Monday 5th September 2022
We packed up and left our Airbnb at 8.00 and headed to Appin where we retrieved Jill’s car. It seemed silly to drive it back to our B&B last night only to bring it back again today and so we had left it in the community car park at Appin overnight. We headed for Corran and were immediately waved on board the waiting ferry.
Once across, we headed to Glengalmadale; after six miles of “A” road, we turned onto the very windy, narrow “B” road. We left Jill’s car by the Steading at Glengalmadale and returned to Corran where we parked the car right next to the ferry and set off. It was about 10.30 when we started walking with the sun shining and a gentle breeze.
For the next two days we will be walking in a generally southerly direction as we get to the southern end of the Morvern Peninsula. Scotland has many wild places but three peninsulas are particularly recognised as being remote and relatively inaccessible; Morvern is the first, then comes Ardnamurchan and finally Knoydart.
The first six miles are on a A road which runs by the sea. The traffic comes in intermittent groups related to the ferry disgorging cars and lorries. The few cars and lorries do come very fast but we were wearing hi-vis tops and kept our ears tuned for approaching vehicles. We heard then saw a colony of seals basking on an islet in the loch.
At Inversanda it was nonetheless a pleasure to turn onto the “B” road to Kingairloch which barely rates its “B” rating. It is narrow and has passing places and not a very good surface. More importantly for us, though; it had virtually no traffic.
After a short stiff climb over the slopes of Meall a’ Bhraghaid and past Lochan Doire Bhraghaid, the road follows the coast.
The road is squeezed into a narrow coastal margin of an average of 100m or so and we had great views back up Loch Linnhe towards Fort William; we may have been looking at Ben Nevis but I could not make a certain identification. We could see across the loch to where we had been walking yesterday and down the loch to Lismore and Mull. We took lots of photos because that is what you do when the sun shines but can I remember where they were taken? The old Viewranger app I used to use had a view in which the date stamp of anywhere along a recorded route could be viewed so all I had to do was to match the time when the photo was taken with the same time on the route record to pinpoint the location. Since the demise of Viewranger I have been unable to find anything which provides easy access to the time stamp in a GPX file.
We stopped for a late lunch and sat on rock just above the sea. After lunch we continued with more of the same.
At once point the route of the road has been cut into the rocks and there was an elderly parapet/wall on the seaward side but I think it would collapse if a vehicle hit it.
We arrived at Glenglamadale and the car feeling that it had been a very hot thirteen miles.
Now we just had to drive back along the narrow winding road to Ardgour and then take the main road to Lochaline where we are staying in a one bed apartment at the Old Fire Station and very nice it is too.
Just Coasting 