Go West Young Van

In early November we hitched up the horses to Vannie and headed out to explore the Wild West................ in reality we filled the motorhome with water and diesel and headed sort of Northwest.
Our destination was Bunree Campsite near Onich; which lies on the shores of Loch Linnhe, about 10 miles south of Fort William.
Some say that the journey can be just as exciting as reaching your destination and that was certainly the case for us.
The weather gods had been smiling on us as we headed on past Stirling and Callander, stopping only for a coffee/toilet break and to take a photo of Loch Lubnaig:

Loch Lubnaig

Onwards we pressed, past Lochearnhead and up the hill to Lix Toll (I love that name) and along the foot of Ben More, stopping briefly at Loch Lubhair:

Loch Lubhair

And still we carried on, past Crainlarich until we reached Tyndrum, where the lure of a bite of lunch in the Green Welly Stop proved too much and we had to turn in.
Suitably refreshed we hit the A82 once again, passing Ben Dorain and Loch Tulla, we then started the uphill climb towards the southern end of Rannoch Moor. At the top of the hill we pulled into a convenient car park which gave great views back down the valley:

Loch Tulla from Viewpoint

Clouds over Loch Tulla

Not only was there great scenery at this car park, there was a fantastic wildlife photo opportunity as well. A large Red Deer stag was hanging around the edge of the car park, totally unconcerned about the number of people taking photographs of it. This was not a tame deer with a handler this was a wild animal, which was obviously tolerant of people, however I chose not to get as close as some were as a Red Deer stag around October/November time (in other words rutting season) can easily get a bit tetchy. I did get close enough to get a few snaps:

Red Deer Stag visits car park

Monarch of the Car Park

Has anybody seen any hinds

Red Deer Silhouette

An excellent photo opportunity I could not pass up.
I got back in the motorhome and headed towards Rannoch Moor:

Towards Rannoch Moor

The A82 skirts along the southern edge of Rannoch Moor, a huge, boggy moorland which sits over 1,000 feet above sea level and was created during the last ice age; when it was one of the last areas to melt. It is a very bleak area, however in the sunshine it was also photogenic:

Loch Ba and Rannoch Moor

Rannoch Moor

The A82 through Rannoch Moor 

In the distance we could see the mountains that form the entrance to the Pass of Glencoe, so we headed towards them. Our next photo stop was at the entrance the Glen Etive; which runs south towards Loch Etive and is flanked by two mountain peaks much loved by hill walkers and mountaineers:

Looking South down Glen Etive

Buachaille Etive Mor (1,021m or 3,350ft))

Buachaille Etive Beag (958m or 3,143ft) on the right

Ahead of these peaks the A82 snaked on towards the Pass of Glencoe:

The A82 heads into The Pass of Glencoe

There are a few parking places in the Pass of Glencoe itself, however these were pretty full and not really suitable for trying to squeeze a motorhome into; so we carried on winding our way downhill through the pass until we reached the village of Glencoe.
Here we found a suitable parking space alongside the beautiful Loch Leven and enjoyed the views:

Vannie in Glencoe Village

View Across Loch Leven

Looking West down Loch Leven

Looking East up Loch Leven

Magnificent scenery, on a sunny day like this it just takes your breath way.
We pushed on towards our destination which was drawing ever closer; crossing the Ballachulish Bridge we were stopped at traffic lights, which presented an ideal opportunity to photograph what some consider are the best views in Scotland:

Looking West from Ballachulish Bridge

Looking East from Ballachulish Bridge

A few miles further on we passed through the village of Onich, then we turned left into Bunree Campsite:

Bunree Campsite, Onich

Not only was it a lovely site with great facilities but the views of Loch Linnhe were spectacular:

Looking down Loch Linnhe towards Mull

View across Loch Linnhe

Looking up Loch Linnhe towards Ardgour

This video might give you some idea how stunning it was:

Moira liked it anyway:

Moira at Bunree, on the shores of Loch Linnhe

We were very lucky that the site wasn't busy, this being the last week of the season for them, so we managed to get an ideal pitch overlooking Loch Linnhe:

Vannie at Bunree

View from Vannie - Sunset over Loch Linnhe

We slept well that night, looking forward to some adventures over the next few days.
The next morning the weather looked a bit more ominous than the previous day. It wasn't raining but clouds were drifting in over the hills and it definitely looked like rain was on its way. It was also much colder than the day before:

Clouds gathering over Loch Linnhe

Cloudy View from Vannie

Misty Mountain

 

Despite the threat of rain we decided to wrap up and head over to Ardgour on the other side of Loch Linnhe.

