Day 9 - Ratigan to Fort William - You don't have to go home but you can't stay here

Sad, the last day with most of the group. I wandered out a bit early to walk around and take some pictures of the area. It is funny how blaise you become about all of it so quickly. It is probably like those sheep on Iona and the sunset, yeah yeah, we have seen it, do you have any food? The area is really pretty. What I find I like about Scotland is the wild uncontrolled feel, very bleak and stark too. Southern England is pretty but it has been so shaped and feels like a lot of the rough edges have been smoothed over. There is a lot of Scotland that reminds me a lot of Colorado, northern Arizona and a lot of other places like that that I love.

But a long way to go today and over not so fun roads. We futz around for a bit in the morning and then somebody has to leave. DA and CF head out first followed by G.. I set out a bit later and ride for quite a while by myself. The sign says 57 miles to Fort William and I don't think there is all that much in between here and there.

Long long slow uphill section. I stop to snap a few pictures of a few things, things that I meant to find perfect representations of, a picture that expresses stone bridge-ness, the perfect waterfall, mountain tops with fog rolling over them, solitary tree bravely standing on top of a mountain, etc. All a boy can do is try. The perfect one is out there somewhere, it just hasn't found me yet.

Anyways, eventually I run across G. snacking by the side of the road and roll on past. It gets windier and the sky starts threatening again. There is this weird illusion too where the road appears to be flat or going downhill but is actually still going up. Or maybe I'm just delusional. A bit of frustration though, when I reach what seems like should be the top, there is no nice coasting downhill for a while. The wind sees to that and it is a frustrating slog downhill with rain starting again.

Coming into Glen Cluanie, only a bit over 10 miles, GC had said to start looking for a tea stop at around 20 but I see DA and CF's bikes propped by the side of a pub and I'm relieved. 20 miles, whatever, if there is one there, we can try that one too. Let's never forget I'm on vacation here. The rest pull in a bit after that, much wetter than I got, and we proceed to run through their food supply.

Back out into the rain, back onto the busy road. The rain comes down pretty hard and traffic is miserable. But things get much nicer after the turnoff onto the A87. The wind dies down a bit, the rain mostly stops, the sun tries to come out, and the road is more peaceful. Just as I had predicted. K-land might be a silly dream but sometimes the predictions are right.

We make pretty good time, taking turns fighting the wind, going past Loch Garry (who would ever give a lake a silly name like that?) and I nearly lose hope in Invergarry that there will be a lunch stop because the pub has hidden itself on the far edge of town. We order far too much and for the most part eat it all. Soup, yes please, sandwich, of course one of those too.

We make the turn southward for the final leg. Traffic is miserable there. Apparently GC wound up (by yelling some choice phrases that I won't repeat here) some guy in a car about him yelling at him for not wearing a helmet, so the guy is good and ready by the time he goes past us and he rants at us for a while. CS flips off a 4X4 who nearly runs her off the road. And the scary fun fair ride truck, they might bring joy to lots of kids at fun fairs across the country, but having that thing grinding behind you and then trying to get past, not fun at all.

We eventually arrive intact at the commando memorial outside Spean Bridge and it makes a good place to stop for a while and regroup. Where's G.? We all know he has a train to catch in Spean Bridge and are worried that he will miss it. Eventually everybody arrives and we linger around for a while. Tour buses roll in and out, we should leave but everybody is a bit reluctant. Nobody really wants things to end. But G. has to go. We attempt a group photograph. We suffer a lack of other tourists right at the moment we are ready. So, how many Wheelers does it take to take one group photograph with a timer? This is actually a trick question, three might have been a good answer but I believe there were more than that trying and as far as I know none of them actually succeeded.

We say our goodbyes to G. and decide to head to a tea stop on the canal and take that the rest of the way to Fort William instead of fighting against traffic the rest of the way. We invade another coffee shop and have tea and cake and make plans to meet up again for dinner later before A. and CS and C. head off.

So, the group shrinks a bit more and the rest of us head down the canal, which takes a lot of concentration since you are dodging rocks and holes the whole way. Still, it is preferable to dodging cars and trucks. Eventually we hit Fort William and continue on through to Glen Nevis and halt there for the day. The settings just get prettier and prettier. Ratigan was lovely but here we are basically at the foot of Ben Nevis.

Dinner is a nice affair. It is a walk up the road and then a bit off road and over fences and through puddles and over rocks. We worry a bit about what it will be like to walk back in the dark. But for now, it is the sound of people splashing in puddles and cleats clicking on rocks. Ben Nevis Inn looks like an old stone barn or something. It has a nice view from one end out the window to the mountains. We have one menu between all of us and a few people pull out binoculars to try and read the specials board.

After dinner, we say goodbye to A. and wish CS and C. good luck on their next week going through the Outer Hebrides. I thought it was crazy at the beginning of the week but at this point I'm rather jealous of them having more tour left. CW then leads us on an exciting walk back, a special short cut leading us through numerous puddles and protruding roots and small bridges. GC's crap TFL flashlights last for only a few minutes and are mostly useless. A few people get wet shoes and one trips but there are no lasting injuries. 61.65 miles for the day.