Day 3 starts from Laggan Locks and takes the path by Loch Oich. This is reckoned by some to be the most visually pleasant part of the walk. The light was really flat this day and so this picture doesn’t do justice. A railway line used to run here, but it never quite connected Fort William and Inverness. The company gave in in 1946 from memory. There are lots of railway bridges and platforms still visible but overgrown. Here Gerry and Elisabeth demonstrate the walkers’ strong desire to dupe someone else into getting that cereal bar from the depths of your pack without the hassle of removing it yourself.
This was another part of the Loch Oich stretch:
Fairly soon Loch Oich passes and you can look back and enjoy a morning’s progress:
After Loch Oich you walk another stretch of the Caledonian Canal:
Which takes you to Fort Augustus and the amazing series of Locks there taking the canal down to the head of Loch Ness. These are really dramatic and feature water tumbling over them at all times; at night they light them nicely. This one was with my LX3 as we had a stroll in the evening to pig out as a reward for day 3. It is a bit grainy so black and white was necessary to help the grain to look OK:
Day 4 sees you climbing out of Fort Augustus and giving your first view of the loch.
After some forestry you arrive in Invermoriston where this bridge is really worth looking at. I’ve driven over it at least 20 times, but at 40mph you don’t see this stuff:
As you leave Invermoriston to climb again, you find this amazing sign outside a gift shop; they deserve to sell a thousand pairs. This is comic genius:
Half way up the climb I grabbed this picture of Catherine; I really like this one. I noticed Catherine was slightly backlit and so popped up the flash. I would love a full-frame 5D, but would I miss my pop up flash for walking:
End of day 4. One more post to come…..