 

Towards Ardgour, on the other side of Loch Linnhe

Don't worry, we were not intending to do some sort of wild swimming. The Corran Ferry (which crosses over to Ardgour) leaves from a jetty about twenty minutes walk from the campsite. As we were heading out the campsite we stopped to look at the variety of that were feeding along the shoreline.  There were some dabbling Widgeon.......

 

 

........and a solitary Male Goosander looking for fish........

 

 

..........as well as some Hooded Crow, a Heron and an assortment of gulls. A reasonable 'bag' on a dreich day.

We continued on our walk round to Corran, just in time to see the ferry crossing from Ardgour and approaching the jetty:

 



 

Once the ferry docked we were able to walk on board and after a five minute crossing we disembarked at the Ardgour jetty:

 

Ferry arriving at Corran Jetty



View down Loch Linnhe from Corran Ferry



Ferry docked at Ardgour Jetty

 

We had barely left the jetty at Ardgour when they started to load the vehicles for the return crossing! A busy little ferry, even in early November.

Unfortunately the downside of being in Ardgour in November is that the only eatery (The Inn at Ardgour) was closed, so no lunch to be had there.

Undeterred we went for a stroll along the loch-side in front of the village; the first thing of interest we came across was this old fishing boat which had been abandoned on the foreshore:

 

Abandoned Fishing Boat

Ardgour is a great place to observe The Great Glen, which runs all the way from Loch Linnhe, past Fort William and Ben Nevis and continues all the way along Loch Ness to Inverness.

As the plaque below explains it was formed when two continents collide; and the fault actually runs from the Atlantic south of Mull all the way to the Arctic at Svalberg.

 

Information Plaque on The Great Glen

Eddie and The Great Glen

There was also some wildlife to see in Ardgour; nothing fantastically rare, but interesting all the same. This included some House Sparrows in a bush:

 

 

 

A heron fishing on the shore:

 

 

...and a Little Grebe (aka Dabchick) diving for fish in the loch:

 

 

We then had a little walk along the shoreline south of Ardgour, where we could look back across Loch Linnhe to Bunree, however by this time the weather had closed in and the rain had started.

It was getting near lunch-time so we decided to head across to Corran on the ferry and walk back to the campsite for our lunch. Needless to say the heavens opened and we were soaked by the time we got back to Vannie.

After getting dried out and having lunch in Vannie we decided to stay put for the rest of the day as the weather was pretty wet. That did not stop us from watching the wildlife from our ready-made bird hide (i.e. Vannie's cab). Here we were able to watch some Hooded Crows on the beach, who were picking up cockle-shells and flying upwards with them, in order to drop them on the stones below, hopefully revealing a tasty snack for them to eat:

 



 

We also watched a pair Cormorants swimming nearby, a Heron flying past, gulls feeding on a rip tide, a pair of Goosanders (male and female this time) but unfortunately no Ottters, despite it being an ideal habitat for them.

As well as watching the wildlife we also enjoyed watching how the views out the window changed as the weather changed; this can best be demonstrated by this time lapse video of the view from Vannie's front window during the time of our stay:

 

 

It was a wet and windy night, which made for a bit of a restless sleep, however we awoke to a beautiful morning:

 

 

Here are some photos of the morning views to complement the video:

 

View from Vannie in the Morning

View down Loch Linnhe

 As well as being a beautiful morning we were also graced by a beautiful family of Mute Swans swimming past the motorhome:

This was our last day at the campsite as we were only staying the two nights, so after breakfast we prepared Vannie for the homeward journey and set off. We travelled back the same route as we came, but we didn't stop quite so much to take photographs. We powered on through the Pass of Glencoe and along the edge of Rannoch Moor, stopping only once to snap these scenes:

 

Meall A'Bhuiridh and Lochan na h-Achlaise

Meall A'Bhuiridh

 I don't pretend to understand what the Gaelic names mean, but I think the mountain is called 'The Hill of The Roaring Stag' and the Lochan (small loch) is called 'The Loch of the Chapel' but I might be totally wrong.

Talking about stags (roaring or otherwise) the Red Deer Stag we saw on the way up was no longer hanging about the Loch Tulla viewpoint on the way back home. However I will leave you with one image of the stag which I took on the way to Bunree:

 

Red Deer Stag near Rannoch Moor

 

Hope you enjoyed our little adventure out West as much as we did.

 

Yeehah!

 

TeddyEdward