,
now it was all about waiting for the spares to arrive.
Skippy's bike needed also an oil change - our first real regular
maintenance. At this point, I would like to say BIG THANX to Kenny -
our host. He let me use his garage to change the oil and was even
nice to collect and recycle the old oil. That was more then I hoped
for and the maintenance work was done in no time. I also cleaned the Scotts
oil filter, since the extra work is marginal and the opinions on how
often to clean those re-usable oil filters vary.
Besides relaxing, enjoying life in Kenny´s great log cabin (it
really felt almost like home - only Sauna was missing) and waiting
for the mail (thanx again Kenny for this favor and for acting as our
temp mail address as we also ordered some vegan dog food and needed
a shipping address). There are plenty of things to see and do in
Fort William.
The next day we decided to experience the steam train ride on the
Jacobite from Fort William and Mallaig. We followed the (smoke)
smells of the Hogwarts Express and rode over the Glenfinnan Viaduct - known to all
Harry Potter fans. The landscape was really beautiful and this time,
I could sit back, relax and take some clips compared to when riding
the bike. We had a small walk in Mallaig and we got ourselves a few
books from the local second hand book shop.
 |
| Getting ready for departure |
 |
| Break at Glenfinnan |
 |
| I love those kind of "smart" signs :) |
 |
| 55t snowplough rebuilt from a former V2 locomotive tender |
 |
| View from the train ride |
 |
| Glenfinnan Viaduct |
 |
| Skippy inspecting wild life in Mallaig |
 |
| Beautiful flower in the water |
 |
| Me looking "ahead" |
The following day we made a hike to Nevis gorge and Steall Falls. The
gorge was magnificient with all its huge (and I mean HUGE) rocks and
the potholes washed out by the currents over the time. On the
pictures the gorge looked like a miniatur model as I was not able to
capture the dimensions and the depths of the gorge. It was late
afternoon and we were almost alone on Steall Falls. Great
opportunity to take a few more special pics of my beloved better
half.
 |
| Steall Falls nearby Ben Nevis, Fort William |
 |
| Too strong currents for our little dogs to cross by themselves |
 |
| The "kiddo" also could not resists to climb the steel rope even though I would say it was easier to walk through the river :D |
 |
| Wolfi leading the way |
It was Friday the 12th of July and we reserved our last day for packing, last laundry and finally I had
the right energy and motivation to do a little nordic walking -
after over 6000km, I could use my hiking sticks :D
Next day we left
this great place with a little sorrow...
 |
| Skippy swimming in Loch Ness - no monster appeared ;) |
The beauty and the comfort came with a high price for us low budget
travellers. It was clear to us that the following days we would need to
go camping. As we learned earlier, the strange thing about camping is that our dogs might cost extra and in
the end the difference to a motel or to a B&B compared to
camping with three dogs might be marginal. Anyway, camping is was and the camping
places we tried out were fully booked, and the many other sites were only
for caravans. At some point we got enough and decided to go into the
wild. We found a resting place besides a river with a decent spot.
There was a table and a trash bin on which we could find the "rules"
for camping in the wild.
 |
Camping in the wild
|
 |
| Tentsite with a view to the river |
 |
| Know the code |
Well, it turned out that the traffic was more then expected and we
found unbelievable trash in the water. Besides all sorts of metal objects, cables, I diged out what looked like a motor from a washing-machine and a blinker for fishing (not very nice if you step into one).
 |
| Unbelievable trash in the river |
 |
| Lunchtime |
 |
| All the sudden a deer came to inspect the river |
 |
| Our "neighbour" opposite of the street |
On top of that there was a warning sign that the river
level might change rapidly due to the hydro power station. That all
reduced our desire to go for a good swim. Since we also saw and
learned that resting places appear to be used heavily as human
toilet (BTW, never seen a fine for that, only dog fouling is
forbidden!) and the heavy and sudden noises throughout the night, we
did not feel like staying more then needed.
It was now Monday morning. We got up early, packed our stuff and
headed towards Perth to get Skippy's bike fixed. We found the place
easily and after a short talk, I started to take out the rear shock.
The mechanic got right away to it and we went off for a nice picnic
lunch in King's park enjoying strawberries, rasberries and some
indian food. The repaired shock went quickly back into the bike. As
I was crawling on the floor tying up all th bolts, Skippy was so
kind and provided me with our rainbow umbrella some shade. A pity we
do not have a picture of this :D
 |
| Wolfi packing up his toolbox after the repair |
 |
| Girls were hot and bored ... |
 |
| Skippy had a chance to sit her "Nessie" onto the topcase |
We were ok to continue and headed off to St. Andrews.
~ Wolfi
