A detour

 A longer explanation of my very brief previous post! All pictures were taken through the car windows so there are odd reflections in places.

For the long weekend at the start of the month we took a trip north to see my parents. Our normal route is up the A9 but in the early hours of the day we were going there was a horrific accident on the A9 and it was closed for 16 hours.  A fairly lengthy diversion was the only option. So we headed up as far as Stirling, and peeled off to the west to Crianlarich (picture above is near there I think). Around that area* a military 'plane (Hercules maybe? I'm not very clued up on military things) flew over us down the glen and up again - they use the glens for practise on lower-level flying, which is pretty weird when you see a 'plane flying between the hills.

Then we headed up the A82.

Above is just past Loch Tulla where the road climbs up to Rannoch Moor. The picture on my last blog-post was taken just a bit higher up from there, looking west.

 

As a substantial amount of the usual northbound traffic was taking this route we were more or less in convoy pretty much all the way. This road is a favourite with bikers (we saw quite a few) and my-Beloved-the-biker commented that they must have been gutted that 'their' road clogged up with normal mum-dad-and-the-kids traffic. The scenery round there is spectacular.

Mountains - the pointy one is Buachaille Etive Mòr I think. Aren't I knowledgeable? :-). My mate DaveInTheHills would know and could explain the geology too. In fact if he reads this he'll probably wince at 'pointy one'..

And the top of Glencoe (scene of the infamous massacre).

As you'll have noticed it was the most beautiful weather. That's twice we've driven that route in glorious weather - it really is the most incredibly beautiful area on a good day.  It is known for its rainfall though, so we've been really lucky.  I remember visiting relatives in Kinlochleven once when it was bucketing down - there were mountains all around but you'd never have known because the cloud cover was somewhere just above your eyebrows.

This last picture was taken somewhere between Ballachulish and Fort William so is either Loch Leven or Loch Linnhe (sea-lochs both).   I took no more photos as I spent the rest of the journey distracting the kids. They'd been pretty good for most of the journey I must say. We have portable dvd players for the car which are helpful on long boring journeys but not on narrow twisty roads as the Boy gets sick (he's fine on the A9 because it curves gently I suppose). So they just had to appreciate the scenery instead! I found myself saying things like 'People travel thousands of miles to see this scenery you know!'. Bet they were rolling their eyes behind my back. Which is fine up to a point but with fifty miles to go they were beginning to get a bit restless.
I spy with my little eye something beginning with M.
Mountain..

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* And I'm not entirely sure where because Miss Mouse was going through a thankfully brief phase of saying 'Are we nearly there yet?'
No, not even half way.. *sigh*